The Drake Passage

 Our route south and all that was left was to cross the dreaded Drake Passage back to South America.

 The Albatross Lounge where we had our meetings and played the Antarctic Quiz.

 Elephant Island (from the air you can see why it got its name) and the 'Yelcho'.

 Krill, everything down here eats it.

 The tardigrade or water bear.

 Belgica Antarctica, the Antarctic midge, is a species of flightless midge, endemic to the continent of Antarctica. At 2–6 mm long, it is the largest purely terrestrial animal native to the continent, as well as its only insect.

 The reception area of the ship.

 The Penguin Library.

 This picture hung in our room above Bruce's bunk and swung back and forth in rough seas.

 Home sweet home for the three of us.

Sunday, November 10^th.

The Drake Passage

I didn’t sleep well because of the boat, the alcohol and apparently I was snoring pretty good and Bruce told me that John was bouncing my bunk up and down to get me to stop. I woke up with a headache. The seas are still very rough and breakfast was a moving affair. After breakfast we watched another episode of Blue Planet II and then retired to the room to sort photos and catch up on the blog.

After lunch it was a very laid back day with not too much going on that attracted my interest. They played the penguin movie ‘Happy Feet’. At four John put on a workshop about underwater life in Antarctica, from the krill to the whale and everything in between. He emphasized that all life here starts with phytoplankton that lives and grows in the pack ice and which is eaten by krill and krill is eaten by everything from birds, to fish, to seals, to penguins, to huge whales. Without the ice pack the whole ecosystem collapses.

Then it was recap and debriefing time. Most of that was reflecting on a great time and preparing us for departure tomorrow.

After dinner (I had reindeer steak, which was delicious) John put on the second half of the Antarctic Quiz. I have included a few slides to give you an idea of the types of questions and the things we learned. The three of us teamed up with the four Brits again and had fun, although we did not win. Then it was time again for the Monkey Eating Eagles, who were again atrocious. They butchered songs so bad they were barely recognizable. I left when they were forming a conga line.