Millionaire internet
Things that are true:
- The only satellite that provides internet between New Zealand and Antarctica is usually only “switched on” when millionaires are in the area, and the tech boss didn’t think there were any fancy yachts around. But somehow we’re still getting access to that internet, so I guess they left the satellite switch flipped to “on”??
- We can’t hear the alarms in the cold rooms, so we have to check for people in the refrigerators when there’s an emergency
- There are more than 10,000 movies in the 02 lounge digital library
Things I wish were true:
- The towels have those cloth loops on them. The only hangars in our bathroom are little hooks right above the toilet and I don’t trust that situation
- This was a glass-bottom ship
- I were sure the front-load dryer door won’t slam into my face as the ship rocks
We are heading to Antarctica, even though we’re currently pointed northwest and have rounded the southern tip of New Zealand (https://www.marinetraffic.com/en/ais/home/shipid:426075/zoom:13). The captain said we should expect waves of storms to wash through the Southern Ocean west to east for the whole time we’re down here, so we’re trying to get more west while a storm passes south of us, and then we’ll head straight south through its back end before the next storm comes. Once we're near Antarctica we can hide in the ice if we need to.
🐬 Virginia (yesterday was a calm day and we saw dolphins! I'm going to try to send you a low-res video while we still have millionaire internet)
Take 2 with this map from yesterday- I don't think I made my point clear when I sent it. The red and blue lines are all known scientific expeditions around Antarctica by any scientific vessel that made their data public, through 2012. We are going the other way, where nobody goes- this is a really special expedition!