February 16, 2006
Day 141
Antarctic Cruise Day 11
A group photo.
The Plan: Another day at sea.
This morning, we had our second lifeboat drill of the cruise. It was pretty boring, but required for all passengers. We had to put on our life jackets and stand outside the lifeboats as if it were a real emergency.
As soon as the drill ended, the scavenger hunt began. My team sung "American Pie" with pianist Bobby Reynolds, made a dance video at the Charleston, dressed up the statue in the back of the ship, got the captain's signature, and got the artist to draw us a picture, among other things. In lieu of the recent complaints about "us," we had to change the questionable items to be more agreeable with all potential observers. It has been fun, but several of the teams have fizzled out as interest weaned from the original exasperation when the idea was originally proposed.
Once again, it was a very relaxed day on the ship. I ate several huge meals, played some ping pong, and got somewhat caught up on sleep. The weather outside continued to get warmer.
Today's lectures:
Edward Wilson of The Antarctic with Chris Wilson -- Chris' great uncle Edward was part of Scott's expedition that reached the south pole a few weeks after Amundsen and tragically died 11 miles from their supply depot after being unable to move due to a terrible storm. Edward was a very interesting man well before the expedition with Scott. As a child, he would disappear all day to observe and draw nature. As an adult, he became an ornithologist and an expedition artist. He was the last of the great artists employed to document expeditions before photography became mainstream. Chris is a very intelligent man who seems to know everything about birds, and it appears that Edward shared a lot of the same personality traits.
The photo album for this entry is here.
