Thursday 13th November

We finally got here. A slight scare at Heathrow airport nearly resulted
in my and Dylan’s early departure back to Dublin, as Dylan temporarily
lost his passport. A big thank you to British Airways staff,
particularly the lady who ran to get the passport where it had been
handed in, which was 30 minutes away from the departure lounge, to an
understanding Captain, and to luggage that was difficult to find!!!
We are now on the boat four days today it is pretty wild. We are sailing
in a storm… winds are 50 knots and increasing and it is 2.5 degrees ,
accounting for wind chill factor with a 10 meter swell(I’m getting into
the lingo). Birds follow the ship constantly as they are heading south
towards the Antarctic, such as the various species of Albatross-
wandering, black browed, sooty, greyheaded. We also saw Cape Petrels and
Wilson Petrels, Sheath bills. All of the birds are heading to the
Antarctic for the breeding season. So things are very hectic in the bird
world!
Over the past four days the students have been conducting visual
observations from various locations on the ships. The students are
scanning for cetaceans (whales, dolophins) and marine mammals. Using
binoculars and recording forms they conducted one hour sessions to date
they have seen one blow hole actually one blow from a whale to be exact!
Proving how difficult it is to spot theses large mammals. Although a few
passengers claim to have seen two Finn whales yesterday. According to
the scientist this ‘claim’ is open for debate as there was a large swell
making it difficult to identify individual species, and so the great
debate continues.
The stormy weather has meant that we can not walk out on deck in fact it
is difficult to walk around the boat. The boat rolled approx 30 degrees
from side to side. At times it was like you where on a Giant roller
coaster!!
The students worked all day on preparing a two minute commercial
demonstrating the impact of global warming.
The commercial was a great success, it was entertaining and effective.
At around 10pm the storm died down thankfully as there is a full moon
tonight and the sky is amazing, we could clearly see Venus and Jupiter,
the dual box and the southern cross., Sirius the brightest star in the
sky. Orion was upside down as was the order of Venus and Jupiter because
we are in the southern hemisphere. Myself and some of the students got
an astronomy lesson of David hence the detail.
Inside the boat the traverse team are preparing the gear they are
bringing to cross South Georgia. The students are conducting a project
which will analyse any weight loss. They are counting the amount of
calories that the team are bringing. It is all happening on the Ushuaia!

Finally, I just got word that FREDDIE T BEAR says a big hello to all the
Primary school pupils in Ballymun.
Bye for now
Anne

Friday 14th
We woke early at 6.30am this morning in order to prepare for the landing
of the traverse team first and then the rest of the passengers by Zodiac
boats.. The boat sailed into Haakon Bay which is on the Southwest coast
of the Island. The 16 members of the traverse team successfully landed
on Haakon beach at around 8am. Unfortunately, due to poor weather
conditions we could not land. It was hoped that later in the morning the
weather might improve and we would get the chance to on land. Looking
through binoculars I can see the team crossing a snow ridge. The boat
will remain in Haakon bay for six hours in order to ensure the safety of
the team. The weather conditions are deteriorating and we will not be
going on shore. The traverse team radioed back to say that they are safe
and gone beyond the point of no return with strong winds behind them.
The boat is now leaving the bay; there are chunks of ice burgs passing
us by. The colour of the sea is an amazing turquoise blue this is due to
the formation of ice crystals. Large branches of Kelp float anchored to
the sea bed adding to the beauty of it all. Snow capped mountains and
glaciated valleys; it’s an amazing place to be.

The conditions are as bad as Thursday if not worse and the boat is very
very rocky. There is very little to do as a result of the bad weather,
expect watch a movie if you can. Some people including myself, for the
first time on the trip are experiencing a slight bit of motion
sickness!!.
We hope to be in Salisbury Plain on the North western coast tomorrow
morning and if the weather holds out we hope to visit Prion Island which
is also in the Bay.

Bye for now
Anne