21st March 2018 – THE Drake Passage….
Sickness, never-ending, bed bound sickness, punctuated by the arrival of health packages in the form of lovely crackers and apples. The only saving grace was a small T.V. playing a seemingly endless number of movies, and the refuge of short naps to distract me throughout.
After 36 hours of being at the mercy of the Drake Passage, I finally discovered the joys of the seasickness patches. Being able to leave my cabin and keep my food down, along with many other members of our course, I looked forward to an exciting day of bird and marine mammal watching along the Drake Passage. With the sea calming enough to allow us to venture onto the outside decks of the ship, we began to collect our data.
With our small pod of marine researchers, constant daylight surveying was to occur, with two groups of three to record data. The first group continuously logging mammal sightings, on the port and starboard sides of the bridge for 90 minutes, and the second completing ten-minute bird watches on the hour for three hours, before being relieved by fresh-faced replacements.
Hopes were high, with the potential to see; Wandering Albatross, Humpback Whales, and even the king of them all: The Blue Whale.
This was however, to no avail. Thick fog surrounded us from first light, blurring the lines between the sea and the sky. White tips in the distance began to take on the form of whales peeking their heads above the water and spray began to look like wandering albatrosses in their endless search for food. I tried my hand at bird watching and managed to spot a couple of Albatross and a Wilsons Storm Petrel or two with the avid bird watchers, who were practically glued to the bridge, to aid with the finer points of identification. No matter how many notes I make on the identification features the ability to tell a bird species from its near identical cousin, it is obviously a skill that can only be mastered through hours of bird watching. Fortunately, this is what I have to look forward to over the coming days.
The mammal observers had the luck of witnessing a single unidentified whale appear for a quick breath, alongside a fleeting view of a Macaroni penguin gliding through the water. This was over 10 hours of continuous surveys.
Tomorrow our ship will finally enter the waters of the Antarctic Peninsula, where Whales will be present in abundance and we will brave the Polar Plunge.
Written by Rob Jefferies
Try wetting the table cloth to steady your plates when , whilst, the boat is rock and rolling. It worked for us in 1996. We have been trying to track the Plancius but it hasn't appeared so far on screen.
The system seems to have caught up now, the track of the Plancius is currently showing up on Oceanwide's where are they now page. Zooming in even shows that last night they were cruising up and down the Gerlache Strait.