January 24th, 2008

Aboard the Professor Multanovskiy
Approximately 58 degrees South, 63 degrees West, headed for the Shetland Islands January 24, 2008

We evacuated our heart attack victim and his son last night, transferring them to an Argentine pilot boat, that was to take them to an estancia, where an ambulance would meet them to take them to the hospital in Ushuaia. We then turned around and again headed south. All told, we lost about 22 hours.

The Drake Passage has been relatively calm since last night, allowing us to make good time, although we certainly won’t make up the lost 22 hours. The ship rocks and rolls, but between a little calmer ocean, a little experience rocking when the ship rocks, and another layer of drugs, we have had a good day. The sun was shining for most of the day and we spent a large part of the day on deck, watching for wildlife (we didn’t see much) and watching the ocean roll.

We also attended a talk on geology and one on the history of Antarctic exploration. Good, but not great. The lecturer on exploration is our expedition’s historian, and a second cousin of Sir Ernest Shackleton. He’s a tall, very fair Irishman and as such always has a joke or a story to tell.

The boat is comfortable, but certainly not a cruise ship. Every once in a while you stumble across one of the Russian sailors who crew the ship. They seem to do their best to simply be as invisible as possible. The housekeeping staff and the servers in the dining room are also Russian, and they know only enough English to stay out of trouble.

The Russians deserve credit, though. When we did our life boat drill right after leaving Ushuaia, we had in the life boat a young Russian officer who was able to read in very good English the instructions about what was on board the boat, that the boat was watertight even if we rolled, and that he was next going to start the engine. He did, then turned it off and announced the drill over. Very serious, very Russian.

All is well here, hope all is well at home.