On watch duty
It's been five days since we've been on the ship and seven since we left Sydney (eight if you take account of the time difference). At the eight o'clock briefing we found out we've travelled 574 miles since leaving Ushuaia, the water is currently around two degrees celcius, and our first iceberg is about 4.5 miles away. Five days on a tall ship is an experience so far in itself. We've done climbing training, lookout training and helm training. We've also done some training in raising and lowering the sails. Pretty awesome really and we are learning a lot.
The first couple of days a large group of the ship fell to seasickness. Seth is over it now, but I think red cabbage will forever be his nemesis. As we are learning though, we also found out that the Drake Passage is one of the hardest to cross, if not the hardest in the world, so having a bit of seasickness is not unwarranted even for the most seasoned at this. Somehow I was spared, but my challenge has largely been exhaustion. I think the fresh sea air really hits me at times, but I am sleeping incredibly well.
While travelling from Ushuaia to our first landing (which is hopefully tomorrow, Desolation Island), they have divided us into three groups (blue, red, white) and put us all on watch duty. What that means is there are four shifts (2pm to 8pm, 8pm to 12am, 12am to 4am, and 4am to 8am) which the three groups cycle through. During these watch times we have two people on the lookout looking for icebergs, ships, whales, rocks or any other collision risk; two people on the helm steering the ship (yes, they let us steer); and the rest can be called on at any moment to help raise or lower sails. The watches generally have been
largely uneventful, occasionally unpleasant with rain, but good to clear your mind. They always seem over sooner than you think they should be.
I quite enjoy the lookout. Occasionally you see dolphins, almost always see a variety of birds, some others have seen whales. It can be quite humbling to think you are in the middle of an ocean somewhere where there is no one nearby except the people on the ship with you, and that it would be a very cold deep swim if you were to fall overboard. It's not clear to me which one Seth prefers more, but my money would be on the helm. He complains about it the most, which makes me thinks he likes it the most. We always seem to have trouble on changeover where the ship decides it will start altering course. Sometimes up to 30 degrees which is not the best when you have to keep the course within five degrees of the heading. Seth had the captain come out once when he was on the helm 'We are heading back to Ushuaia!'. The ship had swung 30 degrees within a minute of changeover.
On more dangerous matters, Seth took his life in his hands and shaved today on a rocking boat. He's alive and well. No visible wounds. I'm actually feeling quite comfortable with all of this, whilst some of the things we are doing are new and scary at times, I feel like my grandfather is around keeping an eye on both of us. I don't know if he ever sailed Antarctic waters, but he sailed quite a bit around the planet. Also there's a lot of joking and mirth on the boat so that tells me he's around regardless, which means my grandmother is looking after my Dad and my daughter. Seth and I miss her terribly. She'd be straight up the mast if she was here though. Maybe when she's a little older. That's as much as I have for now, as I have been attempting to write this I'm sliding from one side to the other of the lounge in the library. I think Seth is at the helm again! Hopefully we aren't going back to Ushuaia after five days!