Albatros Expedition’s Ocean Victory
At 7:30 am, I was awoken by Emma announcing that breakfast was being served and the day’s schedule. After breakfast, staff would go to each room to administer a COVID test. Later in the day, a video would be live-streamed to our rooms about this history of the Antarctica Marathon, then a virtual meet and greet with the crew.
My Cabin on the Ocean Victory
As I shook the cobwebs out, I noticed that the seas were pretty choppy. During the morning announcement, Emma’s forecast was for smoother seas this afternoon, but we still had to endure 10-12 foot waves until then. I felt a LITTLE queasy and weak, but was not sure if this was due to the seas or because I had not eaten for twelve hours. Rather than chance anything, I decided to preemptively take Dramamine. Forty minutes later, I was in the bathroom throwing up. WTF?!?! Dramamine is supposed to PREVENT throwing up, not ENCOURAGE it! After throwing up, I felt like a million bucks and ready to conquer the world (or at least my cabin). I swore off Dramamine and promised myself that I would never use it again.
I waited 90 minutes for breakfast to arrive, and finally at 9:00 am I called the ship’s restaurant to make sure we were not overlooked. The guy said that it should arrive any at any. Ten minutes later, there was a knock at the door, and breakfast was here! I had scrambled eggs, oatmeal, yogurt, fresh fruit, and orange juice.
Around 10:00 am, the COVID test crew showed up. He gave us swabs and we had to collect our own samples. This was preferable to the experience I had two days ago at the hotel.
Outside, the waves were still rocking the boat quite a bit. Tom had a pretty bad case of seasickness. He did not eat any of his breakfast and just lay in bed not moving. I purchased 24 hours of wifi for $100. The good thing is that the 24 hours is not continuous – you start and stop it. If you forget to stop it and log out when you are done, the time keeps ticking. It is not sufficient to just disconnect. We were earned about this SEVERAL times, but I am sure somebody will forget to log out and merely disconnect (and be surprised when they have no internet time left). Twenty-four hours should provide ample time to be online during the trip.
Later that afternoon, we watched a video about the history of the Antarctica Marathon. Thom Gillian had recorded it during the first voyage and they replayed it for us. It was quite interesting how the race and the seven continents club came together. Apparently, after the first race, four people who did not know each other told Thom on separate occasions that they had had now completed a marathon on seven continents. That sparked the idea for the Seven Continents Club. He told us about the challenges of setting up the course (especially the first one when everybody was asking about the course and he had not established what it was yet), challenges of having ships cancel at the last minute, foreign politics, unauthorized people randomly landing on King George Island to run, one year where they had to run the marathon on the deck of the ship (442 laps on deck 5 or 365 laps on deck 6), one year where they had to cut the race short at 5 hours and 35 minutes because of incoming inclement weather (and fifteen people did not finish), and one year that sported 80 MPH winds and waves 50 feet high! The end result is that this IS an adventure marathon and you MUST accept what mother nature throws at you. He wants everybody to finish, but in the end, the call is up to the captain. If bad weather is coming in and the race must be stopped, then that is what happens – NO QUESTIONS ASKED. Safety is the number one priority for everybody.
Speaking of weather, Emma informed us that there was a small front moving through today, but it should be moved out by race morning, leaving us with temperatures in the low to mid-30s with 14-knot winds (16 MPH). While still windy by my standards, this is somewhat calm for down here. Sunday looks like a pretty good day for a race!
During normal times, the entire group of runners gathers in the mudroom to clean and disinfect their running shoes. There are very strict regulations about this because no foreign dirt or seeds should end up in Antarctica. They want to keep the environment as pristine as possible. Since COVID has changed our lives, the crew cleaned and sanitized the running shoes and put them in our lockers in the mudroom.
Lunch was served at noon. I had a cucumber/dill salad, shrimp quesadilla, and blueberry pie. Tom was still pretty sick and only ate his fruit plate. He has a bad headache but does not feel nauseous.
That afternoon we watched a live virtual meeting where the crew introduced themselves, where they were from (all over the world!!), and what their respective backgrounds were (geologists, marine biologists, etc).
Dinner was served around 6 pm. I had a Waldorf salad, pasta with mussels in white wine sauce (very tasty), and dessert.
The seas were definitely quite a bit smoother, but Tom was still not feeling well. All in all, this was a fairy boring day.