I woke at 430am and this was the view from our cabin
Showering was a bit interesting since the Drake Passage was not a lake. It wasn’t a shake either, but the ship was moving enough to make showering a bit of an adventure.
Around 730am, I headed down one floor to check out The Hide, which is a somewhat hidden room at the bow of the ship.
Then around 740 am, my sister and I headed to the bow to see how it was! The deck was a little wet, so waves or sea spray had reached the deck.
We met up with mom and headed to the World Cafe for some breakfast, before the first of three mandatory briefings we had today. This was to go over the protocols for our adventures off the ship, including landings, kayaking and the submersible. The first part was a general overview of protocols followed by the 95 vessels that make up the IAATO .
And then specific information for the kayak excursion that my sister and I plan to go on.
Next up was the mandatory briefing for those who want to go on the submersible, which would be my mom and sister. They both had to do a squat test when we boarded the ship as part of the pre-requisite for that.
Upon leaving that briefing, we stopped by the spa so my sister could show us some of what she learned when she had stopped by earlier.
The pool there was closed due to the waves, and the hot tub wasn’t filled yet, but she showed us the snow room where you can grab some snow to cool off after the sauna!
Next up, my sister and I attended an ebird survey session on the aft section. Essentially a crowd source app for bird watching. The session was led by ornathologist Dennis, or as he referred to himself last night, the “penguin guy”. Since I had brought our kestrel portable weather sensor with me, I took the opportunity to see how cold it was out on the deck!
We then had to gather any outside layers we plan to wear off the ship, so that they could be inspected. We headed down to the midship area to get that done, and then to try on our boots. Here is our mom getting her layers inspected.
Mom then decided to relax in her room for a bit while my sister and I went to work out. Walking on a treadmill at sea was a little bit of an adventure! I did see what I think were some dolphins, but wasn’t able to capture any pictures. I was later able to confirm that others had seen peale dolphins!
Afterwards we headed to get a bite to eat, before going to our kayak test. No pictures because no one wants to see that! Haha. While on the ship, we climbed into a zodiak and had to demonstrated that we could transfer from the zodiak to the kayak, and back without doing the “don’ts”. We were able to do it while on the ship, so fingers crossed we manage to do it while on the water!
My sister then went to the bow to attend a wildlife watch while I check in with mom. I got mom situated to head to the living room on deck 5 for the Science and Expedition Exhibition. I then headed to the bow to check out the end of the wildlife watch and caught a few pictures of these birds.
After that, I hung around for the GLOBE cloud session. It’s a crowdsource cloud app with NASA.
My mom and I relaxed and visited for a while, while my sister checked out the sauna and the snow room.
Next up was the daily briefing at 530, where we got to meet the captain and the senior staff. Both captains of the Polaris are French.
Then our Berna, the exhibition lead, filled us in on the general plan for tomorrow.
They anticipate we will reach Antartica around noon or 1pm. The plan is to go to Dallman Bay which will hopefully be sheltered enough to allow us to get our first taste of the expeditions. We are scheduled for zodiac ride at 345pm. So exciting time tomorrow as we see if we can walk with all our gear on!
After we enjoyed some steak, lobster tail, crab legs, salad, sushi (my sister) and desert from the World Cafe for dinner.
To close out our day, we headed back to the Aula to hear from Dennis Wile on the Birds of Antarctica and Southern Ocean. Dennis is from Costa Rica and began his career with tropical birds. He has been traveling to Antartica for 20 years, and he has been with Viking for 3 years.
Following his presentation we watched a movie about Amundsens trek to the South Pole, which featured footage of their journey.
So another full day for us, and its now 11pm. Tomorrow brings us to Antarctica!