Day 17- At Sea, Drake Passage

Thursday 20th November - At Sea, Drake PassageTime: 12:00Latitude: 61° 35.4' SLongitude: 65° 16.5' WWind: Force 7 North WestSea Conditions: Very Rough (wave height 4 – 6m)Pressure: 999 mbTemperature: 3ºCMany of us turned up to breakfast this morning after a fitful night’s sleep on account of rough seaswith waves up to 6m high. Items that had not been stowed were thrown around our cabins as theship pitched and rolled in the dark. Those who lay awake would have doubtless heard bangs andcrashes from outside their cabins as the ship’s nocturnal movements levelled everything that wasnot tethered down. The turnout at breakfast was nevertheless impressive, whether thanks to DoctorJudy’s medication or simply the discovery of sea legs during the course of the expedition, andspirits were high.John Sparks commenced the day’s learning with Seabird Conservation in Fisheries. Here heexplained that almost all of the albatrosses found in the Southern Ocean are under threat ofextinction and took us through some of the pressures they are under. He finished by showing usexamples of the positive efforts that are being made to ensure their survival through the Save theAlbatross Campaign. This is a charity that Polar Star has supported for years and a raffle for a24Polar Star flag was opened to raise money for this cause. Ursula followed at 11:00 with herunusual lecture The Who’s Who Amongst Minkes which gave an interactive insight into themethods behind identifying individual whales. Her project in Canada relies on the ability toidentify whales extremely quickly, often from a fleeting glimpse of a dorsal fin.Yesterday in recap and briefing, John Harrison explained that he had left a copy of Coleridge’sRime of the Ancient Mariner in the observation lounge for people to read ahead of his afternoonlecture. Due to the length of the poem, it would not possible to read it out and talk about it in thesame session so those who were keen enough to flick through the printout ahead of thepresentation would be armed with a degree of assumed knowledge. Meagan concluded theeducational program of the day with Life on the Ice, a selection of slides and stories of her timeworking as a seal and penguin researcher at the Australian Antarctic Research Bases.Tonight’s dinner was interrupted with ominous news. All outside areas on deck 3 were off limitsand deadlights would be fitted to all cabins on that level on account of severe weather warnings.We sat and finished our meals, wondering what the evening would have in store. At 20:30 theclassic film version of Moby Dick, the most famous whale story of them all, was screened in theobservation lounge