Monday 27th January, Drakes Passage A Busy Day Prepping

After a great night sleep we headed down to breakfast. We had been told by our expedition leader, last night that we should have a reasonable journey across Drakes Passage over the next two days unlike the last expedition where the travellers experienced very rough conditions with huge waves of 7-10 metres. In fact we found out, that passengers had been encourage to stay in their rooms because it would have been dangerous to move around the ship. Despite being given this information, we still did some rocking around and some of our group (mainly Rob) did start to feel a little queasy. He took some medication and limited his eating which hopefully will do the trick.  Following breakfast, we headed to the Observation Lounge for a mandatory (and interesting) briefing session for environmental protection of Antarctica. We were also lead through a detailed explanation of how we would get on and off the zodiacs when going to the land and the dos and don’ts as far as dealing with the wildlife and the Antarctic environment. This was followed by Muck Boot fittings and a mandatory biosecurity of all our outer-wear. Gloves, pants, hats, neck warmers were all checked for anything on them that might need cleaning off and a team from the ship, brushed, vacuumed, and dusted the clothing, especially velcro areas to ensure everything was pristine and that people would not be transporting unwanted seeds or whatever from their clothing to Antarctica. Later in the day we attended various lectures presented by the expedition members, with subjects including photography and discovering Cetaceans. Following these lectures, I decided to go for a dip in the outdoor, heated, small infinity pool with some of the other Australian passengers, I’d met. It was quite pleasant and certainly lovely to enjoy the pool and the good conversation in a most extraordinary situation. Prior to dinner, we enjoyed the Captain’s Welcome Cocktail. Here we could enjoy canapés and cocktails while the Captain introduced the Senior Officers of the ship. We went from this lounge to the restaurant for a delicious 4 course dinner. It seems that nearly everything is included with this cruise. We are always offered wine, beer etc at dinner and the bar area has a large range of wines, beers and cocktails that are all included. Interesting to note that some guests are indulging in alcohol quite early in the morning. Not us of course! We finished the night off back in the Observation lounge for some light entertainment. One of the expedition team, Gustav from Sweeden, when not working on Antarctic expeditions, is involved in musical theatre and he provide us with some excellent renditions of many older hits.