February 22,

I didn’t awaken until 0800!!! Maybe a rocking ship is what I need! 😄 Jeff said he did not sleep as well, but not due to the ship’s movement, rather just it is what it is. Anyway, we readied and went to breakfast. I had a small bit of oatmeal, followed by a little amount of scrambled eggs with bacon and peppers. Jeff had cheeses with fruits, a roll, and some Muesli.

When we finished we went up to the Dome to see if there was anything to see. The skies seem to still be shrouding the yacht, making the palate of color mostly gray with shades of blue thrown in. The seas are not as bad as we thought and still blessed without any motion sickness. But, oh my – the wind. It howls in and through any crevice it finds, and that sound just chills one’s bones! We ended up talking with the lady from New Mexico, whom we have talked with some. She said her husband was feeling the motion of the boat, a bit peaked. Before we knew it was time for the first lecture. I went down to watch it. Jeff, still with a sore throat, went to our room to watch it on the TV.

The lecture, Oceans Apart Climate Connected, was given by Chad, our Expedition Leader. He strikes me as a well-grounded thinker. The basic takeaway for me was that humans have impacted and affected the climates of the earth…a bit- not as much as some lead us to believe, but some… as others “naysay”- we aren’t causing problems at all. Overall it seems the oceans moderate much control of the earth. He gave a reference of what his presentation was based from (which I did not catch- I will try to get it). I have been getting many resources I would like to investigate.

Anyway, I went back to our room. We decided to get room service for lunch. We ordered and shared a Double-double cheeseburger with fries and a peanut butter brownie. Both were excellent and hit the spot. The bun of the hamburger had the “Atlas” name branded in it- a nice touch and the brownie was so much better than the peanut butter dessert we had last night.

Next we did a Zoom conference with our church family back in the States. So grateful for technology. We think we were able to connect though Starlink. Whichever tech it was, we did greatly appreciate it. Then Jeff had a small siesta. I blogged some, and watched the sea swells as we bobbed up and down, and side to side a bit with them. It is not as bad as it could be, mind you, as our ship has stabilizers. Every once in a while a bird passes by. Crazy as we are so far from land. We wonder: where are they going?, how long have they been flying? Lots of questions, thinking along these lines!!

Then we went up to the Dome, and caught a few blow spouts from a couple of distant whales. At 1700, I went to a Lecture by Jan, Every Pirates Dream, William Dampier. He managed to go around the world in three voyages. It seemed to have been an incredible lifetime. Then I went back and joined Jeff in our room. We weren’t able to connect with my sister. So we watched the Briefing and Recap from our room. There were two mini lectures. 1st- Joaquin, on what knots measure- for ship’s speed and airplane’s speed. 2nd- Sara on Antarctica Glossary. Antarctica – opposite of the arctic. Desert-less than 10 inches of yearly rain. Then definitions of ice; ice sheets and ice shelf; sea ice; ice floe; brash ice; fast ice; glacier; calving; iceberg. Then followed the Briefing for tomorrow from Chad. After that finished we went back up to the Dome and watched some sun peaking below the clouds.

At 1930, we went down for supper. Tonight was special! We had signed up for dinner with Flor. There were three others as well. It was great eating as she shared her expertise on penguins, and even some on sea lions. She even talked of whales, killer whales, and branched to whale sharks- from her experience as a diver. It was great. We all talked about ourselves as well. We found out Flor is going to Rio in the time frame we are, due to a Shakira concert! Small world!! We had appetizers of Yellow Pepper Soup; Jamon Iberico Crema de Queso Manchego, which was Iberian Ham with Manchego Cream Cheese. For our mains: Miso-Glazed Salmon with a pineapple, corn sweet and sour sauce; and Venison Skewer with Tzatziki and lettuce, zucchini, onion side. Dessert was a shared one.

The evening ended with a Whatsapp with Jeffs sister and BIL. We’re going to be off the Antarctic peninsula  when we wake up in the morning!