Sir Francis Drake was not only an explorer, but was also an extremely successful pirate. \u00a0September 26th, 1580, Drake sailed into Plymouth England after completing a journey of 2 years and 10 months, with pirated treasures worth over 10 million dollars. \u00a0It was for this plundering that Queen Elizabeth knighted the wayward explorer!<\/div>\n

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IT’S A GULL !<\/h3>\n
Sailing South through Beagle Channel we left Tierra del Fuego bound for the Antarctic Peninsula. \u00a0We saw wandering albatrosses, \u00a0and many, many gulls, cape petrels and giant petrels.<\/p>\n
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Cape Petrels<\/h3>\n
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Would we discover the “Drake Lake” or the “Drake Shake” off the bow of our boat? \u00a0Sometimes the stickmen (“they say” – y’all quote them too) say the the Passage can be as smooth as a bab.. as smooth as glass. \u00a0Our official forecast from the bridge, was for “some movement of the boat… please secure your cabins…” \u00a0We cleared Beagle into open water around midnight. \u00a0It was not going to be the “Lake”.<\/p>\n
While the glassware in the bar and bath were thankfully snugged in their places, everything else was obeying one of Newton’s more important laws, and seeking it’s lowest possible point. \u00a0Thank goodness that the lid to the head was shut. Winnie and I would have surely lost our Rx meds, toothpaste, and brushes to the Neptune of the commode bowl. \u00a0Okay. \u00a0Maybe not exactly lose them.. they float?.. but you get the picture. \u00a0What woke us from our sound sleep… were drawers in the chest opening. \u00a0And closing. \u00a0And opening. \u00a0And closing. \u00a0Doors slamming. \u00a0Things falling off of our tabletops. \u00a0Things falling off the tabletops in the next cabins. \u00a0Colourful language from the Brits, Aussies, and Kiwis. \u00a0Colorful language from we Americans. \u00a0There are wonderful nuances there that make me yearn for a trip to New Zealand to pick up their accent and learn a new way to curse.<\/p>\n
What we had ahead of us for the next 100+ nautical miles were 40Kt winds from the WSW,<\/p>\n
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and moderate seas of 3-4m<\/h3>\n
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The seas were quartering a bit from starboard, so the boat not only pitched… it rolled. \u00a0The expression “One hand for the boat at all times” was becoming more and more apparent with each pitch and roll. \u00a0And having a shower? \u00a0Think of yourself standing with one foot on top of a basket ball in a moving vehicle while trying to soap\/rinse\/repeat\/wipe hands on pants.<\/p>\n
On the plus side, though…Yum. \u00a0Breakfast is going to be wide open in the morning.<\/p>\n
&nbsp<\/iframe><\/p>\nAfter we re-secured our stuff, we slept wonderfully, rocked to sleep… down, left, up, right, down, left, up, right… by Drake.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n“Some of us are over the seasick stage and no longer want to die.” \u00a0<\/i>Hartford after 10 days on the ‘Nimrod’ with Shackleton in 1907.<\/p>\nTomorrow morning, after breakfast with plenty of elbow room… a bio-security briefing, followed by a zodiac briefing. \u00a0I think that we’re going to be going ashore on the South Shetland Islands by afternoon!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Drake Passage Sir Francis Drake was not only an explorer, but was also an extremely successful pirate. \u00a0September 26th, 1580, Drake sailed into Plymouth England after completing a journey of 2 years and 10 months, with pirated treasures worth over 10 million dollars. \u00a0It was for this plundering that Queen Elizabeth knighted the wayward explorer! … <\/p>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/timdurhamphotography.com\/6883-2\/\" class=\"more-link\">Read more “ANTARCTICA – Drake Passage”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[64,8,9,36],"tags":[93,92],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/timdurhamphotography.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6883"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/timdurhamphotography.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/timdurhamphotography.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/timdurhamphotography.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/timdurhamphotography.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6883"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"http:\/\/timdurhamphotography.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6883\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6896,"href":"http:\/\/timdurhamphotography.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6883\/revisions\/6896"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/timdurhamphotography.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6883"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/timdurhamphotography.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6883"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/timdurhamphotography.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6883"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}

IT’S A GULL !<\/h3>\nSailing South through Beagle Channel we left Tierra del Fuego bound for the Antarctic Peninsula. \u00a0We saw wandering albatrosses, \u00a0and many, many gulls, cape petrels and giant petrels.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

IT’S A GULL !<\/h3>\n
Sailing South through Beagle Channel we left Tierra del Fuego bound for the Antarctic Peninsula. \u00a0We saw wandering albatrosses, \u00a0and many, many gulls, cape petrels and giant petrels.<\/p>\n
$\"\"$ <\/p>\n