Argentina/Antarctica: Day 5: The Drake Passage

First of all, for my blog entries on Antarctica, besides my own memories, I'm also relying on the Polar Star's log, which they gave us after the cruise, and Greg's log -- he was extremely diligent -- for things I don't remember. So I want to thank them both for helping me remember things.

The first night on the ship was a rockin' and rollin' as we started through the Drake Passage. Trying to sleep was really amusing as I kept on rolling up and down, and side to side, with the ship. I had put the patch on to help me with seasickness, and I'm happy to say that I didn't feel sick the entire trip. But still being tossed around like that meant that I didn't sleep too soundly. Interestingly, on the way back, I had gotten my sealegs completely and I had no problems sleeping are last two nights.

There's not much to do on the open sea, but I was really impressed with how the organizers had planned some educational programs so that we can learn about the places we were going. Today, there was a presentation on birds, oceans and geology. Here are the five top things that I remember:

1. The Southern Ocean is the ocean that surrounds Antarctica and it basically circulates unobstructed around the continent. For that reason, weather systems are essentially created within the continent and the surrounding ocean, which is why it was so hard for early explorers to "discover" the continent. Essentially, weather systems blocked sail vessels from getting too far south.

2. The reason why the Drake Passage is so unsettled is because it's the narrowest part of the Southern Ocean, so lots of water and wind get funneled through the passage between Tierra del Fuego and the Antarctic Peninsula.

3. There was a time when Antarctica, South and North America, Africa, Australia, and India were one big continent, but over time they split apart and drifted away from each other. But the Rockies, Andes, and the mountains on the Antarctic peninsula are essentially one mountain chain that have separated over

time.

4. Birds one can see in Antarctica and the Drake: penguins (obviously), albatrosses, petrels, skuas, and one kind of gull. Albatrosses and petrels have special glands that allow them to take the salt out of salt water so that they can drink -- crazy! Albatrosses also live most of their lives at sea, and they sleep by turning half their brain off at a time. Again, crazy!

5. They have found fossils of plants and animals in Antarctica, which tells us that at one point, the continent lay much farther north than it does now.

Otherwise, we hung out, met each other, and looked for birds. I've included some pictures of albatrosses and petrels that I took. I realized the limits of my camera on this trip, I have to say. But I did get some decent pictures. I'm going to do some editing of them to see if I can get some close-ups.

There were a lot of cool people on the trip. One thing that surprised me is that there were a lot of men who had come to on the trip by themselves --wives or girlfriends weren't interested. There was a group of people from MIT getting M.B.A.s; we didn't really meet them until the end. And some cool women from Washington and other places back east. At first, however, I have to say it was a lot of hanging out with the men traveling alone, which made sense. Essentially that's what Greg and I were as well.

I should also say that if anyone wants to go to Antarctica, I recommend the Polar Star. We booked our trip with Adventure Smith out of Lake Tahoe, but I think there are other places to do it. The staff were amazingly professional and pretty much had everything under control. The expedition leader, Hannah, had clearly done this before, and her calm demeanor I think kept things under control when the weather wasn't cooperating. There were Ph.D.s in geology, oceanography, experienced birders, and the Canadian songwriter of the year, Ian Tamblyn. It really was a bizarre mix, but they did everything really well.

We listened to Ian perform in the lounge that night, and then it was time to try to get some sleep, while the ship continued to rock and roll.