Saturday, 10 February

At sea - Drake Passage.   By the time we went to bed last night, we could feel the significant swell of the ocean. By morning, it had increased to the point that the TV screen was swinging to and fro, squeaking and thudding against the wall. Larry tucked his travel pillow into the back to stabilize it a bit. And the fog had returned. This morning’s talk was about heroic journeys in Antarctica, featuring Scott, Amundsen and Shackleton. Then, amazingly, I had another bingo win, putting me close to even in bingo expenditures and wins! With bad weather moving in, it looks like we’ll be missing at least one more port, Puerto Arenas, and possibly also Ushuaia, where I’ve been really hoping to visit Terra del Fuego National Park. Fingers crossed we still can, but the crew have been battening everything down, so it seems serious. We had some snow flurries, that really excited a lot of the staff, for whom it was a first experience of snow. In the afternoon, there was a showing of the Disney Nature film “Oceans” – amazing underwater photography! My luck didn’t carry through to Mensa or trivia, unfortunately, but I enjoyed the fun conversation with the trivia team. In the evening, the team of Antarctic experts reviewed their favourite parts of our visit there, and shared stories and photos about their earlier experiences in the Antarctic. We were then treated to a harrowing film from 1929 of a trip through the Drake Passage in a huge sailing ship that encountered 3 major storms during the passage. Our own ship rocked more and more as the afternoon and evening progressed.
Pictures of the day