Thar She Blows….or Not

 

I was scheduled to go kayaking today.  However, there were 3-foot swells, which makes kayaking very difficult, so I was able to switch to a Zodiac ride.

I donned my gear and got into an inflatable ship with a “Captain” and 4 other passengers.  We set off in search of whales on a choppy foggy sea.  Earlier trips had seen hundreds of whales, so we were on the look-out for spouts, tails or any other sign of whales.  It was a pleasant ride in light fog.  Well, maybe light is not the word.  About 3 minutes after we got away from the ship it was impossible to tell that there was any ship there.  Fortunately, the captain had a handy device which could point the way back to the Octantis.  We looked for almost an hour and saw not one whale!

Darrell was on another Zodiac and their group did not see whales either.  In fact, none of the groups saw any whales.

When Darrell got back from this cruise, he got on the SOB (Special Operations Boat) with about a dozen others.  This is an open sided ship, so you can get wet if you sit too far toward the back.  They saw whales.  They saw dozens, or maybe even hundreds, of whales.  They must have all been on vacation from 5:00 to 6:00.

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We are technically in Antarctic waters since we are at the correct geographic point.  However, I will not feel like I have gotten to Antarctica until I set foot on the ground (0r snow or ice or rocks).

Pictures, as Promised

I mentioned that the mountains we saw on our flight were rugged.  You can see the timberline,  If you look closely you can also see where trees were knocked down by avalanches.

   

  

Our "Departure Port" was Ushuaia, on the southern part of Argentina.  We made one stop on our way from the airport to the ship.  One curious sight was this decoration on the railing along the sidewalk.  These wrappings looked like hand knit or crocheted dishcloths were covering the top pipe.  Our guide did not know of any significance.

                                                                                                                                                                   

I do not know if this sleigh is here all year, or only at Christmas.

This is the "lifeboat" or tender for our ship. 

The town of Ushuaia is snuggled between the mountains and the sea.

A Day at Sea

This is our first day aboard the Viking Octantis and a busy day it has been. 

I took several trips to the Service Desk to see if anyone could get my camera working.  We left the whole camera bag in Minnesota, so went out and bought a new camera the day before we left.  No one at the store knew anything about it, but reassured me that I could get the user's manual online.  Wrong!  I checked the charge on the battery anyway.  100% it said.  So far, so good.  While I had the charger plugged in, I turned the camera on and it worked, so I went ahead, unplugged the camera and put the camera in my backpack and the charger in the suitcase.  When we got to Buenos Aires, I tried the camera.  It would not turn on.  I plugged in the charger, it said 100%, I took a picture with the charger plugged in, unplugged the charger.  The camera would not turn on.  The only person who knew about cameras was not in, so I planned to go back later.  By the time we finished dinner, he was gone.  Meanwhile, another nice fellow at Guest Services showed me how to get pictures off my phone by using Whatsapp.  So, I will try putting them in a blog.

This morning was an hour long briefing on what to do and not to do in Antarctica to protect the land and animals and leave the continent in excellent conditions for future generations.  As part of that we took all our outerwear other than that provided by Viking to be decontaminated - they vacuumed and sprayed everything so we did not introduce any non-native plants, seeds or dirt into the land.  We were also fitted for our boots.  I will try to get a picture of us in full regalia.

After all that hassle, I went down for a massage.  "Mike" was OK, but certainly not like Thomas from the previous cruises.  I will not have another massage on board.

Tonight we ate at the World Cafe.  It is much more spread-out than on the big ships, but they still have the suchi area, a separate area for shrimp (2 kinds), Octopus salad, langoustino etc.  Darrell went to "Sin City" (otherwise  known as the dessert bar) and came back, telling me that he knew what I would get.  He was right - Caramel Custard and salted caramel gelato.

Our room has a noise like a woodpecker.  They inspected it, but could not fix it, so they offered us a room 2 doors down the hall.  It was just as bad, so we will see how it goes tonight.  They just called and offered us a room one deck down, but still mid-ship where it is smoothest.  We will see in the morning.

We are seeing a lot of staff we know from previous cruises and making new friends.  On we knew is the head of the food service staff, so we talk to him at almost every meal.  The waiters seem anxious to make our acquaintance.  As usual, we are trying to learn to thank them in their own language.  So far we have learned 3 or 4 new phrases.

Now it is bedtime, but I will try to add a few pictures.   No Luck  Maybe tomorrow.  

The Expedition Begins!

 We are on our way to Antarctica!  Our flights from Tampa to Houston and Houston to Buenos Aires were uneventful.  We arrived in Buenos Aires in the early afternoon after an overnight flight.  It is hard to sleep on a plane, but I did as much as possible.  We checked in to the Hilton, met a few people who would be traveling with us, and got the wonderful news that we had to be on the bus at 4:10 AM.

We decided that an early dinner made sense, so we walked down the street and had empanadas, an Argentine half moon shaped pastry filled with meat and potatoes and 2 small bottles of water.  The bill came to 5100 Argentine money.  I am afraid to look up the exchange rate.

Breakfast was a buffet at 3:30, then off to the airport.  The trip to the "in-town" airport was in the dark, but there was still a lot of traffic.

By the time we boarded the charter flight (1 of 3 to get everyone to Ushia) it was light.  The southern part of Argentina is very mountainous.    

We boarded the ship, the Viking Octantus and spent the rest of the day trying to find our way around.

More later when I figure how to get pictures off my phone.