And with that we about turned and started returning to South America.
The night before I had preemptively taken a German reissentabletten which certainly helped to knock me out. We got the cabin ready to tackle to Drake passage again - promised to be a mild 4m swell.
Again, do not have much to report for this sea day. I remained dosed up and dozed up on the seasickness tablets supplied by the ship - my own failing to work. I was considerably better this time as I was better prepared: and knew not to try to move too much! I did manage to go to Aune for breakfast where they tried to put us right at the back by the window.
“Excuse me, can we please sit in the middle?” Our waiter looked a tad confused but led us to a high table. Everything was rolling. Upwards downwards sideways. In the kitchen on the other side of the wall came huge BANGS. Draws sliding open and slamming shut again? Meat being tenderised? I’ll never know.
Everyone was supposed to return their boots and gang patch today - I wasn’t able to stand up for any length of time so after breakfast Dan took our things down to level three. He kindly washed my boots as well as his own to make sure they were free of anything that could harm Antarctica.
Lunch was chips again.
While we ate, we gave the movies a go - there was quite a selection! It was freezing a bit, so Dan unplugged and replugged it and it worked well after that. We finished off 3000 years of longing. Interesting movie, think a lot was left on the cutting room floor.
We watched the disembarkation briefing from our room. It was a little chaotic, and after the fact i told Dan it reminded of this scene from Monty python:
“Now before I begin the lesson will those of you who are playing in the match this afternoon move your clothes down on to the lower peg immediately after lunch before you write your letter home, if you're not getting your hair cut, unless you've got a younger brother who is going out this weekend as the guest of another boy, in which case collect his note before lunch, put it in your letter after you've had your hair cut, and make sure he moves your clothes down onto the lower peg for you. Now...”
We worked out that we were bus 2, leaving at 7:50am for the 12pm flight out of Ushuaia. We needed to have our bags out by the lifts on our floor by 9pm on the last night.
Laying in bed, it could have been beneficial to have a seat belt. Or bed belt. The rocking would often go around in a circle, so if I was on my side my knee would press heavily into the bed, then I would have a feeling of weightlessness before I was almost rolled onto my back, and then a deep feeling of pressure as I was pushed back into the bed by the ship coming down the other side of the wave. On this journey, the waves caused the boat to smack down at the front regularly, and the whole ship would judder and shudder. Occasionally - stillness - but this didn’t last long before the whole roundabout process would start up again.
Stayed in bed until about 6:30pm, then pulled myself together to get some fresh air. I stumbled my way down to deck six and stood in the cold freezing air, gasping for breath with sea salt water splashing my face. Then started making my way up to level 9 for dinner. To do so, I stumbled my way up the level 6 corridor, and up a flight of stairs to collapse in a seat by the lift. There was a window but mercifully someone had designed a panel to go across exactly where the horizon was, so I couldn’t see it bucking and swaying. Dan went back to the room and got me an espresso (by the way, I don’t think I’ve mentioned just how much coffee machine coffee we imbibed on this trip! A couple every day! Milk came in a little sachet combined with sugar. Made great little macchiatos.). I found the coffee tended to help my seasickness for some reason, and I felt a little better. I sat here for a while before tackling the stairs to deck eight, and again collapsing in the chairs on this level. The swells were so large the lifts had been disabled.
This whole procedure to get to level 9 took about an hour and a half.
For dinner I tried the vegetable soup as I thought the broth would do me good (was tasty actually, the sirloin again (because I knew it was solid) and some blueberry sorbet for dessert to avoid dairy. On the neighbouring empty table, one giant swell caused the bread basket to launch off the table and deposit bread rolls at our feet, the poor waiters crawling around to collect them.
Meanwhile, dans butter knife went sliding off the table, and as I started to ask him where it had gone, mine followed suit. I think they’re still on the floor to this day!
I felt a little better with food in my belly so when we finished dinner we visited deck 10 and caught the end of the Tech talk with the engineers, captain and crew. Lots of questions about the engines and the batteries.
We were also told that the 4m swell prediction was a little off - they were closer to 7-8m. Ah. That explains it. Time to try to sleep again. I’m
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