What a morning. We woke up in Neko Bay surrounded by floating ice and glaciers. The sunshine reflecting on the glaciers made the blues even more spectacular. Little schools of penguins swam around us here and there, feeding in the cold Antarctic waters. Soon we'd find out just how cold they were.
And the good news--the race is ON! Flat waters, no wind, and at 9:00 we met at the gangway suited up to race. As we sat on the water before the start, we could look all around us at the majesty of our surroundings. Cold water, white and blue glaciers, penguins, the two ships at either end of our race course.
Today was more than twice as long as our prior course, going from the Vavilov to the Ioffe and back again. It was soon clear that Bruce and I were no match for the Vavilov team, but we gave it all we had. Three of them pulled away from us at the start, including my old friend Anita Allen. We gave a valiant chase, but at the half, two more of them caught up to me. Bruce was just a few yards up and losing a bit of steam as we went, but I kept yelling at him to encourage him and let him know where the other two guys were. I stayed with them but just couldn't pull back in front. Finally, I think Bruce was able to hold them off to claim 4th place. I finished in 7th out of 12.
On the way back to the ship, while we were still in our drysuits, we had a chance to jump overboard. Now, in spite of the drysuits, it was still COLD. Plus, around the end of the zipper my suit leaked just a little bit, so some of the near freezing salt water found its way to my feet, as well as a couple other important parts. We played in the water for only a couple minutes before getting pulled out. So, now I've been swimming in the Southern Ocean! Pretty amazing. Can't wait to see what happens next.
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