February 10, 2016
Day 3 of our cruise and we’re in the Drake Passage–the body of water between South America and Antarctica–which is said to be home to the roughest seas on Earth. Unfortunately for us, the Drake is living up to its reputation. It’s hard to estimate wave heights, but I’m thinking they’re between 15 and 20 feet. Happily, the waves were higher earlier today, and things seem to be calming down a little now. Let’s hope so, ‘cause seasickness is no fun.
Though getting bounced around in the Drake isn’t much fun, the silver lining is that the Passage is home to some super-cool seabirds that often follow the ship. Here are pics of an albatross and a giant petrel that I took today.
Matt Lamanna, paleontologist and the principal dinosaur researcher at Carnegie Museum of Natural History in Pittsburgh, and his team of researchers, are sailing to Antarctica in search of dinosaur fossils. They blog daily on Twitter at @antarcticdinos.