We have seen the Albatross!

Actually we have seen several of them. The Drake Passing has been disappointingly calm with only 6-12 foot seas so far. The crew keeps commenting on how unusual it is to be this calm, so perhaps we will get a rough ride home. Now don’t get me wrong, the ship is rocking pretty good – this is a tiny expedition ship not the Monstrosity of the Seas kind of cruise ship. People are bouncing off the walls as they try and walk and there are enormous barf bags scattered all over the ship.

The seasick patch is the high fashion accessory of the season and all of the non-pukers are wearing them. So far it works, Cat and I have avoided any nausea, but the side effect is that it makes you thirsty and sleepy, we are hoping that will wear off or we will just power through it.

The main advantage of the relatively calm seas is that it has made for excellent bird watching! We woke up this morning to find several petrels frolicking off the back of the ship and by afternoon they were joined by the albatross! It is a huge bird with a 15 foot wingspan and soars gracefully in the wind created by the ship. So they pretty much stay with us until a better ship comes along. It has been a stunning display but I haven’t been able to get a picture where they weren’t little specks.

There was one point today when we were at the convergence – where the waters of the Atlantic, Pacific, Indian and Southern oceans mix, there isn’t a sign or anything so you will just have to take my word for it. We learned this morning that we are making an attempt to be the first ship into the Antarctic Sound this season. It is still iffy because it had too much ice last week, remember it is still late spring down here. Since no one has tried it so far this year, we will have to assess it when we are closer, and by we I mean the ship’s captain and expedition leader. Soon we should be posting pictures of ice, lots and lots of ice.

After dinner we hooked up with fun group of revelers that I think is pretty much everyone on the ship under the age of 45 and we had a blast. We even had a rousing game of drinking penguin go fish! Now it’s time to turn in an get ready for a long adventure tomorrow.