At Sea
It’s our second day at sea on our way to South Georgia. We still have good weather with a bit more swell today but still very comfortable. There are lots of seabirds around the ship, Wandering albatross and Antarctic prions mostly, but we have caught glimpses of a White-chinned petrel now and again. The guest have been invited up to bridge and everyone has been getting their turn sitting in the captain’s chair after being told NOT to press the big button. There actually is a big red button. I’ve been telling people it’s the SCRAM button that shuts down the reactor.
The usual “sea day” blahs seem to have set in. When you’re primed to drive Zodiacs and have fun out on the waves, the hours wandering around the ship can be monotonous. No amount of coffee seems to wake you up and you find yourself eating too little or too much. Your immunities tend to suffer as well without the constant adrenaline and before long “the dreaded lurgy” starts to spread. At the very least everyone starts to drag a bit and disappear into their cabins.
Tomorrow is Christmas Eve and even though it’s just another operational day for us, I’ve put together a Christmas sing-a-long for tomorrow evening after dinner. I’ve kept it secular except for my favourite, “Silent Night”. We have many German speakers on the ship so I’m hoping they will lead us in at least one verse of the original German, “Stille Nacht”.
We’ll be out in the Zodiacs first thing in the morning although we’re not sure where. We’ll be in the north-west of South Georgia and there are plenty of beautiful places to visit. There have been some site closures due to avian flu so we’ll just have to wait until tonight’s briefing to see what our EL has planned.
About the only thing to see out here, other than the birds, is Shag Rocks, a few guano-splattered rocks that stick out of the ocean two hundred and forty kilometers west of South Georgia. It’s always possible to see whales feeding around this area so hopefully we’ll get lucky.
Here’s an old instrumental from my Surrender CD, one that Shawn Pitzel and I were very proud of back when we produced it. The mood of this piece is speaking to me today.