Day 9--The Great Escape

Here we are!

The procedure to make sure someone doesn’t have COVID is to test them, quarantine them, and then 24 hours later test them again.  If both tests are negative, you are (almost) free to go.  About 11:15 today, I received the second test.  About 1pm, we were told it was negative and to sit tight until someone came to get us (as they couldn’t clean our room until the negative test), and about 1:40pm, we were gathered by the nurse and brought to a decontamination room where someone told us to close our eyes, then sprayed something over us and told us to go take a shower.  FUN!

Lunch view...rough seas!

The rest of the day was spent with lunch (got there just before they closed), lectures (Seabirds and History of Antarctic Peninsula), briefing for tomorrow’s solar eclipse, and safety briefing on Sea Kayaking (Bill is planning to go, I am not), and Tea Time (got there just before they closed).  Apparently the next 2 days are going to be pretty bumpy!  We are already in the zone of totality (full eclipse) and are just hanging out here until early tomorrow morning.  The original plan was to go and take shelter behind the South Orkney Islands.  But, the latest weather forecasts show cloud cover and unpleasant swells and winds.  So, hanging out in the middle of 3-5 meter (9-16 foot) waves is how we roll!  Apparently, there are many other ships previously stationed near the South Orkney islands that have been departing and heading our direction – we can only presume they saw the same weather forecasts that our crew did.

Won't see much of the sky tomorrow. 
Heading to the (hopeful) opening!

Tea Time!  (Wow!  That's a lot of "tea"!)

Just chillin'!

Dinner was at the Italian restaurant, and then an early to bed, since the beginning of the eclipse is about 3:17am. (pix may follow?)

Tomorrow...