DAY ONE - 02 13 2013 - Preparing to Embark

Our trip from the port in Ushuaia could not have started better - with sunny a sky, nice clouds and no wind.  We are hoping that the Drake Passage is this kind to us!

The fire drill. Yikes!

Day One was fairly uneventful.  We didn't board the ship until 16:00 hours (or 4:00 pm).  Apparently, they only use military time aboard the Fram.  We received an itinerary as soon as we got settled into our rooms. Today, all that was planned for us was a fire drill, an informal dinner buffet and a welcome meeting.  The rest of the time we could do with as we please.  We discovered that the ship had a gym, Internet access (via satellite), a few lounge areas, a bar, a ping pong table (should be interesting) and lots of places to go outside to view the scenery.  We also received our wind and waterproof jackets for the various excursions and tried on our muck boots for the wet landings (we'll talk about those later). 

Lounging in the lounge with our
cool new jackets!

During the welcome meeting, we were introduced to the ship's captain, Arild Harvik and his officers.  We were also introduced to our expedition and science team who would, during our first two days traversing the dreaded Drake Passage, present various topics and lectures regarding Antarctica.  They will also be leading us on all of the shore landings. Our expedition and science team came from various countries and consisted of the following incredible people:

1. Karin Strand of Norway, Expedition Leader. 
2. Corinna Skindo of Norway, Assistant Expedition Leader. 
3. Frederike Bronny of Germany, Geo Sciences and Biology.  Frederike is an academically qualified geographer. 
4. Andrew Wenzel of Canada, Naturalist and Photography, specializing in whales. 
5. Tomas Zadrozny of Poland, Antarctic Biologist.  Tomas also discovered a new island and channel in Antarctica in February 2003.
6. Manuel Marin of Chile, Ornithologist, specializing in neotropical birds.
7. Francis Wiese of USA (Alaska), Marine Ecologist.  Francis is also the Science Director for the North Pacific Research Board where he designs and implements marine ecosystems and climate change related research studies in the North Pacific, Bering Sea and the Arctic Ocean.
8. Rudolf Thomann of Germany, Botanist.
9. Nick Cobbing of Norway (formerly UK), photographer, specializing in arctic photography.  Nick has been published in National Geographic, Mare and Science Illustrated. He is best known for photo stories about glaciers, sea ice and ocean acidification.  He has also contributed to the BBC Frozen Planet series.  You can see some of his work at www.nickcobbing.co.uk
10. Julia Douglas of USA (Hawaii), student majoring in Botany and Literature.

After meeting our expedition and science team, we were split into 7 groups of 32.  Our group is GROUP 3.  It is a very interesting group with people from USA, Sweden, Holland, and Australia.  During our flight to Ushuaia, we met a journalist who was also going on our trip to Antarctica, Matthijs Meeuwsen.  Matthijs is a freelance journalist from Holland who was sent on this adventure to write an article.  We also met Daniel Andreas Ohlsson of Sweden, who is a photo-journalist.  He is also here on an assignment, having just returned from the North Pole! We were glad to see that they are both in our group.

After the meeting, we socialized with the expedition team and other guests before going to bed.  We knew that when we woke up the next morning we would be in the dreaded Drake Passage heading to Antarctica.