2/3-2/4 AT SEA

Well.  Yesterday was the calm day compared to last night.  As it turns out we encountered hurricane force winds last night, with swells reaching 36 feet.  According to the Captain, that was better than the 42 foot swells he was expecting.

He announced to us this morning that we would never have been able to go to the Falklands, since they experienced the same kind of weather that we had, and they were still experiencing it.  We were faring better.  We only have 16 foot swells now, and the winds are much softer now.  We have about force 4, gale winds.  As we travel further north things are getting better. 

The days are getting shorter, though.  Down in the Antarctic the days started at 4:30 and the sun set around 9:30, but the sky never got totally dark.  No chance for the southern lights.  Too bad, but kind of interesting.  Last night the sun set about 8:30 and this morning it rose at a late 5:30.  I know that is true, since, even though the pills work for keeping me feeling OK, they don’t negate the feeling of rocking and rolling you get in this kind of weather.  It is hard to stay asleep.

So, today, the 4th, we are taking it easy.  That means only bridge lessons and laundry.  We are actually taking time to read.  Wow, you would have thought we would be doing a lot of that, but we kept ourselves too busy.  I think we have finally realized that we need to pick and choose what we do or we will wear ourselves out.

As it turns out, we will not be getting to Buenos Aires early.  The Captain said yesterday that we would be able to get to BA a day early.  As it runs out, since he had to go over 100 miles out of our way to get around the worst of the storm (can you believe there was worse than hurricane force winds out there, oh my), we would not be in BA in time for an extra day.  As planned now, we arrive at 6am after 2 more sea days.  We arrive on the 7th and stay until 5pm on the 8th.  That is the plan today.  As we are quickly learning, the best laid plans……