We check in to our boat, the Antarctic Dream late in the afternoon and are pleasantly surprised our cabin is a comfortable size. One of the first things we notice when we arrive at the communal dining room is that the tables and chairs are chained to the floor... hmm things could get a little rough. As soon as we’ve had our first meal on board (dinner) we leave the protected waters of the Beagle Channel and head out to the infamous Drake Passage. Watching the waiters holding their trays full of plates and cutlery is like watching the Circ de Soleil. We marvel at their balance.
After dinner, the rising feeling of seasickness leads us to retire to our cabin. We spend the first night rolling back and forth and the next day are very tired and nauseous despite taking plenty of medication. Breakfast is a quick affair as watching the rolling 3-4m waves heave our boat around do little to settle the stomach. It’s straight back to the cabin and we end up getting sandwiches sent down for lunch and miss two of the lectures on the Antarctic continent. We find out later that only about 6 out of the 75 passengers on board made it to lunch on Friday with about 20 making it on Saturday. We get up the strength to make it to one lecture about the birds and Penguins but focusing on a big screen for 30 minutes takes a monumental effort as the ship lurches about.
We make a toast on Saturday night (30th January) when we see our first iceberg whilst having dinner in calmer waters. Later in the evening, after dinner we go to the outside deck and watch as the moon rises over the horizon on our left and the sun sets on our right .... a breathtaking spectacle in the crisp Antarctic air. It’s also a better chance to meet some of our fellow passengers now that we are all a little less green and it looks like we’ve got a good bunch with a mix of people of all ages from 19 different countries.
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