After the previous evening’s snow display we were unsure what the weather would be overnight as we sailed through the South Atlantic.
At around 1 am a large crash and a bang set the scene for the rest of the night. The ship started to roll and plunge into waves.
At 5 am I peeped out through the window under the blind to see waves reaching up to our Deck 3 window and spray hitting the glass.
On Monday March 6th were sailing from South Georgia to the Falklands through rough seas.
The view through our cabin window
When we raised the blind, to get up for breakfast, my torch was missing. I guessed it must have fallen onto the floor with all the rolling of the ship. We gave up looking for it as the ship was rolling a lot! Our breakfast on Deck 4 was interesting as waves and plumes of spray were reaching the restaurant windows.
Rather than sit in our cabin after breakfast we went to the bistro area on Deck 4 to sit at a table and have a cup of tea. Passing the notice boards I saw that my lens cap had appeared on the lost and found table. This was the cap lost on out first day in South Georgia.
We stayed in the bistro area and listened to an informative talk about the bird life of the Falklands. During the talk we learnt about where we would be landing there.
The waves now continued to break so high that I was able to take pictures of them through the windows of Deck 4.
I prepared my next batch of images for digital postcards ready for when we next had Internet access either on-board or in the Falklands.
The next lecture was being given to one of the organised tour parties on the ship. It was about the Falklands War and after 2 slides I decided that it was probably best if I left.
Upstairs in the Observation Lounge on Deck 7, the waves were breaking high enough to splash over the forward windows.
Back in our cabin waves were hitting our window so we pulled the blind back down There wrapped up in the blind was my torch – mystery solved.
From the charts on the notice boards the waves were supposed to be of the order of 5 meters but given how high they were breaking on Deck 7, I’m guessing they were much higher.
Afternoon out on Deck 7 watching the South Atlantic
After lunch we needed some fresh air and we went out on the stern on Deck 7. Standing out there we could watch the ship pitching up and down. Then sometimes the ship would do a wild roll either to port or to starboard.
A couple of albatross were around the ship and I finally did manage to capture a picture of one of them.
This was shot with my 400 mm lens with an extender so it was at 540 mm. My strike rate of good images was very low as the birds were so far away from the ship.
Then blue sky was replaced by ominous dark clouds so we all went back into the lounge. We sat and watched a pod of Hourglass dolphins alongside Fram. This was my cue to go back outside.
I did catch glimpses of more dolphins, of seals and even whale spouts.
The scheduled presentation from members of the expedition team was postponed. Also postponed was a Q&A with the ship’s officers planned for 10 pm.
Early evening drinks in the Observation Lounge
We sat in the Observation Lounge on Deck 7 and watched the waves along with other passengers.
We decided there was time before dinner for a drink. But there did seem to a problem with measures – maybe it was the waves?
We had noticed before that the measures always improved with the evening bar steward.
I watched fellow passengers busy reviewing their images from earlier landings. As I didn’t have my laptop on this trip I had to rely on the screen at the back of the camera so I was a little jealous of others being able to easily check their images.
The second dinner sitting at 8 pm was sparsely attended as the ship was still passing through rough seas. We had salmon mouse, cauliflower soup, turkey and then panna cotta.
The clocks on the ship were to go back an hour for our arrival in Stanley in two days time at 11 pm.
As I wrote this note, the sea was crashing against the sides of the ship. There were large bumps and bangs from below our cabin on Deck 2. We could hear the wind howling and the water crashing against our cabin window. All of this was coupled with the ship rolling and pitching in the storm.
It definitely looked like another very disturbed night.