Rocking and Rolling

So far we have been at sea now for 6 days (23 Nov. 08). This is my first big ship voyage, I have been across the English Channel on the car ferry, but it is lame compared to this. We are currently sailing in the southern Ocean, or maybe the South Atlantic, a little hard to tell really and if the truth be known there is probably some random name of a sea that we sail through when not looking.

The ship has been doing some rocking and rolling. The swell seems to be 2-3m, which I am guessing is not real big at the moment, and I am expecting that the Drake Passage is going to be somewhat of a shock when we get there. That is the bit below Cape Horn off Sth America and has notoriously claimed many a ship over the centuries. Every meal so far the dining room has been full, there is 108 pax, 10 Peregrine staff, the 4 chefs, plus god knows how many Russians making this thing go forward and stay clean.

The Expedition Leader (EL) who job is stratospherically harder than anything I had to cope with, keeps expressing his surprise at the number of people turning up for meals, he was expecting more seasickness than we have had so far...but I am sure our time will come soon enough. The weather gods have been smiling so far.

Last night’s sleeping experience was somewhat of a challenge and everyone seemed to have similar stories at breakfast. Now, as you know I have been on plenty of overnight trains in Asia and thought that this experience would be somewhat similar...wrong! To give you some idea, the ship is lolling from side to side, at about 15 degrees on each big roll. Now imagine that my bunk is running across the ship. To help you imagine how it feels, think about laying on a see-saw. Then imagine the see-saw going up and down. Head up, roll, feet up, roll, head up...get the idea? I was sliding up and down the bed, but one lady told a story of her wearing a silk nightie, it sped up her journey up and down the bed due to the lack of friction. Unfortunately the rolling motion didn’t really help in the sleeping department.