3/10/2016 – Stabilizers are Failing! Shields Down to 78%! Evasive Maneuvers!
One hand for the ship. That’s the repeated advice from crew members and in the welcome binder. A free hand to steady oneself should the ship roll as a result of heavy seas or a sudden change in course (say, to avoid an iceberg or something). There’s a good reason for this advice – as we make our way through the Drake Passage this morning, we’re rocking and rolling like a perpetual motion machine modeled on a theme park swinging pirate ship ride. It started sure enough last night as I felt the motion of the ocean. I’m not seasick but I’m definitely feeling it.
I’ve been up for a few hours, grabbing a shower that required one hand for the ship and one hand for the soap. The bathroom is a flood-friendly single room of sink, toilet, and shower, with hand rails throughout to ensure stability. It was a unique experience trying to shower one handed. On the plus side, despite the water temps being super sensitive to the slightest movement of the faucet knob, it was warm and soothing.
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There is a reason there are seasick bags tucked into the hand railings of the hallways and stairwells. Fortunately, I haven’t had need of them so far. Touch wood, knock wood, etc. I hear the difference between touching wood and knocking wood is whether the culture embraces the notion of wood nymphs as lucky and advantageous or evil, mischievous creatures. You’re either trying to make friends or scare them off.
The PA system has just announced the 7:30 AM wakeup and to inform us that the winds are 16 knots with a gentle roll of the seas. The air temperature is 6.9 degrees Celsius and the sea is supposedly 6 degrees.
As I stumble about the ship, I’m not sure I agree with the “gentle” roll adjective. This is the reason Captain Jack Sparrow is always drinking his rum – perhaps drunk, I would walk a straight line. Marathon Tours should advise the Medoc Marathon as a training exercise for this adventure! Fortunately, I have run Medoc and am prepared to roll with the seas.
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Kevin’s Log – Supplemental – 8:45 AM
At breakfast this morning we were told this is an incredibly gentle roll on the seas… that this may be the smoothest the Drake Passage crossing has been in many a voyage for this crew of seasoned seamen and sea women. I hope that’s the case. I’m feeling a bit under slept, not sure if that’s due to a cumulative effect of early start times and restless nights or the surprisingly energy depleting efforts to roll with the ship. Regardless, I *thought* I slept well last night…
One quick note – I’m never sure if you should feed potential seasickness or starve it. I gather from Brooklyn (2015) and various other sources that contain oceanic travel featuring seasickness that the less food in the stomach the better. But I could’ve sworn I read somewhere that a solid base was the way to go to settle the stomach. I went with heavy but tasty pancakes this morning, some fruit, and a small bowl of cereal. The food, while presentation wise is a bit cafeteria buffet style, is quite good… and perhaps dangerous for a non-running runner.
I did sign up for the treadmill tonight at 6:30 PM, if only to say I’d done it. I figure I’ll walk it and just see what it’s like on the rolling seas. I’ve obviously used a treadmill as a last resort on Disney Cruise Line when the running deck is closed but it really is the worst way for me to get a run in. But when in Rome… or when in Antarctic waters…
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Kevin’s Log – Supplemental – 11:48 AM
I am kitted out. The crew split the ship into Port and Starboard side groups for ease of presentation. As Starboard, we started the morning getting outfitted for wetsuits and boots. We’ll be wearing these on excursions and getting in and out of the zodiacs. There will be many, many photos of us in this gear but I really wanted one of me amidst the storeroom of gear. A silly indulgence, an over-share of mundaneness, but it seemed in my head like this was a moment, a moment that needed to be documented. This, the beginning of the sailor man.
I finally figured out how to open the window in our cabin with a great deal of input from Meg. It’s a bit more than “righty-tighty, lefty loosey” but only because of a half twist and jibe ho befitting a sailing vessel.
Given our shared bathroom facility, I need to pitch to my neighbors the idea of not only knocking but announcing entering the bath with, “Prepare to Jibe! Jibe ho!” This is a long, long ago story but I was obsessed with this phrasing because I always thought the cry of a sail being released and moving was “Prepare to JIVE… Jive Ho!” I was heartbroken to learn I had misheard and been mispronouncing the command. To this day I still want to say, “Jive ho!” when I move. Maybe I will… once a malapropism takes hold, sometimes it subsumes the reality.
I crashed and burned thereafter though trying to grab a nap. But the wetsuit outfitting was being called by decks so every ten to fifteen minutes there was a PA announcement calling the next deck to the “mud room” for their fitting. It was a sleep by a thousand cuts of consciousness. I felt worse rather than better by the time it was out turn to swap with the Portside passengers and see a presentation on Penguins by crew expert Antje.
