At sea: That non-drowsy drowsiness

At about 7:30 this morning, the announcement came for breakfast. Though I had been asleep for 12 hours at that point, it was still felt like waking up from out of a coma. The previous night the chicks of room 341 took a meclizine social before dinner as we headed out to rough seas, and were down for the count. You might know this as the 'non-drowsy' Dramamine, but our experience proved otherwise. We were in and out of sleep until about 3:00 or 4:00 pm that afternoon, making it a 20-hour marathon of 'non-drowsy'drowsiness. In between we occasionally tried to get up for a meal or one of the lectures, and even have vague recollections of talks concerning pinnipeds and ice. But sleep was the theme. And yet another drug checked off the list - good thing we brought that pharmacy! I went drug-free the rest of the day while the other ladies re-doped and closed their eyes. I passed the evening with dinner, another one of Expedition Leader Dave's 'fireside chats' in the lounge about exploration in the South Orkney Islands (so there was no fire, but his talks just had that easy feel), and drinks with the staff. Never a dull day, even when doped up to the max.