Day 16 - One hand for the ship

Drake Passage

Each cabin on the ship has a speaker, so the 7:45am wake up call is a voice saying "Good morning, good morning".Then the fun started, trying to shower and dress with "one hand always for the ship" as they call it, as you should always have one hand free to hold on with. The bathroom was surprisingly good, with plenty of hot water - better than most of the places we've stayed in so far in South America.

The day passed quite quickly, as we had different talks and lectures on sea birds, penguins and geography, and combined with the constant and regular call for meals - breakfast, lunch, afternoon tea and dinner - it feels like being in school or on camp.

As the Drake crossing takes two days, all we saw today were some sea birds. The air was cold and the sea was a little up and down, but we still managed to walk around on deck and get some fresh air.

Next stop Antarctica

The other guests we've met so far are all extremely well travelled, it almost seems to be the "we've been everywhere else" trip. We met two 28 year olds today who with this trip will have been to all seven continents. There is also a surprising number of people in their late 20's/early 30's doing the trip on their own. Not as many couples as we expected, a fair amount of older single men and women, and a large group of mainly Dutch divers.