Monday, March 3, 2008

The dreaded Drake's Passage

As part of the Inspire Antarctica Expedition 2008, Robert Swan was going to live at the e-base at Bellingshausen station, for 2 weeks before the rest of the expedition arrived, and survive solely on renewable energy. The advance party arrived there yesterday and are trying to set up their home. Unfortunately, it's proving a little windy, and so things haven't gone quite to plan. However, they are there and they are broadcasting, so check out http://ebase.2041.com/ .

It's quite a good site - there's some photos of the team that are out there now, plus some film footage. It's quite amazing to think that they are there now, and in a week or so, I'll be there to join them!! I got really quite excited when I saw the film. It made it all a lot more real.

There were pictures, however, of Drake's Passage, which is notoriously rough, and it made me think about how I'm going to handle the sea sickness. I know for sure that I'll suffer, but how I deal with it is up to me. I can take some sea sickness tablets and know that I'll be pretty much knocked out for a couple of days, or I can grin and bear it, and suffer for a couple of days. I'm just not sure which direction to go in. I do have some of those sea sickness bands, but can't help thinking that they're for the occasional ferry crossing that might get a little bit lively, not for the roughest sea crossing known to man!!

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