Our Return through the Drake

We left for the Drake Passage a little earlier than planned based on a weather report that was less than promising. The captain of our ship wanted to try and get out in front of the storm. I don’t know for sure how much this helped, because we were in rough waters for the entire return through the Drake.

It is difficult to explain how the ship was being tossed about, so I’m going to include a few pictures to provide perspective. The first is a picture of me sitting in front of the bow of the ship at the pier. The others will be pictures of waves cutting over the bow. So everyone understands, we were not allowed on the open deck to take pictures for the most violent parts of the storm. Even the bridge was off limits. This is an enclosed area where the captain and navigators manage the actions of the ship. The captain would often allow expedition members access to observe what was happening on the horizon.

As we "Drake proofed" ourselves and cabins and ourselves, I took a chance and did not take any Dramamine or other prescribed motion sickness medicine. It seemed as if most others had a skin colored patch (a prescription based motion sickness drug that lasts about three days) behind their ear as a bit of insurance. Dr. Ludwig (our family doctor) had provided this type of prescription and I made the purchase at my Albertsons pharmacy, but I didn’t want to use it. I’m sure some will criticize and question, others who have been on the ocean might think it was very stupid decision, but I wanted the full experience of going through the Drake Passage, come what may…bring it on.The feeling of being tossed around on a ship during a storm is quite exciting. However, I would say that about three quarters of the expedition team came down with seasickness. About half of those were throwing-up. Most of the team did not come to dinner that first night in the Drake, including Sean (My cabin and expedition partner) because they were a bit queasy. One member of the team thought it would be a good idea to get something in his stomach, hopefully to settle it a bit. Not a good idea. The smell of food when you are seasick only exacerbates the nausea. I saw him try to get out of the galley, but it was too late and all for nothing. He ended up vomiting in front of his team’s table (the few who had made it). Their facial expressions were priceless. I thought they were all going to run to the bathroom and start upchucking. This may sound a bit demented, but I actually think Robert Swan got a kick out of the fact that we were to encountering the Passage’s true personality….helped to solidify the experience for the team :)

We were in gale force winds and the waves were huge. How I would explain to adult and children, imagine/visualize being at Disneyland or another entertainment park on one of those zero gravity rides. The “re-entry,” “launching pad” or whatever they are called. However, there are multiple movements instead of two and it lasts for over two days. Like I mentioned, there are multiple movements (back and forth, up and down, side to side, all of them together). The first is when the ship rocks bow to aft (front to back). The second is port to starboard (left to right, sometimes referred to as a Dutch Roll). In the first, one moment, the ship is plunges in a downward forced motion. Like having the side walk drop out from underneath you in the dark…you don’t see it coming. The next, almost immediate, motion has is the whole ship being propelled upward until you are weightless and your body and ship hits zero G-force and is light as a feather. I found the Dutch Roll or second to be more uncomfortable and usually disruptive. This is the one that has the tendency to knock you out of bed or throw you against the walls when walking to some other part of the ship….It is quite the ride.

Enjoy the pictures.

Antarctica - We've Arrived!

This area of the world is spectacular in beauty. We continued through the Drake Passage for most of the day and the weather remained good. As wemoved closer to the continent, more and more people from the expedition came out on deck. Everyone was trying to spot a whale, seal or penguine. It seemed like everyone wanted to be the first to see something. During the course of the day, we saw a few fur seals, wandering albatross, penguinesand one orca killer whale.

The whale picture is not a very good one sinceit was far away, but I included it anyway. As I mentioned in the last blog, we passed through the Antarctic Convergence. Standing out on the deck I could feel the temprature becomemore cold and sting my face as though it was being poked with thousands of needles. The ocean became very eerie when a fog bank set in as we grew closer to King George Island. This was going to be our first stop in Antarctica. The e-base and Russian station of Bellanhausen are found on theisland. We all loaded into zodiac boats and headed to shore. There was asmall group of penuines as we disembarked from the boats. We have beeninstructed to keep our distance from the wildlife, even if they approach us.The fog was very thick and we did not have very good visibility, so theexpedition team only stayed on the island for a short period. We thenloaded back into the Zodiacs and headed to the ship. As a point ofinterest, everytime we arrive back at ship from being on land, we have towash and scrub our boots to remove all dirt. The same was true with heboots we wore on our hike in Ushuaia. The reasoning is because the don'twant possible contaminents moving from one place to another.

It is excilerating to experience this adventure. Seeing these animals intheir natural habitat, looking at the deep blue, smelling the clean air, itl ifts the soul. Some of us have had discussion regarding how easy ordifficult is it to protect something that is so pure? I would like to askall the students following this blog to think of some ideas on how topreserve Antarctica.

At Sea

We have been out to see now for an entire 24 hours. I have not been sea sick, but I know others who have spent a little time with head over the toilet bowl. I find that the motion and pitch of the waves has a comforting feeling. Drake's Passage has not been extremely rough and some of the leaders have stated it has this is the smoothest passage they have experienced. Last year some of the team were caught in a storm and the waves were similar with the videos I posted.

Today was somewhat of a free day for everyone, with the exception of a couple more brefings. After our expedtion briefings during the day, I usually go out on deck for fresh air and look out in the distance and ponder. Some of the thoughts have been how grateful I am for the the law of gravity. Ability to find beauty anywhere in the world and being grateful to experience new life changing events.We have crossed over into the Antarctic Convergence. What that means is we are officially in the Antarctic a region. The water temprature has dropped,the wind is noticably colder and the waves have been larger. While out on the deck, I was staring down at the ocean. The water is an incredible navy blue color. It looks much cleaner than what I have experienced at beachesaround the world. It is also colder water than anywhere else. A few wandering albatross have been flying in front of the ship. Tomorrow afternoon we should be landing at Antarctica and the team is pretty excited. Robert Swan told us that one of the high spots in this expedition will be the food when we are on ship. He was not kidding. The food has been a highlight thus far. I guess they are trying to build some body fat beforewe hit Antarctica.

