Tag Archives: #Drake Lake

Drake Shake?

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Nope. Drake Lake again. We had beautiful sunny skies and calm seas all the way from Elephant Island to the Falkland Islands. A journey of almost 1,100 miles. I love spending time at sea!

We spent the day relaxing onboard, we had our choice of lectures, science lab, knot tying class, puzzles in the lounge, sauna, pool or hot tub on the back deck.

I went to the class on knot tying. I was surprised how many people were interested. There was quite a crowd. It was pretty basic (for me). We practiced tying square knots, granny knots, clove hitches, half hitches, running hitches, bowlines, and figure 8 knots. I wound up helping the 2 instructors. 🙂

We had an interesting lecture on the geology of the Falkland Islands, to prepare us for arrival. It was pretty interesting and people had lots of questions.

Of course, there’s always good food to look forward to. I had the veggie option for dinner, since I really didn’t like the other r2 choices (we could pick red deer loin, sea bass or veggie patties).

Japanese beef tataki with spinach, sesame seeds and secret sauce
Grilled veggie patties, sweet potato fries, spring onion and tzatziki

After dinner, I met up with friends in the lounge to continue working on the ships jigsaw puzzles. Lots of people were hanging out, reading, relaxing over drinks, watching the ocean pass by.

As the sun set, we all headed out to get some photos. This was really the first time for a nice sunset. Til tonight, it was either overcast or too late at night. I miss seeing the sky clear and bright to see the starts at night. I really miss that about sailing.

Passage to Antarctica: Will We Have the Drake Shake or the Drake Lake?

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Anticipation was high, people were concerned. We were crossing the Drake Passage- the area where the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans meet- between Cape Horn and the South Shetland Islands. It’s notorious for bad weather.

Winds and currents circle the entire globe, swells have thousands of miles of open ocean to build so they can grow to enormous heights. The Roaring Forties, Furious Fifties, and Screaming Sixties refer to these latitudes. Dozens of ships have been lost in the area. How would we fare onboard the MS Roald Amundsen?

Turns out we had nothing to worry about. We enjoyed crossing the Drake Lake. The winds were only about 20-25 knots and the seas 2-3 meters. It was lovely for this area and the season. I was actually hoping to see something of the famous nasty weather, but a few people were complaining of mal de mer so I guess we were lucky. I wouldn’t want to spend a couple of days with a shipload of seasick passengers.

view from my cabin

The ship’s crew had plenty of things prepared to keep us occupied for the time we would be at sea with no landings to look forward to. They always had interesting lectures and workshops for us to choose from. There was a nice stock of games and puzzles to play with. Or you could always choose to visit the sauna, the spa, the pool and jacuzzi, or chill out in a comfortable chair with a drink while watching the scenery pass by.

Some of the members of the expedition team were also scientists and encouraged us to participate in their studies. There was one that collected information about the clouds and weather, to compare with what was picked up by the satellites (observer.globe.gov). Another was gathering data on the birds we saw (www.ebird.org).

They had presentations in the ships science center where we could look through the microscopes (one was projected onto a large screen) to see the details of different kinds of ice, plants, krill, feathers, etc.

Krill

I enjoyed a couple of arts & crafts workshops. Watercolor painting one day and clay modeling another time.

My emperor penguin model

I joined a rotating group of ladies working on jigsaw puzzles in the Explorer lounge on the 10th deck where we always had a wonderful view out the starboard side. We had snacks and piano music there in the afternoons.

Our crossing was altogether uneventful. We had a couple of relaxing days to look forward to arriving in Antarctica and our first landing at Half Moon Island.