It was a PowerPoint presentation in the converted dining room and the gentle rocking of the ship coupled with a darkened, overly warm room made for a tough mental sit. Antje was a knowledgeable resource but I was struggling. I’ve forgotten much already but still here are a few notes that I scribbled down at some point:
- The Emperor Penguin is the southernmost breed, down in the Antarctica Peninsula. The northernmost breed is the Galapagos Penguins. Because of the wide swath of temperature inhabitations, penguins are sometimes known as the 100 degree birds, from the frozen South Pole to the warm equator.
- Penguin heads are the key to distinguishing between the species, which is about 17-20 species, all in the Southern Hemisphere.
- The Marconi Penguin, perhaps best exemplified by the Robin Williams character in Happy Feet, has the crazed yellow feathers on its head. As a result, I only just now learned the meaning of “macaroni” from the song “Yankee Doodle Dandy.”
Yankee Doodle went to town,
riding on a pony.
Stuck a feather in his hat
And called it macaroni!
“Macaroni” is a mid-18th Century slang term for a dandy or comically overdressed fashionista.
Things I never knew I didn’t really know.
Last thing I scribbled down involved the penguin predators:
- The Skua bird was hailed as the penguin’s worst nightmare.
- Leopard Seals are the jerks of the seal world — adorable but jerks.
- The biggest impact is climate change. Sixty percent of the penguin populations are listed as threatened, vulnerable, or endangered. In the last 50 years, the temperature has risen 2.5 degrees Celsius. A lot has happened. And from a purely statistical viewpoint, certain penguin species populations have benefited and some have lost big time. While we can’t say for sure what happens in the future, we need to acknowledge we are having an impact. Human kind has to take ownership and responsibility – if we as a species are okay with what we’re doing, we need to at a minimum be informed about what we are doing and what our actions are doing to the world we live in.
A little too kumbaya I suppose and I’m far from the raving ecologist but I whatever you believe in I think we all can agree that reducing our consumption, reusing items, and recycling can only be a positive thing. Conservation as a concept for ensuring more later isn’t radical – it’s practical.
I’m currently sitting in the bar lounge, desperately trying to avoid buying a Diet Coke as I’m hoping to limit my expenses and maximize my enjoyment. When the time comes for a Diet Coke, I want to snap a photo of me holding the can in the Antarctic. I’ll pace myself and grab one… but I do wonder if this cold turkey is going to backfire cataclysmically.
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Kevin’s Log – Supplemental – 7:07 PM
I had swapped treadmill times for 1:30 PM figuring I’d grab a quick lunch and then try and move for 30 minutes. But the lunch was a sit-down order thing, a choice of three entrees. It took a lot longer than I had anticipated and thus I lost my treadmill slot. Perhaps that’s all for the best – I’d hate to hurt myself before the marathon after all.
I wandered into an Introduction to Polar Photography seminar. It was a decent overview of general photographic considerations – f stops, ISO speeds, framing and composition. But the best part was something Liz said at the seminar’s end. She asked us to think about how we would fill in the blank on “Antarctica Is….” She said we should strive to take the one photograph that answers that question for us – “Antarctica is massive” might yield an iceberg shot; “Antarctica is intimate” could result in framing a pair of penguins.
I’m trying to decide what one word I might use to answer. What is Antarctica? Or perhaps I’m striving to find the answer to “What does Antarctica mean to me?” The existential “why.” Ultimately that’s what this is all about, isn’t it? Why do we do what we do? Why are we here? Why now? It’s something I need to really think about in the coming days. I may never know the definitive answer… but I may know the answer for now.
Struggling despite a catnap, and perhaps worried at the rumor that the Drake Passage was going to earn its reputation tonight starting around 6 PM, I broke down and treated myself to a Diet Coke. Would it help my headache? Would it provide the liquid courage to face what the Russian Captain has whispered to other passengers, “Bad winds from the west. By 6 o’clock you should be lying down… or you will be falling down.”
But I rallied in time to see the Antarctica Treaty System seminar. It did not disappoint as I thought it to be a very informative overview of the politics and history of 20th Century Antarctica. The continent itself is the size of the continental US and Mexico or roughly two times the size of Australia. Unlike the North Pole which can be reached by ship, there is no way any sailing vessel can reach the South Pole. It’s 1000 kilometers from Ushuaia to King George Island where we’ll be running, and 2000 km from Hobart Australia. Ninety percent of Antarctic tourists leave from Ushuaia.
The Heroic Age of discovery in Antarctica was in the early 20th Century. Amundsen was the first to reach the South Pole, having planted the Norwegian flag on December 14, 1911. Scott would follow a few months later… and die in his return over the highest, driest, coldest continent on Earth.
Since its discovery in the 18th/19th Century, Antarctica has never had a sovereign. To establish sovereignty, a nation must discover and effectively occupy the land which has never happened. As a result, Antarctica is governed under international law and specifically by treaty.
