Sunday 20 October 2013

Eating Miles - and other things...

The countdown has begun: in 24 hours we traveled 5 full degrees further South. Considering that every degree latitude equals 60 nautical miles (everywhere, as opposed to degrees longitude), we are already 300 miles closer to the Equator. And the temperature is rising, rising, 25 degrees (77 Fahrenheit) in the morning, water even a little warmer than that. Not that we went swimming to find out, all this is part of the basic information shown on the bridges displays. Barometric pressure, dew point, tendency, all you need to create a homemade forecast, which says pretty stable for the rest of the day. The wind, however, has picked up a bit, a fresh breeze has come up, but fortunately from the right direction. 
So FRAM still moves gently across the waves, while on board life goes on in a tranquil fashion; lecture in the morning (on just this topic, latitudes and longitudes), tea time in the afternoon, and outside barbecue in the evening breeze. 
Our chef Jimmy really sees to it that we are not going to loose any weight, no matter how hard we work out...
Meanwhile, the crew and staff are arranging things for the Antarctic season, be it the counting of material for the board shop or the trying of snow shoes. These are going to be our newest achievement, next season is tryout season for those.
as a highlight, the Philipino Crew invites for Karaoke in the evening. Everybody is welcome. And in the darkness of the lower latitudes the light effects are coming out real nice...