Drake Passage
During the night, we left the relatively protected waters of the Beagle Channel and entered the notorious and often dreaded Drake Passage. This stretch of open sea, named after English explorer and buccaneer Sir Francis Drake, is infamous for its terrific winds and rough seas. But we lucked out. The winds were on our stern helping to push us along toward Antarctica, while the National Geographic Endeavour’s computerized stabilizers and deep draft smoothed out the swells.
Most of the day, a variety of seabirds, including wandering, royal, black-browed and grey-headed albatrosses, pintado petrels, giant petrels, and several smaller petrel species glided alongside, giving us great views and challenging the photographers. Watching these sharp-winged denizens of the south swoop and wheel above the waves was mesmerizing.
In the afternoon, we heard from several of the expedition staff members. I gave a short talk about using digital cameras, including what is a histogram to get the proper exposure in this difficult light. Then David Cothran helped us get a handle on the geologic assembly of the Antarctica continent...a fascinating story of subduction, eruptions, and drifting terranes that cover nearly 4 billion years of earth history. And from Steve MacLean, we learned how wind and sea currents make the southern ocean so biologically productive. He told us about the conflict of warm, more saline waters from the tropics meeting the colder, denser, and mainly non-saline waters moving north from the Antarctic. This clash is known as the Antarctic Convergence, a place rich in plankton, which nourishes huge numbers of sea birds and marine mammals.
With the sea conditions being so good, we are expecting to be out of the Drake tomorrow and making a highly anticipated landing in the South Shetland Islands.
During the night, we left the relatively protected waters of the Beagle Channel and entered the notorious and often dreaded Drake Passage. This stretch of open sea, named after English explorer and buccaneer Sir Francis Drake, is infamous for its terrific winds and rough seas. But we lucked out. The winds were on our stern helping to push us along toward Antarctica, while the National Geographic Endeavour’s computerized stabilizers and deep draft smoothed out the swells.
Most of the day, a variety of seabirds, including wandering, royal, black-browed and grey-headed albatrosses, pintado petrels, giant petrels, and several smaller petrel species glided alongside, giving us great views and challenging the photographers. Watching these sharp-winged denizens of the south swoop and wheel above the waves was mesmerizing.
In the afternoon, we heard from several of the expedition staff members. I gave a short talk about using digital cameras, including what is a histogram to get the proper exposure in this difficult light. Then David Cothran helped us get a handle on the geologic assembly of the Antarctica continent...a fascinating story of subduction, eruptions, and drifting terranes that cover nearly 4 billion years of earth history. And from Steve MacLean, we learned how wind and sea currents make the southern ocean so biologically productive. He told us about the conflict of warm, more saline waters from the tropics meeting the colder, denser, and mainly non-saline waters moving north from the Antarctic. This clash is known as the Antarctic Convergence, a place rich in plankton, which nourishes huge numbers of sea birds and marine mammals.
With the sea conditions being so good, we are expecting to be out of the Drake tomorrow and making a highly anticipated landing in the South Shetland Islands.
