South Georgia Voyage Notes -2 – Life on the Boat
“One hand for the Ship and one hand for yourself !” was a message that was initiated during the ship orientation and reiterated and re -emphasized over and over by the expedition leader Ted Cheeseman through the course of the Voyage . Why this was important became apparent almost immediately as we encountered a force 10 Gale ( 10 on a max scale of 12 ) as soon as we sailed out of Falklands . We had a  boat that lurched  side to side , rocking plates,  and rolling water bottles on the dining table, and in general, dislodging loose objects kept on Tables -conditions that made moving around in the ship and walking through the heavy doorways an extremely tricky task. The heavy metal construct of things like stairways etc in the ship meant that any fall could be potentially very serious. This being my first sea voyage and the fact that it was on the great southern ocean made it a sort of a trial by fire. Sea sickness was a real concern and after agonising over many options for medication after listening to a very informative talk on board by Dr Lynn Hoole, I decided to take the medication recommended by her as a preventive. Phenergan 25 mg knocked me out for sure and I was only woken up early morning to the huge rocking of the boat. Fortunately for both me and Varun, we did not suffer from sea sickness and we stopped the medication after 48 hours.
Food on the boat was simple but delicious and announcements by Michael, the Hotel Manager over the PA about meals immediately drew enthusiastic response form my ship mates! The cuisine always had vegetarian options and a healthy portion of fresh fruits and vegetables.
From a bird watching perspective, the boat offered great potential as the Albatrosses, Petrels and Prions (All antarctic sea birds ) invariably tended to follow the boat or fly by the side of the boat. Photographing the birds was a challenging task gave how much the ship was rocking and the fact that it was extremely windy and overcast for the most part of the voyage.However the time available on the ship gave so many opportunities to practice till we got good shots! The Wandering Albatrosses was clearly the most majestic bird in the lot with its graceful flight and massive size. The Giant Petrels and Cape Petrels were the most in number. The more challenging birds to photograph were the smaller Prions and Snow Petrels which fly very close to the surface of the water. Some of the interesting flight shot that I got from the Boat.