Saturday, September 15

Rough night is something of an understatement! Our first trip across the Drake Channel to Antarctica had higher seas and certainly had more roll to the ship but last night and all day to day we have seas into which the ship periodically plows with a bang and a shudder from stem to stern. Our patio door and window on Deck 6 are regularly inundated with heavy spray, entirely blocking the view many times, leaving the wooden decking awash until it can drain.

During the day there is green water on the windows in the dining room on deck 4 as the ship plows through a particularly high swell.

Carolyn sleeps late while Dick has breakfast about 8:30AM after checking and finding that she is still asleep. Later, she gets breakfast in the rocking Colonnade Restaurant on deck 8. Then she goes to the lecture on Explorers of the North and South Poles and later a cooking demonstration with Chef Neil preparing a vegetable cream soup and a mango rum smoothie to taste while he then prepares three fish dishes.

Dick reads and works on the blog. Our stewardess, Petra from Hungary, comes in looking ill and says she is sea sick.

After a nice lunch in the dinning room with about 100+ other guest who are not sick or can’t stand the motion on the Colonnade deck, we spend the rest of the day in our cabin and both take a long afternoon nap, following Jack’s example of good time management.

We go up to the Observation Lounge on deck 10 to have a cocktail and watch the wave action.

The captain gives his evening report while we are there. We have had 20 foot seas all day with some higher wave action at times. The wind has blown 40 - 45 mph most of the day. He is sorry for the discomfort this has caused. He warns us that it is expected to be worse tonight, but moderating tomorrow. There is an audible groan from the ship and Guest Services is passing out sea sick pills like candy!

We head to dinner at 7PM. Dick has short ribs that he says are wonderful and Carolyn has pasta with a very good pesto sauce. The dinning room is not full and there was almost no one up in the lounge earlier. We have a pleasant dinner, but the sea motion is very active and we decide that the safest place for us is in bed. Sleep is not far behind.