Sunday, November 7th 2010 57º39’ 64º11’W
This day in History:- 1928 Sir Hubert Wilkins became the first person to fly an
airplane in Antarctica departing from Deception island.
Immediately after entering the Drake just after midnight the swell began to make itself the
center of our lives. All night and all day it rocked and rolled the ship. Walking about was
extremely difficult and seasickness was prevalent among many passengers.
People were outside observing the different species of seabirds that followed the ship, the
Wandering, Black-browed, Light-mantled sooty and the Grey-headed albatross as well as the
Giant, Cape and White-chinned petrels, just to name a few of the species that roamed these
waters that were spotted today!!
Appropriately the first talk of the day was given by Frank who went into more detail of the
birds that we had just seen and of others that we hope to see in Antarctica.
Later in the morning Roger introduced us to the geology and formation of Antarctica.
After lunch Scott gave us a talk about “The Boss’’ - Sir Ernest Shackleton and his amazing
1914 expedition in which his men escaped almost certain death after their ship “The Endurance”
was crushed by the ice in the Weddell Sea.
Frank wound up the day’s educational program with an informative presentation on the
long-tailed penguins that we are all waiting to see down south. It is amazing to think of the short
window of opportunity these birds are given in order too complete their hurried breeding season
and their busy life style of bringing up their young before the Antarctic winter again sets in!
It is nice to know that we have completed our first full day of the Drake with the knowledge
that we are that much closer to our objective, the Antarctic Dream.
“For sheer downright misery, give me a hurricane, not too warm, the yard of a sailing ship, a
wet sail and a bout of sea sickness”- Apsley Cherry Garrard
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