Crossing the Drake

It's been two days since leaving Punta Arenas, and as my mom said "oh my goodness you're in the middle of the ocean! there's no land anywhere near you!!!!".  Yeah, pretty much.  Lots of blue water.  Lots of wind.  Lots of waves.  Luckily, it was an easy crossing and we really didn't have that much rocking of the boat.  My seasickness patches kicked in enough to keep me from feeling ill (except for one time, but that quickly passed).  So yay meds!

Basically I've spent two days hanging out.  Which is nice-ish.  I know there's a lot of work ahead of me, though, so I just keep telling myself I'm resting up for that.  The ship is transporting people who will relieve the winter-over staff at Palmer Station, so they literally aren't doing anything but riding.  It's nice to have more people to talk to, though, and they're always watching a movie or hanging out and having a good time.  They're ready to get to Palmer Station, though, and get to work.

I'm not sure how to tell when we're "officially" out of the Drake Passage, but I'm pretty sure the moment I started seeing ice floating in the water meant I'd reached the Southern Ocean.  Someone can correct me on that, though.  But sea ice is pretty amazing.  Some of the ice chunks look like they came out of the fridge, others look like lily pads, and others look like atoll islands with some water in the middle.  I never expected them to be anything but white and solid blocks...so this is really neat to see.  Some are really blue / green, which apparently means they're fresh off a glacier.  I guess these will become more frequent as we get closer to the continent.  I'm beginning to feel like we're getting closer.  The wind is colder, the water is too (obviously, if there's ice forming out of it)...in the book I'm reading about an Australian's journey to Antarctica, he talks about feeling "the breath of the continent"...I completely agree.  And I'm ready to see it!

We're supposed to start sampling any time now, so that's exciting.  I'm still obsessed with all the sea ice around...it's really stunning.  I've heard about it and how it flows and moves and all that...but seeing it in person is just amazing.  I can't even think of the words to describe it, so I'll leave you with a bunch of pictures of it and see if that helps...