I finished a book titled A voyage for Madmen. It is a non-fictional storyabout nine men who entered a race to see who could circumnavigate the globe without stopping. The individuals who entered this race were prepared tospend a year on the open seas before going home. Only one of them wouldmake it back. Eric Rawling a fellow HP collegue gave me the book to read.I'm going to quote the authors description of the Drake Passage."Here, Southern Ocean winds and waters and funneled through a relativleynarrow gap, Drake's [Passage], the 600-mile-wide sea passage between CapHorn and the Antarctic peninsula. The sea bottom shoals off the horn, raising the already enormous waves, and williwaws of hurricane-force windsscream down off the Andean glaciers; wind, towering waves, and ferocious currents collide, turning Cape Horn waters into a maelstrom."Tomorrow will be exciting because we receive our Zodiac boat training. These are basically reinforced rubber rafts with an engine on the back. These are the boats that will be taking us to shore.

Departure Day

Because I spent the entire evening trying to catch up on our Antarctic blog,I was very tired for most of the day. Hopefully you the readers found iteducational. I should mention that we have a rule called Bronco 5. This means when a meeting is called you arrive 5 minutes early. If not, the team will leave you. This expedition is about being a team not an individual.

Today, the morning started early with a 6:30 wake-up (I did not finish the blog until 5:30). I could have slept a little longer, but I have been pushing myself because I do not want to miss anything related to this experience. As I mentioned, my expedition partner and were all packed and had placed our gearbags in the holding area the night before. Therefore, our morning was extremely will managed. Because we were well prepared, we assisted others carrying their bags to the holding area and then loaded the entire expedition gear into the bus which would take it down to the ship. We had two briefing periods after breakfast. The first was with Jumper (yesthat is his name). He is an ex-member of the British Navy. He conducted the Drake's Passage expectation, safety and Dynamic Risk Assessment. He was passionately animated about crossing the passage and being safe. He covered what would happen if someone fell overboard (die). The water is dark, extremely cold and the waves are large and it would be difficult to spot atiny head in that situation. He also covered Dynamic Risk Assessment as aresponse during times of high risk or danger. This means you: 1. Take careof yourself 2. Take care of your team 3. Take care of the task. Avoid changing the order because you then put yourself or others at risk. A member of the expedition made a comment that he didn't need to be animatedand in our face about the whole thing. I stated that it was exactly what was needed to be done so the entire team has no doubt about the expectationand importance of our response. A video was played showing last year's crossing and the waves were huge. From what I understand a number of people became sea sick. David Thorn who is or was with Shell oil spoke to us about the warming affect taking place. He will be presenting other material as we continue over the next couple of weeks. The weather was good, so we were given some free time to go off and exploreor go into town to purchase souvenirs or items for the expedition. We didn't need to worry about our gear since it had been loaded and taken to the ship, so a bunch of us packed into a cab and headed for town. It is amazing how people from such diverse backgrounds and countries can quicklybecome friends. We have come together for an event which will be life changing and so the opportunity is there to forget false pretense and express true identities. Our group did the typical souvenir purchases, ate lunch and headed to the ship.

Our meeting was set for 2:15 pm and with the Bronco 5 rule in placeit meant we needed to be at the assigned meeting place at 2:10 pm. After meeting the expedition team, we went through customs and walked to the ship. The name of our ship is the Akademick Ioffe, a Russian scientific vessel. The weather changed on us. The wind became very strong coming offthe channel and the temperature dropped. We were corralled for groupphotos. You could literally feel the excitement building with the team. Robert Swan has done a great job of making this very personal for each team member. He is constantly walking around asking people how they feel. "Areyou excited? What do you think? What are you feeling?" This takes a tremendous amount of time when I know he has a hundred other things on his mind. He wants this to be a life changing event.

After boarding, we handed over our passports until the end of the expedition. We then were given our room assignments. Sean and I unloadedour gear and bags so the room could be organized and we could enjoy the crossing more. We did not want to be stepping over a messy room for the next few days.We then had another briefing which reviewed ship safety and the process for abandoning ship. It is a maritime requiring all ships to have a drill within two hours after leaving port. I think we did pretty well in our response. We were also allowed to sit inside the life raft which is enclosed. A necessity if anything were to happen in these waters. Afterwards, we were told to return and prepare our room for crossing the passage. We had to take things off our desk and make sure all doors were shut and locked. Dinner was fantastic tonight. I had seafood salad and sliced beef overpotatoes and mushrooms. As a pilot boat took us through the Beagle Channel, Robert had his first leadership briefing with the team tonight. He covered his complete story of walking to the north and south poles and why he is passionate in preserving Antarctica. During his presentation he mentioned that he grew up in a family of seven "much like the one Drew is raising." I'm not sure if he enjoyed being part of a large family, so I intend to ask him. After the briefing a number of us went out on deck to get some fresh air and cool down. It is going on 1:00 am and it is pitch black outside. We are now in Drake's Passage. I'm typing this in my bed and you can feel the entire ship first pitch forward and back and then roll side to side. I can hear cabinet doors from other rooms open and then shut. It is very soothing for me and I want to fall asleep. We should be finding out soon if anyone comes up sick.

Drake Passage Video (TEST 2)

This is a second test at embedding video for the Meridian School District to view. Very important for me to accomplish this before leaving. Bernadette and Mark, let me know if this one works.

Commentary: We got video to work through TeacherTube this morning!