Last night the plan was to find a protected bay or cove on the Antarctica peninsula, hunker down for the day (I.e. today), and sail toward South Orkney, which is more-or-less on our course to South Georgia Islands the following day. Overnight, the team found the coves they had in mind too stopped up with ice. New plan: sail through the weather and head directly for South Orkney Islands, an unplanned stop. So that’s what we did today: sail through the weather, not around it. 

They say the weather today wasn’t all that bad, well within the Ociana’s capabilities. But it’s been somewhat rougher than the Drake Passage was the other day Today, 20-foot plus swells and wind gusts topping out at 70 knots. 

And while the ship had no problem, the same can’t be said for your faithful scribe. I did ok until  we sailed beyond the protective land mass of the Shetland Islands. I applied a patch and chewed a Bonnie but not until the horse had left the barn, if you get my drift. But this evening I’m doing fine. 

So it’s been a slow day. Breakfast as usual, two backgammon games ( I finally won one) and then , for me, eyes glued to the horizon until mid afternoon. Judy frequented the mess hall as usual. I got up at 3:00 PM for a quick demo of happywhale.com, a fun app to track whale tail signatures. We did the 5:30 briefing, had a drink in the bar and then dinner. 

The evening talk was on  citizen science and Antarctic phytoplankton and diatoms, microscopic organisms that feed krill, which feed whales, seals and whatnot. Citizen scientists on cruise boats, including ours, gather samples that help build a global data set that real scientists can use in their research. 

The final activity, coming up in 15 minutes, is a sighting of the largest iceberg in the world, A32a, three times the size of New York City. It broke free from the Filtchner ice shelf in 1986. It was stuck until last year when it started on its journey to who knows where. Other icebergs have held the record but they’ve broken up with A32a now wearing the crown. 

We anticipate arriving at South Orkney tomorrow afternoon. Landing s aren’t allowed but we’ll get a zodiac ride in the afternoon. 

Well the first A32A sighting has been pushed back an hour with pass-by at 12:00 – 2:00 AM. They served Bailey ‘s and banana foster to celebrate A32a so the failed 10 o’clock viewing wasn’t a bust. If A32 happens by on our starboard side I might get up to see it. Otherwise, I’ll swipe a picture off google and post it here. You’ll never know the difference!

Update: we went for the 11 PM viewing. I succumbed to a patch-enabled sleep before midnight. Judy got up to see what could be seen at 2 AM

but it appeared they were still backing up. The berg is big and it’s best to give it a wide berth since 86% of the iceberg is underwater.

The morning after the bouncing day before: At this morning’s briefing, the crew estimated we sailed most of the day at Beaufort Force 8 – sea wave height 18 – 25 feet, winds 34 – 40 knots. Earlier that day wind speed was somewhat higher. Chris, the most senior of the expedition team said he has sailed on more than 50 ships and none of them would have handled the sea conditions better than Octantis. I’ve added a video clip showing the waves outside our stateroom window. It may take a while for it to download, so beware!