Tuesday 10 December 2013

Southbound

After a rather exciting two days in South Georgia, today we had a full sea day, during which we sailed in a southwesterly direction, with the goal of reaching Elephant Island within two days - you will have noticed that we are retracing in reverse, the almost incredible journey of Shackleton and his men on the James Caird.

We had originally planned to visit the South Orkney islands en route to Antarctica, but were forced to change plans today, as the seas around these remote islands are completely covered with pack ice. So, we changed course and made relatively good progress - we're still sailing against the prevailing wind, and this means slower speed; and unfortunately, constantly fighting the waves. For this reason, several of our passengers have felt a bit queasy if not downright seasick - for which they need not feel ashamed, as the constant rocking even made some of the expedition team and crew of the Fram feel a bit queasy as well.

Life on board Fram continued, and the passengers that were up and about attended lectures on different topics, from the interesting and rather surprising properties of ice to a first-hand account on overwintering in an Antarctic research station; and the early evening was quietly spent watching penguin-related movies. The day ended with a question and answer round with the Captain and some of his officers, who gave us an interesting insight into the workings of a very interesting machine: MS Fram.