SOME ship crews call it the "Drake Lake", but most know it as the "Drake Shake". The 500-mile stretch of southern ocean separating Argentina's Tierra del Fuego from Antarctica has a fearsome reputation, so fearsome that even the best sea legs can buckle when the barometer's needle starts to fall.
Fortunately for the Professor Molchanov, the Russian ship bearing a 23-foot Irish-built lifeboat to its launching point far south, the passage has been nothing like that experienced by the little craft's crew on its advance journey a few days before.
Whereas even Paddy Barry, co-skipper of the South Aris Antarctic adventure, admitted cheerfully to losing a few dinners, Jamie Young, a later arrival, hasn't had a horizontal day yet, having volunteered to escort the Tom Crean on the Professor Molchanov to its launching point on King George Island.
The emphasis is on "yet". For even as The Irish Times writes from this Russian vessel halfway between Argentina and Antarctica, a daunting weather system approaches from the south-west.
Sergey Gorbunov, the ship's radio operator, raised his eyebrows at yesterday's weather fax, dispatched to the ship by the Chilean navy. A series of low-pressure bands have strengthened considerably over 12 hours. In Antarctic waters, it is what one learns to expect.
Such low pressure systems "explode" regularly out of the Bellinghausen Sound, the Australian mountaineer and Antarctic guide, Greg Mortimer, explained.
Mortimer, who is leading a group of Sydney University students to the white continent this week on the Professor Molchanov, has been travelling south since 1991. He was on board when the Soviet hammer-and-sickle was torn down by the ship's captain off Half Moon Island that same year. He was also on board when the vessel's ribs were buckled in a Force 11 wind.
The Professor Molchanov's captain, Vitaly Repin, from Murmansk, has witnessed most of what this region has to offer. Built in Finland, his ship was originally a meteorological research station in the Arctic, until the need for hard currency called. So what does he think of this venture to recreate the Shackleton rescue of 1916?
"It's great," he said yesterday. "Its participants are not crazy they are just Irish." And if he could afford the time and money, he would also like to sail the 800 miles from Elephant Island to South Georgia.
Waiting for the Tom Crean delivery on King George Island, the mouth Aris crew had been champing at the bit. Protocol prevented the expedition from going ashore on the Antarctic island when it arrived in its rescue yacht, the Pelagic, at the weekend. Movements were limited on Monday to visiting an Argentinian research base.
Undeterred, the crew had a cocktail party, made pancakes and swore faithfully over the high-frequency radio that there had not been any rows. "They are all just picking on me," wailed Mayoman Jarlath Cunnane, adding that he was looking forward to passing on the mantle to a "new victim" when The Irish Times arrived.
Feeling somewhat guilty is Jamie Young, director of Killary Lodge adventure training centre on the Galway-Mayo border. Life on board the 71-metre Professor Molchanov has not been too harsh. He hasn't even got a sleeping bag wet. This could be very easily remedied, Kevin Cronin, one of the expedition supporter's also on board, suggested mischievously yesterday.
. For those wishing to keep in daily contact with the progress of the expedition, Esat Digifone has set up a 24-hour service giving a two-minute update compiled by team members. The number to ring is 086-8119970 and calls are charged at the standard rate for calls to mobile telephones.
