Our official sitrep today said “Confused 5-6 metre swell”, noting that a sleepless night was had by all. I asked Karen and Louise the forecasters about “confused” and they confirmed that it is a technical term, meaning that the sea is, as you would guess, all over the shop. But it’s been quite beautiful up on the bridge – dramatic seas, several large icebergs, showers of sleet and hail, then the sun coming out. I saw a mantled albatross and some prions. I’ve signed up for iceberg monitoring because I thought it would be cool to learn how to use a sextant (never know when it might be handy), but it turns out we’re going to use the ship’s radar to do the estimates instead and now I have to be on the bridge at 7am each day… Seemed like a good idea at the time.

The food on board is really fantastic – with a huge array of choices at every meal and heaps of fresh fruit and vegetables – but the universal appeal of fat and starch was confirmed when the pizza and pasta night tonight brought everyone out of the woodwork and the queue went right through the mess and almost into the corridor. Now the only tricky thing is staying awake till 7.30pm for the alcohol ration… I must say that going to bed early with a book is looking pretty damned appealing. Perhaps I could auction off my two beer ration?

I was feeling very cocky about having my sea legs and told the incoming station leader Ali that I was going off my seasick tablets and she smiled knowingly and said ‘Yeah, I’ve done that and I always go down in a screaming heap’. So I think I’ll keep taking them and enjoying the illusion that I’m a hardened old salty.

Happy birthday to my sister Flick for tomorrow – hope it’s a great one Flick.

Love Jesse xx