11 December 2006,

by Ntsikelelo Ntshingila

We again had sleep for breakfast and none is bothered by the empty stomach cause lunch is pretty close to breakfast, 11:30 am in. It's 10:58 in the morning and we are at the upper level of the bar having a preparation meeting for our presentation which is at 3:15 pm today. We are putting our presentation in a powerpoint format as to make it easier to elaborate and explain our expedition to the rest of the crew(Expedition teams and the SANAP crew) So we decided that our team leader Thomas should do the presentation as he has already presented quite a few in the past and he is quite familiar with this. Amanda is putting all the information in the powerpoint programme.

It's very interesting what the other teams will be doing down to Antarctica, especially the presentation on invasion and what you take with you not knowing that you a transport medium for seeds and other organisms that may affect the ecological system of the Antarctica. There are alot of scientists who are involved in space studies(magnetosphere, ionosphere and the space weather) who did beautiful presentations. Our team did a more complex presentation of the activities planned for the international polar year and all the countries involved. The time is now 16:16 pm and I"m about to hit the gym again for the second time since I got on the boat. Tom and Adam are making means of updating the sights that were uploaded yesterday on the I-TASC and the Interpolar websites. Pierre had an open heart of letting us go on line using his connecting as much as we want but he made it clear that we had to pay him back for the usage of his connection.

11 de dezembro

by Amanda Rodrigues Alves

[Tudo em volta é mar. Faz 4 dias que não avistamos terra ou outro navio. 360 graus de imensidão azul. Hoje o dia amanheceu encoberto e com chuva. Mas o mar continua calmo. Estamos a 43 graus de latitude sul e nos aproximando de 0 grau longitude. Quando atingirmos este meridiano o seguiremos diretamente para o sul até chegarmos à Antártica.

Ontem fez bastante sol e passei a manhã no deck superior junto aos ornitólogos. Não vimos muita coisa ainda, alguns tipos de albatroz e outras aves marinhas mas nada em grandes quantidades. Os pássaros aparecem quase sempre solitários.

Não há muito o que fazer no barco, tudo é espera, expectativa. Sentimos ficar mais frio conforme avançamos mas seguimos lentamente. Somente a 20 km por hora. Deveremos avistar os primeiros iceberges entre amanhã e quarta. O balanço do mar nos deixa sonolentos. O dia passa entre refeições, sonecas e leitura.

Sem mais por hora.