Wednesday Feb 7, 2024
Hi Gang! Luckily today we got the Drake Lake and the seas have been calmer with much smaller waves. Still choppy but nothing like yesterday!
Today was another sea day so we got lots of education. They had four different lectures which were all very informative. The first was about the Antarctic ecosystem and all the animals that live there (there is very little plant life). The next was all about The Antarctic Treaty signed by many countries that governs the continent. They discussed the political motivations of the different countries regarding geopolitical relations, negotiations, sovereignty claims and mining interests.
The third one was on glaciers. They discussed how they are formed, how they are classified and to better understand the landscape we will encounter. The fourth one was all about penguins. Love those little guys! I included a slide showing each species with their sizes as it relates to humans.
We finally saw land and some whales today! There was a pod of four whales and we saw their blows but weren’t close enough to see the actual whales. We also saw a very large iceberg on the horizon. The first of many to come!
Late afternoon we had our daily briefing where they discussed where we’ll do our zodiac boat landings tomorrow and what time. Kathy was happy we got the later time slot and won’t go out until 9:45 AM.
We also found out that 20 people signed up to camp overnight at a cost of $750 per person! And you have to dig your own hole and if you would have to “do number 2”, you have to carry it away and not leave it there. Nope, not for us! Lol
We had another nice dinner. Kathy and I both had the pork loin. Very tasty! After dinner we went to the show which was our cruise director Mike singing a New York cabaret show.
We are so excited for our first land excursion tomorrow! The Wandering Italian may get a little emotional when he steps on his 7th and last continent of the world! Of course not the last continent he will ever explore! Lol
Happy Hump Day to all!
The Wandering Italian 