Drake Passage

9th February 2018 DRAKE PASSAGEWe are welcomed to our first day in the Drake Passage by a sunnymorning, after a dreadful seasickness night for some of us.During the early hours of the day more canvas is added to the sailconfiguration, enjoying a few great sailing hours. Like this, by thetime we have breakfast we are braced sharp on Starboard tack and allSquare sails are set, together with the Fore Top Mast Staysail, InnerJib, Middle and Lower Staysails, with the exception of the Dekzbabber.Steering on a 165º course under general WSW winds of about 20kn we keepa speed between 5 to 6kn. Several showers strike us on our way, withtheir associated shifting winds and rain.The motion of the Europa keep many of us seasick or at the verge ofbeing, so during the morning just the people on watch wander around andstand on their positions steering the ship or doing the lookout.Eventually a few of us found a new best friend on the yellow bucketsdistributed for the seasickness purposes, accompanying us wherever we goaround the ship.The situation seems to gradually improve during the day, as we get usedto the watch system and slowly acclimatise to the ship’s movement. Butstill with the few people around in the morning we managed to take awayand furl all the square sails that were set, adapting to the 30ºwindshift experienced, in fact following the forecasted weather. Now itstarted blowing from a SW and SSW direction, almost at our nose. Enginesroar while we motorsail under the Spanker, Lower and Middle Staysailsplus both the Fore Top Mast Staysail and Inner Jib.The better conditions in the afternoon allowed Belén to give a talk on“Science on board” where she briefly explained the importance ofsupporting science in Antarctica and the role that Europa has as anopportunistic platform for wildlife data collection. This activityincludes location and pictures of the sighted species (birds and marinemammals) that can be used later on for photo identification projectslike “Happy Whale” and others. This research is important to understandbiological aspects of the species such as their migration patternsdistribution or abundance, but also for assessing human impacts andclimate change. Further she explains the use of the hydrophone and howto take acoustic recordings of wildlife during the voyage foreducational and scientific purposes. The main aim is to explore aboutthe mysterious and poorly known vocal sounds produced by the marinemammals in their Antarctic feeding grounds.Later on, during our daily meeting after diner, Captain Eric talkedabout the weather expected for the next hours (still SSW-ly windsbelonging to the back of a Low-Pressure system passing along betweenSouth America and Antarctica) and our 125nm progress during the lastday. At the moment still 350nm to cover until arrival to South ShetlandIslands, sailing through the treacherous waters of the Drake Passage.This famous stretch of water is named after the legendary andexperienced sailor Sir Francis Drake, born in Tavistock (Devon) sometimebetween 1541 and 1543. Amongst many adventures, his successfulcircumnavigation of the world during the years 1577 and 1580 ensuredthat he would be one of the best remembered figures of England.Eventhough some regarded him as a hero, he was distrusted and feared byothers, mostly the Spanish fleet as England was at war with them formuch of Drake's life. Understandable feeling as one of his assignmentswas to look for Spanish ships sailing back from their new conquests inSouth America. Extremely attractive catch as they were laden with goldand silver.Besides these belligerent activities, his world circumnavigation helpedto give a more accurate picture of the true geography of the planet.During the course of this voyage, he was blown out further South of theSouth American tip, thus discovering that Tierra del Fuego, the landseen to the south of the Magellan Strait, was not part of a southerncontinent as had been believed previously. Francis Fletcher, thechaplain on Drake's ship described it like this: “In passing along weplainly discovered that same Terra Australis to be no continent, butbroken islands and large passages amongst them...”This meant that the Pacific and the Atlantic oceans met at Cape Horn. Itshould be possible to sail ships around the bottom of South America.This was the Cape Horn route, eventually sailed by the Dutch Schoutenand Le Maire in 1616.