Our first night in the Scotia Sea was very rough.
Trying to sleep was quite hard and we were grateful that housekeeping always made the sheets on the beds very tight!
The most memorable was the huge bump at about 3:15 am when everything shook and the shelves were cleared of everything on them.
Our expedition voyage on Hurtigruten’s MS Fram would take us from Ushuaia to Antarctica, to South Georgia, around the Falklands and then onto Montevideo.
Thursday March 2nd was our first full day on our passage through the Scotia Sea to South Georgia from Antarctica. The seas were rough and outside the wind made it very cold out on deck.
Breakfast was not as busy as usual and I kept my food intake down ‘just in case.’
The sea was rough and just as throughout the night there were times when the ship seemed to pause before racing down a wave. At these times I felt almost weightless then the ship would plunge down with a bump into the trough of the wave.
We went outside for some fresh air after our bumpy night. We called on Deck 4 to fill our thermos mugs with tea to take with us outside.
Back in our cabin we had been left an illustrated book about South Georgia published by the government there.
This is the view through our cabin window on Deck 3 as the waves were again crashing around our window.
The waves were reported to be between 4 and 5 meters. At times they were catching the ship at an angle.
I attended the re-run of yesterday’s lecture on the great whales and took the opportunity to sit and relax with a hot drink at the back of the theatre.
The next lecture was was about Shackleton, his life and his famous expedition that became stranded in ice.
Lunch was much better attended than breakfast and I settled for cheese macaroni followed by jello.
Out of the window I watched large icebergs pass by the ship. This is one passed by as were were having lunch.
After lunch we had a lecture on fur and elephant seals. This was especially useful as we would meet both on South Georgia. One interesting fact was that a fur seal could probably out run any of us over a short distance. A very good reason to keep your distance.
The expedition team will be there onshore and to ultimately protect us from the seals. It will be important to follow all their instructions for their safety as well as our own.
Fresh air time
Despite the weather I went outside at the stern on Deck 7 for an hour or more to get some fresh air.
The port side was more sheltered as the wind was blowing from the starboard side. The only downside of being outside was that the ship’s movements were really apparent.
Internet time
Every passenger on board MS Fram could have a free wi-fi connection for one hour. This was in a one hour shot so we prepared what we wanted to do with our Internet time in advance.
The connection was quick and I soon had uploaded the montage of photographs and the text for 5 postcards using the PostSnap iPhone app .
Next to be sent were some images using WhatsApp to as many friends as we could find online. We still had some time left and we used WhatsApp to call and talk to family members. The connection was that good.
The daily event bulletin board announced that our bridge visit would be on the next day. The main meetings would be our mandatory briefings about landings on South Georgia.
The second sitting for dinner was again sparsely attended. Our meal was salmon carpaccio, with a beef main course followed by a pavlova.
South Georgia is one time zone over from South America and the Falklands so everyone had to advance their watches one hour to be ready for our landings.
We closed our blind for the first time on the voyage so that we wouldn’t see the waves and spray against the window.