Spending the morning at Invercargill museum checking out their display of the sub Antarctic islands was a great way to start the trip learning a little more about the history and wildlife of the islands.
After a buffet lunch and bellies full we jumped on a bus to bluff where Akademik Shokalskiy was there waiting for us in all her glory all thoroughly checked for damage, refuelled, and restocked for another epic journey south – hopefully to not get stuck in the ice this time (although that wouldn’t be so bad, would add to the adventure). It was hard to imagine I was going to be on this boat for 1 month so I went exploring familiarising myself with everything.
This is the first time I have left New Zealand through a port which was a good feeling to be going into the unknown. The customs man came onboard and cleared us to depart where we were then escorted to the heads by a pilot boat with a paparazzi photographer who must have taken a few hundred photos of us –probably to use in the paper for a story of the Russians ship first voyage since the dramas in the ice.
A big high over Australia was causing a big low in the southern ocean creating some big rough seas so the captain set a heading of the Auckland islands skipping the snares islands until our return.
It was a surprisingly smooth trip for a few hours across Foveaux straight out past stewart island but as soon as we reached past the shelter of the island the waves built and built.
The extent of my experience on the open sea is very limited and I was glad I had taken the advice of the expedition leader and taken a sea sick pill before we left land as I hadn’t nearly expected the extent of what we experienced tonight. I spent a couple of hours on the bridge watching the waves grow and grow to over 3m crashing across the deck and rattling the boat from side to side. Everything not tied down ended up on the floor going from one side of the room to another. One of ships engineering cupboards fell open and bolts and tools went everywhere.
The trick when trying to stand still was to get your legs as far apart as possible and to hold on. I kept sliding up and down on my bed all night. After a few hours I found that to stop the movement you had to tuck the blanket right into the bed to hold you down. The boat rocked constantly from side to side and I would loose my stomach each time like that when you do a bungy jump, go paragliding or go on the free fall ride at rainbows end.
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