My voyage to the Antarctic as a woman in STEMM

It was 3am. Slam, shudder, heave. This repeated at ten second intervals the whole night and all of the next day. I was in the middle of the Weddell Sea on a small expedition ship en route to the Antarctic Peninsula in the biggest seas the captain had ever seen, sailing the Southern Ocean. Huge, 24-foot waves were battering the ship. My cabin was near the front and I was certainly witnessing the effects of climate change. There were strange straps on the beds — now I knew why. It was difficult to stay on top of it and there was no chance of sleep.