From the National Geographic Explorer in Antarctica
Nov 30, 2012 - National Geographic Explorer
At sea in the Drake Passage
We are making great speed during our crossing of the Drake Passage with fairly calm conditions. It was a busy day and we had a chance to hear several presentations. In the morning, the photo team told us all about how to use our cameras to best way to capture the beauty of Antarctica. Then there was a chance to explore the ship and visit the bridge.
In the afternoon, Magnus Forsburg gave a presentation about the seabirds of the Southern Ocean. We learned about all the birds that have been following National Geographic Explorer all day. The most common one was the cape petrel, a beautiful brown bird with splashes of white across its wings. It nests in the rocky islands along the Antarctic Peninsula and we should see this bird throughout the trip. We also saw southern giant petrels and the stunning light-mantled sooty albatross. It was a fantastic opportunity to also try to photo the birds as they zoomed on by.
In the late afternoon we attended an important briefing about guidelines and regulations for our visits ashore. You could feel everyone’s excitement building in the lounge as our fearless expedition leader, Lisa Kelly, told us that due to the great sailing conditions, we hoped to have our first landing tomorrow morning!
About the Author
Stephanie Martin·Naturalist
Stephanie is a marine mammal scientist who began her career studying finback and humpback whales from a small isolated lighthouse island off the coast of Bar Harbor, Maine. This project—an effort to identify individual whales by matching dorsal fin shapes, natural color patterns and any acquired scars—sought to catalog all the mammals that populate the waters from the Gulf of St. Lawrence to the New York Bight.
