During the voyage to Snares Island we remained fairly lazy. In the late afternoon we held the 1995 UNO championships in our cabin. Scotland (i.e. John) were the clear victors taking the crown from England who had won (in the person of Barbara) last year. Following the UNO game we had a couple of games of Black Bitch - a NZ version of Black Maria. It was a good social occasion.
Earlier in the afternoon we spent some time on the top deck, the weather was very fine without a cloud in the sky (although the sea was still a little rough at times) while we were up there a small pod of dolphins swam past and gave us a short performance before moving along. Apart from the usual quota of albatrosses and petrels the dolphins were the only wildlife today.
The weather started to deteriorate again overnight and we did not get a lot of sleep as the ship pitched and rolled about. Another consequence was that we lost a good deal of time so that instead of arriving at Snares by 15:00 it was around 23:00 before we finally arrived. The plan was to stay in the vicinity overnight and to go Zodiac cruising at first light before moving on to Stewart Island.
When we awoke at 05:30 the weather was still bad, strong winds and thick fog, so it quickly became apparent that Zodiac cruising at Snares Island would not be possible. Barb and I got up and went up on deck to look for penguins at around 06:20, we soon saw many diving petrels and shearwaters. Shortly several penguins appeared (about 12 in all) mostly porpoising through the water. However, one was resting on the surface and we could clearly see the yellow crest. We are confident that these birds were Snares Island Penguins so we can at least say we have seen some in the water. We could see a lot of white dots on a slope on the island, Simon assured us these were penguins, but it would have been so much better if we could have seen them close up on the land. But that's life, the Southern Ocean seemed determined to throw its worst at us right to the bitter end.
The storm continued through most of the day, we spent most of the time in bed - the only safe place to be when the ship is rolling as much as 40º. Lunch was cancelled because of the rolling of the ship, the first and only time Karen was defeated by the weather. It was not until around 15:00 that we got into the lee of Stewart Island and the ship was stable enough to walk around with any safety. Even then the strong westerly wind meant that the ship leant to starboard by about 15º all the time. We took the opportunity of a relatively stable ship to have showers. There was however an unexpected complication. The ship was leaning to starboard but the drain was on the port side of the shower. We had to keep bailing out the shower water. Eventually the problem was so serious through the whole ship that the captain drove the ship round in circles for a while to let all the drains empty!
We had a farewell dinner and drinks this evening, we were both sad that the voyage was coming to an end but pleased that we would at last get away from the continual motion of the ship tomorrow. It has been very frustrating at times to be unable to do anything without falling over as the ship rolls so far. We shall remember the power of the Southern Ocean for a long time.