At present, seven countries have a claim on the land – Argentina, Chile, Australia, France, New Zealand, Norway, and Great Britain. Australia actually claims 42% of the continent. The claims are based on exploration or proximity (as in the case of Chile and Argentina). The US and Russia neither accept these claims nor stake their own despite having an equal ability to claim based on exploration. What has developed then is a Sector Principal, similar to the division of territory in Berlin after WWII. There are several overlapping claims involving the Chileans, Argentinians, and the British.
But rather than war, there’s a scientific spirit of cooperation in Antarctica, one that would behoove us all to be employed in various other regions. After a forward thinking gentleman (a name I have forgotten but history should hail) proposed a Polar Year of international cooperation and scientific sharing for the Year 1892-1893. It was repeated again in 1932-1933. And these polar years proved so successful that a third one was proposed for 1957-1958, billed as the International Geophysical Year and promised to promote a spirit of close cooperation in Antarctica.
At the close of 1958’s IGY, there were 40 country stations and Admiral Byrd hailed the close cooperation as leading to increased goodwill amongst the participating nations. Given this was the time of Sputnik and heightened cold war tensions, it’s astonishing that this was taking place. The year was such a success that 60 (!!) follow-up meetings occurred to discuss what would become the Antarctic Treaty that went into effect on June 23, 1961. It governed the land and ice south of 60 degrees latitude but the high seas would be subject to International Law. Twelve nations originally signed on to the treaty; today in 2016 there are 53 signatories representing over 80% of the world’s population.
There are two classes of membership – General Membership and the Consultative Parties. The latter must have a significant research component; it used to be a mandatory requirement to have a research base on Antarctica but these days it’s sufficient to show the research in other ways. The cynic/realist posits that the research bases are little more than political theater and perhaps unnecessary ones at that given the elegant wording of the treaty proper.
The language is concise and yet effective. There are only 14 articles and amongst those the highlights are:
Article I that states Antarctica shall be used for peaceful purposes only. This means there never has been and never will be nuclear weapons or nuclear waste dumping in the region. Recalling that this was negotiated at the height of cold war tensions, this is an amazing thing to see now let alone in print from that era.
Article II states that there is to be a freedom of research and a spirit of co-operation. That means all knowledge is to be shared and not horded; it’s meant to foster a global movement forward for science and not just for the benefit of the few.
And Article IV is the linchpin to everything. It essentially is a “we agree to disagree” article on sovereignty. IT maintains the status quo from 1959 with the seven nations laying claims to parts of the continent and other nations neither acknowledging those claims nor making their own. It also states that not action taken by any nation can enhance or diminish any claims to the continent. In effect, we all have agreed that though some people claim it, the land is universal and belongs to everyone or no one. There are still efforts by nations to increase their status and claim – Argentina famously sent pregnant women to the continent to have Antarctic Argentinian babies born there. But the wording of Article IV makes this all rather silly.
Outside of that treaty, there have been various compromises and protocols put forth for the implementation of such ideals. One such agreement is the Madrid Protocol which sets strict environmental protection for the pristine continent. Basically there’s to be only transitory impact by any tourists and detailed environmental studies by any efforts landing on the shores.
Sadly, though it would make for good political theater, there does not appear to be a way to take nations to court for global warming’s impact on Antarctica as violations of the Madrid Protocol. I would love to see that happen.
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Kevin’s Log – Supplemental – 8:56 PM
The boat is a rockin’! We’ve been advised that the winds have significantly picked up and we are going to really feel the boat moving around midnight. I’ve just popped another Dramamine and I don’t think I’m alone in doubling up.
We were told that the ship doesn’t receive weather reports on Antarctica; instead they just get wind reports.
Much like the old joke of opening a window to know what’s the weather, by opening any door or window to the outside you can get a weather report real fast here at sea. On top of that, I can tell you the winds are blowing given the swells and chop I’m feeling. I’m feeling swell despite the chop. So I take that as a win.
I’m going to try and stay up for the fireside chat on marine superstitions but I don’t know what the future holds. I have a treadmill slot booked for 6:30 AM tomorrow. Given the calories I’ve over-consumed on this ship, and the lack of running, I’m a little worried about what is happening to my health.
I went to a stretching class that turned out to prove why I’ve always kinda hated yoga. I just don’t know any of the terminology and cadences of the stretches and find trying to match verbal commands from a disembodied voice far afield to be nigh on impossible. Plus the whole breathing/aura thing feels fake to me, though I know many swear by it. I just hear mumbo jumbo that has me questioning not only what I’m doing right/wrong with the stretches but what I’m doing right/wrong with my life that I’m on some thin rubber mat that should be lining cupboards not supporting my admittedly poor posture induced humped back.
Speaking of poor choices, and of wasted calories, dinner was terrible tonight – one of the worst fish meals I’ve had in ages; worse than any frozen meal I’ve ever had. The dessert was nice though so I’ll include a pic of that here. Might as well go out on a sweet note.
