40 Below: An Antarctic Birthday Quest #7 (At sea, en route to Antarctica)

Wednesday March 8, 2023

Scotia Sea between South Georgia Island and the Antarctic Peninsula

Woke up around 1am with a huge swell making things fall over all around me. I was very thirsty so I got up to get some water and look out the window at the raging sea around us. They don’t let us go outside on deck in seas this high (15 feet). It was a quiet day on board since there was so much swell and I spent most of the day reading a book and watching lectures.

Thursday March 9, 2023

Scotia Sea Day 2

The clocks changed so everyone got an extra hour of sleep. The buzz on board about the wedding that will take place is growing, the rumor is it will happen on March 12 or 13. Another quiet day with lectures about geology, penguins, and a game where your team had to guess the size of different animals and plants. They do a good job entertaining us on days at sea but they are definitely quieter days for most of the passengers. Some due to sea sickness, some just trying to catch up on sleep.

The entertainment in the bar last night was not only Randy but out assistant expedition leader, Marty from Australia, who was a classically trained singer and is truly excellent! His musical choices are, I have to say, much better than Randy’s. You can tell he has to work hard not to step on Randy’s toes though.

Friday March 10, 2023

Elephant Island to Antarctica

The ship is abuzz with excitement because two ladies have decided we need to throw a bachelor/bachelorette party for the bride and groom. It’s our third day at sea and everyone is going a bit stir crazy. We did have a lot of morning excitement though. While we pulled into Point Wild at Elephant Island we were suddenly surrounded by Fin whales and two Southern Right whales which are very rare. Right whales were the most hunted in the heydays of whaling because they were slow and easy to kill with a harpoon and had lots of blubber. Their population was decimated, and they haven’t made the same recovery as other species have. It was our best large mammal spotting session so far.

The weather was absolutely wild, with gale force winds and rain and hail blowing. We couldn’t land at Point Wild but it was humbling to think of Shackleton’s men hunkered down there, waiting for him to come back, not knowing if he would.

We spent the rest of the day at sea with the team trying to find good places to land and figuring out the game plan for the Antarctic Peninsula. Their planning, which I have come to trust implicitly, resulted in us spending another full day at sea and more than a few unhappy passengers. Somehow through the course of the day I found out that the bride and groom wanted to have a few games during their party that night. I talked to the women organizing it and somehow ended up becoming the MC and planning all the games. So I asked the guest services manager for 30 rolls of toilet paper and a computer and we were off to the races. Honestly, I was glad for the distraction. I’ve nearly finished three books while on board. The party that night was a roaring success. Almost every single person aboard attended including the crew and they all played all the games. In the end I’m sure they were glad for a little entertainment that they didn’t also have to be responsible for. We solicited marriage advice via the suggestion box, we found out who had been married the longest on board, we made the bride find her groom blindfolded by feeling passenger’s lower legs, we had them answer a series of questions saying who the statement applied to more, him or her, we made wedding dresses out of toilet paper and we had a little quiz on movie quotes about love. It was all lighthearted fun, almost everyone participated, and I got lots of comments saying that people had a good time. A few of us, including the bride and groom, stayed up late (which means past 10pm) and got Marty to sing some more songs to close out the night.