Tuesday, December 11, 2007

I am back! After one week of sorting things out, I have managed to get on board the Polar Star. She is a beautiful ship - an icebreaker actually, so I feel very safe. An icebreaker means that we have a 2-inch hull. That is very thick. This ship is designed to break through the sea ice. I’m not sure if we are going to be far enough south to need that capability, but it is nice to know we have it.

We are in our second day of the Drake Passage and making very good time. The seas were a little rough on the first day and I found myself seasick, so I spent most of the day trying not to move around much. This ship rolls a lot more than the Clipper Adventurer. Today, however, I woke up feeling refreshed. We have had many birds following the ship, including a lot of Black-browed Albatross and Cape Petrels. We’ve even seen a few Wandering Albatross, which have a wingspan of up to 142 inches. Get a string and measure that out and you will see just how huge these beautiful creatures are. It is amazing! Our position as of 7:30 am this morning was 60 33.91’ S 64 21.03’ W. If you have a chart or map, I’ll continue to send coordinates and you can track my course. You can also track my ship in "real time" at the following website:

http://map.gmn-usa.com/cgi-bin/frameup.pl?user=polarstar&fleet=iaato&password=ushuaia

(There is a permanent link to this site on the top left of the blog, so you can check it whenever you'd like).

The Polar Star is the same size as the Clipper Adventurer (100 meters), but carries less people. Including expedition staff, we are just around 100 people. They have a smaller crew of about 35 and things are less formal. The food has been great so far and the passengers are very interesting and from all over the world. The expedition staff on this ship is also from all over the world. I am the only expedition staff member from the USA.

Today it has been snowing on and off, but when it is not snowing, it has been sunny. The seas have calmed down from yesterday so we are making good time. We should start to see icebergs soon! I’ll try and get a photo of my first iceberg sighting and post it here for you.