Antarctica Day 3

60°28.207'S, 061°33.219'W

The ship stayed within the Beagle Channel until 8:00 am yesterday morning. The Russian ship left earlier but facing 55-60 knots winds and 10-12 meter seas, it returned to the shelter of the channel before heading across. As the day continued the seas dropped to 8-10 meters. The seas noticeably changed when we were south of Cape Horn. Now on March 7, the seas are around 3 meters, no whitecaps and 'relatively' smooth. We have crossed the Antarctic convergence zone and the sea temperature has dropped to 3 degrees C, similar to what we saw at Seno Iceberg but now the whole ocean is that temperature. 

Yesterday there were lectures on sea birds, sea mammals, photography and geology. This morning was a lecture on penguins. The original name, penguin, is from 'pen gwyn' which is welsh for white head. The name penguin is like the word taxi, it is the same in most languages. It may be spelled with some variation but phonetically is it the same.

Rich was feeling a little bit seasick yesterday but seems fine today. Many others were absent from meals. The waiter at dinner last night was nice enough to fix a cheese, crackers and fruit plate for me to take back to the room for Rich. 

Today we also had a lecture on the Belgian Antarctic expedition led by Adrian de Gerioche, in the late 1800's. This was the first expedition to actually stay over the winter in Antarctica.

This afternoon was the mandatory Zodiac briefing and IAATO and Bio-Security Procedures, ie the do's and don't when in Antarctica. Afterwards we had to take all of our outer gear that was not new, including our foul weather bibs, gloves, hats and backpacks to be inspected and vacuumed to remove any biomaterial such a weeds, seeds, grasses, etc.

Later today is the recap and briefing - what happened today, what is the plan for tomorrow, as well as the Captain's Welcome Cocktails with Captain Oleg (he's Ukrainian). Tomorrow we hope to be at Half Moon Island with some time in the zodiacs and on shore.

Almost there...
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