January 2-4 all at sea!

 We had pretty bad weather on our way to the Falklands so the Captain slowed the ship to soften the experience for us – thank you Artem!  During our 3 days at sea, we were entertained with a few lectures including one on plankton and another by Ian McCarthy about his time filming in Afghanistan a matter of days before 9/11! We also got to watch a movie, a two-part dramatised version of the Shackleton story featuring Kenneth Brannaugh - 'Endurance'.

And for those 'rock heads' amongst you we got to contemplate the geology of the Antarctic Peninsula and South Georgia. Its was fascinating - to me! I reckon you can read the slides if you zoom in.

Along the way, Wandering Albatross followed in our wake looking for food brought to the surface by our churning propellers but also they enjoy the uplift the ship created.  It was pretty icy outside so only the stalwarts ventured outside to photograph the birds. 

When all else fails there's always food! You could have your eggs cooked to order.

These days Captain Artem reckons he drives the ship from his iPhone - funny man. Be that as it may, the equipment is very sophisticated but there are some delightful historic collectable like this Clinometer displayed around the ship particularly in the library and Citizen Science Centre. Incidentally Artem said that the maximum swell we had encountered on the voyage had been 6.5m. The things you find to do when you're not out in a zodiac!

Wednesday was an interesting day as the expedition team organised a virtual tour of the ship. Together with the Captain, Chief Engineers, we were ‘taken’ through the entire ship from the Bridge to the engine room. We learnt about fuel and garbage disposal, water treatment and even how many eggs and loaves of bread we used daily (but I can’t remember that bit of trivia now).  

That afternoon we played a crazy game guessing the size of things, things as weird as the size of a Blue whale’s penis to the size of the eyeball of a giant squid to the circumference of the snorkel guide’s head. Lots of silliness but fun. We were rescued by the cocktail hour!

The lecture room

Since we are on our way to the Falklands~Malvinas, I should to tell you a little about this far-flung, remote place before we get there.  It comprises two large islands - East and West Falkland, with over 700 islands scattered off the coast of these to main islands. All but 7 of these smaller islands are uninhabited. They are, on the surface, barren but are wildlife havens sheltering a diversity of birdlife, including the largest black-browed albatross colony on earth.  The islands have been overseas territory of the UK since 1833 and the towns have a distinctly British character I believe.  We await the morrow!