Drake Passage - Northbound

December 20, 2011

DRAKE PASSAGE, ANTARCTICA -- Well, we are still below 60 degrees south, so technically we are still in Antarctica politically. Last night we turned north from the protection of the South Shetlands into the heart of the Drake around 11pm, and have been sailing north ever since. We have also yet to hit the Antarctic convergence, so we are in Antarctica and the Southern Ocean biologically too. I have a feeling that by the time I finish this post, however, we will have crossed both of those barriers.

Today has been a slow morning thus far. We did not have a wakeup call at all for the first time since we got on the ship, which was nice. I ended up waking up around 9am anyway, and we had two lectures this morning.

The first lecture was about two historical expeditions that succeeded against all odds. They are not as famous and popular as Scott and Amundsen racing to the South Pole, or Shakleton, but nonetheless were various successes.

After the first lecture, we had a tour of the bridge. For all the time we have spent up there looking out for animal life, or just enjoying the views, it felt appropriate to learn about all the equipment up there. Most of the navigational things, such as the GPS systems and mapping, I already knew about. The engineering components, however, were new to me and it was a very informative tour. There were some obvious things I had simply never thought about, such as black boxes (like on airplanes). Then, in the middle of the bridge tour, we spotted a few water spouts off the bow, a classic first sighting of a whale. As we continued watching and getting closer, we got a positive identification of two humpback whales heading down towards Antarctica. I got a few good shots of their spouts as well as their flukes (flukes are the flipper/fins on the back/”rudder”). When whales show their flukes, it usually means they are going for a dive, and won’t surface again for anywhere from 3-20 minutes, by which time we are usually long gone. That said it was an exciting sighting!

The second lecture was about the Antarctic Treaty, originally signed in 1959 by 12 countries. I knew some of the provisions of the treaty before, but wasn’t aware of all of the history surrounding it. As it turns out, the year after founding People to People in 1956, President Eisenhower thought it in him to continue the peaceful scientific exploration occurring in Antarctica with a meeting in Washington D.C. in 1957, wherein the original articles off the Antarctic Treaty were drawn up. Interestingly, this included all countries with scientific bases in Antarctica, which included the USSR, and thus the Washington conference has later been referred to as the “first thawing of the Cold War.” In sum, the treaty, despite being rather unenforceable, has kept 10% of the entire planet entirely conflict and war-free for over half a century, which is a rather impressive thing. As it currently stands, the treaty will stay in effect until the 2040s, at which time it must either be renewed or revamped in some form.

Murphy’s Law currently in effect here, by the way. I was just thinking to write about how calm the Drake Passage has been thus far, when an enormous swell tipped our ship a good 25 degrees. When the big swells do that, you have to be really careful with drinks and electronics and make sure they do not go flying all over the place. So far so good! The weather has held up nicely today as well, and overall it has been very smooth sailing thus far, but we still have at least another 24 hours in the Drake itself, so we’ll see how things continue to progress.

As predicted, it is now 1:30pm, and we have crossed the 60 degree mark – now writing to you from international waters somewhere along the border of the South Atlantic and South Pacific Oceans, several hundred miles off the coast of South America. I feel infinitely less cool than I did an hour ago and for the past week or so from Antarctica. Le sigh…

This evening we had an auction on-board the ship, which was a ton of fun. The biggest item, the course chart for our entire expedition, ended up going for $1600! The ship flag, from the bow, went for $500, and in hindsight, I wish I would have bid higher for that - I went to about $300 and stopped there. Such a cool item - it's ripped up pretty good but not over the logo, so you can clearly tell what it is, but you can also clearly tell we took a nice Antarctic beating. In any case, I did win one item. Well, it isn't really an "item," but instead it is the right to wake up the entire ship on the announcement intercom tomorrow, anytime from 6-10am, and no rules at all about what can be said, length, etc. Best $20 ever spent, plus, it's really all for charity anyway, so it's a good cause. Special thanks to Save the Albatross, and can't wait to report on our group shenanigans tomorrow. :)