Drake Passage and South Shetland Islands
We are in Antarctica—both biologically as well as politically, for during the night we sailed passed the Antarctic Convergence as well as the 60¢ª parallel.
The day commenced calmly enough; the seas had become a quieter, which was most welcome after yesterday’s topsy turvy experience. The morning was spent learning more about the wildlife we are likely to experience on our adventure south as well as becoming acquainted with the protocol expected of us in the pristine environment of Antarctica.
Just before lunch a number of different whales are spotted out at sea. The calm conditions are ideal to spot blows off in the distance. This moment was to prove to be the calm before the storm as shortly afterwards we were in the teeth of very strong winds gusting at 60 knots and coming from the southeast. The Southern Ocean became a seething mass of foam as the winds whipped off the crests of the ever bigger waves. Off to port we sailed past our first iceberg, phantom-like, in the grey conditions. Most of us at this stage had just finished our breakout session with the photo team and so ventured outside into the elements to put into practice some of the skills we had been learning about. It was very cold outside but this did not dissuade the brave souls from trying to capture that image that could somehow portray what we were both witnessing and experiencing.
The Captain announces to us all that the ship’s course has been altered to better cope with these difficult conditions and so instead of sailing through the English Strait as planned, we sail on a westerly course along the coast of Livingston Island for the next few hours.
We all gather in the lounge for the Captain’s Welcome Cocktail and after meeting many of the ship’s officers we head off for dinner, by this stage the wind speed had dropped considerably. By this stage we were sailing around Smith Island, named after William Smith who first sighted the South Shetland Islands in 1819. It also has a very tall mountain rising sharply to 6900ft (2105m) and which is known as Mount Foster after the captain aboard the Chanticleer, RN in 1829.
