A Little history on the Drake: This is the body of water between South America and Antarctica. During the Drake Passage crossing, we enter the Antarctic Convergence, which is a sharp boundary characterized by a change in temperature (2 degrees C cooler). The water moves at a pace over 135 times the flow of all the water in the Earth's rivers combined! This water is important in the exchange of warm and cool water and creating currents and wind patterns that cycle around the world.
The first thing that we did today was go out onto the deck and enjoy the beautiful isolation of the open water. It was FREEZING!! We listened to a few lectures (history with Dr. Phil, and birds with Nigel). The heat of the boat and the swaying made me a little green so I went up on the deck to birdwatch for much of the morning and Nigel was a huge help in identifying what I saw. 
I watch the Albatross ride the winds from the back of the ship (these birds can spend up to 7 years in the air, and also can sleep while flying) I saw some great petrals too! (These birds have an extra tube on their beak to allow them to desalinate the water for drinking.)
The Drake continued to keep me sufficiently nauseated so I finally broke down and got some good pills for the rest of the passage and took a nice nap.
We listened to a lecture from Fiona on seals (Of course, this is what I am focusing my studies on, so I found it to be the most interesting). We realized that "the angels of the surf" (thanks Roger) had carried us rapidly towards land and we thought we may get an extra landing in early, but the weather was too rough to get in the zodiacs.
I presented my studies on seals that night and then the group decided to have a bit more sight seeing before heading off to bed. We found Phil on deck and ended up listening to his amazing stories of his Antarctic Exploration until almost 2 am. Sadly though, it wasn't getting dark so we weren't getting tired, the first of many late nights.
The first thing that we did today was go out onto the deck and enjoy the beautiful isolation of the open water. It was FREEZING!! We listened to a few lectures (history with Dr. Phil, and birds with Nigel). The heat of the boat and the swaying made me a little green so I went up on the deck to birdwatch for much of the morning and Nigel was a huge help in identifying what I saw. I watch the Albatross ride the winds from the back of the ship (these birds can spend up to 7 years in the air, and also can sleep while flying) I saw some great petrals too! (These birds have an extra tube on their beak to allow them to desalinate the water for drinking.)The Drake continued to keep me sufficiently nauseated so I finally broke down and got some good pills for the rest of the passage and took a nice nap.
We listened to a lecture from Fiona on seals (Of course, this is what I am focusing my studies on, so I found it to be the most interesting). We realized that "the angels of the surf" (thanks Roger) had carried us rapidly towards land and we thought we may get an extra landing in early, but the weather was too rough to get in the zodiacs.
I presented my studies on seals that night and then the group decided to have a bit more sight seeing before heading off to bed. We found Phil on deck and ended up listening to his amazing stories of his Antarctic Exploration until almost 2 am. Sadly though, it wasn't getting dark so we weren't getting tired, the first of many late nights.
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