Tuesday, December 18It was Monday evening, and we were entering the Drake.
We were 800 miles away from Argentina, and ahead of us laid the stormies waters on Earth. On the way down we lucked out with the "Drake Lake", but now we were about to feel the full fury of the "Drake Shake".
And just too add another fun twist, it was now the 9th of Teves - in a few hours the fast of the 10th of Teves will begin. Due to our southerly latitude and the lack of a halachik night, what is normally the shortest fast of the year will now take a whooping 25 hours - from 1am to 1am. Most people had asked their Rabbis how to handle this fast, and while "two Jews, three opinions" remained as true as ever, most people were told to break the fast if they felt they had to.
From mine and Dan's end, we had to make sure that everyone is covered. We catered a regular dinner Monday evening, a light before-the-fast meal around midnight, regular breakfast, lunch, and dinner on Tuesday for those not fasting, and finally a breaking-the-fast meal at 1am for those who made it all the way.
As the sun went down and Monday drew to a close, the wind picked up and the waves began battering the ship. The captain announced a forecast of 40mph winds and 23-foot waves, and ordered loose items stored, all windward decks and walkways closed, and the elevators and bridge shut. We quite literally battened down the hatches and settled down to wait it out.
Here's what we had for the next 24 hours:
Towards sunset part of our group gathered in the Bistro lounge, where the view out the windows went from sky to ocean to sky to ocean and on and on and on. The ship was bucking up and down in a slow, repetitive motion, over and over and over again.
After an hour or so we lost the shelter of the Antarctic islands and a little bit after that the mountain peaks dropped beneath the horizon. We were now in the open waters of the Drake and the movement of the ship became more erratic, being buffeted about by the raw winds in addition to the waves.
As it got later, more and more people filtered into the Bistro, had a light meal, and, once the clock struck 1am... davened Shachris and went to bed.
I slept pretty well, and woke up to a malstrom going on outside my cabin window. Waves were battering right at the window, and the ship was rocking in all directions. I went to the dining room to have some breakfast, but I was one of the few who even tried - most people just stayed in bed.
The morning was the worst as far as the shake went, but as the day wore on the waves slowly diminished. Every few hours the captain would come on the PA and give us an update, and his reports slowly but surely went from 7 meter waves, to 5-6, to 4-5, and so on. However, for me at least, I felt worse as it got later. Apparently the smaller waves didn't offset the fact that my body was getting hammered hour after hour. I spent most of the day resting and relaxing in my cabin, moving from bed to couch and couch to bed. I spent a fair amount of time hugging the toilet (Dan's words, not mine), but only actually threw up once.
I didn't spend much time socializing, but as I learned later the rest of the group had very varied reactions. There was one person who claimed they barely even noticed anything, one person who didn't get out of bed for 24 hours, and just about everything in between. The ship's doctor went around doing house calls and giving meds to those who wanted, and all in all it was a very strange day.
In the end, 15 out of 51 people in our group successfully completed the fast.
By the time the fast ended, the weather had calmed down dramatically and more closely resembled the Drake on the way down. I found it interesting that as soon as the seas calmed the vast majority of passengers immediately felt better. By the next day many people actually felt it had been an excellent adventure, and yet another exciting part of the Antarctic experience.
We were still due south of Cape Horn, but also too far north at this point to daven Shachris before bed - our wacky zmanim were quickly returning to normal. Clearly we were getting closer to civilization.