Hellooooo Drake! One hand to the Ship!

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After a great couple days in Ushuaia (pronounced without the h) we boarded the Expedition ship and set sail on the Beagle Channel about 6pm last night. When we got on the ship we headed to our cabins to get our luggage squared away and then up to the deck for some safety lessons. We were broken into 4 groups which will be our life boat team if anything were to go badly. The lifeboat is covered and has food to last for a week in the event of an emergency. We were also introduced to our full emersion suits which would make us look like red seal. The kayakers also will wear these so hoping to get a picture of them. :-)

This is a very international gathering of people which is awesome. There are a lot of single travelers so that didn't end up being a big deal to come alone. This is one of those places that takes a special kind of traveler so it turns out a lot of people couldn't find anyone else to go along for the ride so make friends here! A lot of people have made friends with people the traveled down with or met before we got on the ship. My little group that formed is a couple from San Fran, a girl from Washington State, another couple from Austin, and two guys from the UK. We have a great range of age but everyone is well traveled. Matt is only 20 and this will be his last continent! We look forward to seeing him do the polar plunge in a penguin onesie when we get to Antarctica. I shall do a feet dip...plunging, no way! Eeek, cold!

The Drake Passage...ah, the Drake. We headed out after a hurricane had gone through 24 hours before so were warned that we would hit some large swells. And we did! I used the motion sickness patch and didn't get sick but it's hard to sleep when things are rolling off shelves and YOU are trying not to join them on the floor! We hit a 9 on Beaufort Wind Scale that goes up to 12. 12 being hurricane force winds. Ours was slightly above a gale. It may seem strange but a lot of us are happy we got the real Drake experience. :-) Don't want to come home and say...we got a 2. Nope, we got a 9!!! Yay! Showering on the Drake is quite interesting as well. Tiny bathrooms and you are trying to lather up your hair while holding onto the support bar. All part of the adventure!

I went up to the Bridge when we got clearance that the swells weren't too bad and enjoyed checking out all the maps and instruments tracking our journey. It's really cool to learn about how they chart our path.

There is always something happening on the ship, and I keep trying to find a few hours to try to sleep since last night was unsuccessful but keep wanting to go to the lectures. I did a photography one this morning and popped into a bird one for a little while. This afternoon we're joining a program about data collection and then have a lecture about glaciers and icebergs.

For the BrainPOPpers reading this, Moby explored national park in Ushuaia and even stood at the end of the Pan-American Highway! I took pics of him but internet is very slow so can't send pics. Oh, he bobbled a LOT last night!!!

I also promised my friend Tracey that I would get a mascot and bring her along, so Moby has been hanging out with Tracey the Penguin from Chicago. The best part was when we were going around the park the whole bus knew who Moby and Tracey were and even questioned if I didn't take a picture at some points of interest.

The ship is small but plenty of room for our 130 passengers. Most of the crew is from the Phillipines and the G Adventures staff are from all over the world. They've all been fantastic.

I'll share more soon! Thanks to all of you for going on this little adventure with me!

Hugs from the Drake,Hope

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Photos

Expedition
The cute red ship is ours! The blue and white one turned out to be the one my Uncle Doug was traveling on! Small world!

Nausea prep!
Barf bags displayed around the ship.