Drake Lake or the Drake Shake?

The Drake Passage (named after Sir Francis) is the stretch of ocean between the southern tip of South America and the northenmost point of Antarctica. There is no significant land  anywhere around the globe at this latitude, which makes for a huge volume of water, and the Drake Passage is the narrowest gap all that water must squeeze through. This results in one of the most turbulent areas of sea in the world. That said, at times it can be very calm and then it's called the Drake "Lake". 

There was a bit of a rolling motion overnight, but nothing too bad. I got up at 7am for the early risers breakfast in the Panorama lounge, only to find I was the only one there, so I bailed. I wasn't feeling 100%, but to be honest that may have had more to do with the number of glasses of champagne I drank yesterday rather than sea sickness. By 8am I was feeling well enough to go to the restaurant for a proper breakfast, while Denise opted to have a room service breakfast in the cabin. I sat with 3 Italian guys. One of them was really not doing to well on the sea-sickness front. I felt so sorry for the guy as it was his birthday.

Despite the fact that we will be spending the whole day at sea there's plenty to do on board. The first thing on the schedule for me was to spend some time exploring the ship and making sure I knew where everything was.

So let me give you a run down of the ship:  Silver Explorer is a purpose built expedition vessel with a 1A class ice rating (that's the strongest there is other than an ice breaker). Maximum guest capacity is 132, but many of the cabins only have a single occupant so there are only 123 passengers on this sailing. Crew is 120 - so it's virtually a 1:1 ratio of passengers to crew.
Despite the ship being compact, there are plenty of facilities on board. There are 5 passenger decks (decks 3 to 7). Our suite is midship on deck 3. Also on deck 3 is the reception area, the medical centre and the mud room (for getting in and out of those waterproof wellies and what not). On deck 4 is the boutique, where I already bought a stuffed penguin. Also on deck 4 is a small fitness centre with a sauna, the beauty salon, the launderette and the restaurant. I won't need to use the launderette directly though - as our butler comes to pick up our laundry bags every morning and delivers our cleaned stuff back to the room before 6pm. On deck 5 is the bridge. Denise and I will be trying to get a visit there sometime this week - the crew are very accommodating and visits to the bridge can be arranged at reception.  Also on deck 5 is the library and internet cafe (though there's no coffee on offer). There is wifi throughout the ship (free in our class of suite), so having brought my own laptop with me I'm probably not going to hang out in the library/internet cafe too much, unless I develop a sudden desire to read all the books about Shackleton. Deck 5 is rounded out with smokers' corner and the panorama lounge, where afternoon tea, evening cocktails and tapas is served. Deck 6 houses the theatre, where the various experts will be giving us presentations on the flora, fauna and history of Antarctica. The observation lounge is also on deck 6 - this is a good place to watch the view if you don't want to go out on deck and risk being blown away.  There is also a small outside deck area with the outdoor grill and 2 hot tubs. This area won't come into use until we reach calmer waters, but Denise and I definitely plan to check out those hot tubs!
Deck 7 is the view deck - all outside. Won't be going up there today though!