Antarctic Cruise Day 11/40 - Sea day - We're sciencing today!

Antarctic Cruise Day 11 / 40 - We play with balloons - weather balloons

Trip day: 11 / 40

Port days: 5
Sea days: 5
Countries: 2
Continents: 1
Ports: 2

The fact that I'm writing this means that the internet finally seems to be back up and mostly running.  I still experience a brief outage from time to time, but for the most part, it seems to be back.

As always, we enjoyed breakfast in the World Cafe, supported by excellent service from another of our world cruise crew, Santos. 

This morning, we finally caught our first view of flying fish.  We always watch for them on cruises but have been shut out until today.   It's a little tough as the skies are gray, mainly due to the heavy concentration of Sahara sand that is blowing all through this area.  They were a little too small and fast to capture with my camera.

We had a Baggo rematch today with the officers.  This time, the guests came out on top with a stunning victory.  We all really appreciate the crew participating and having a good time alongside the guests.  It makes for a terrific atmosphere on the ship.

After a nice lunch in the World Cafe, we donned our robes and headed to the spa for some time in the therapy pool and other facilities.  

We spent time in the therapy pool, sauna, snow grotto, and Badestamp hot tub which is open to the outside.  Arlona also tried the steam room and cold bucket dump while I tried the experience shower with multiple rain heads and body sprays.

Viking includes a swimsuit spinner in the locker rooms.  You place your wet bathing suit in the spinner, close the lid, and press down for eight seconds.  The high-speed spinning basket spins most of the water out of your suit, leaving it barely damp.  There are also comfy robes to wear back to your room. We didn't need those as we wore the ones that were already in our stateroom.

The big event for today was a weather balloon launch for weather research.  They use a biodegradable latex balloon with a weather sender that transmits real-time weather data that is used for forecasting. 

 This is a big deal as there are no weather stations in the middle of the Atlantic.  Most of the passengers as well as many crew came up to the top deck to witness the launch.

A friendly swallow was circling for air support.

This painted lady butterfly also landed to check out the action.

Unfortunately, there was no action.  As they explained, even with the best planning, sometimes, things just don't work, and...today is one of those days.  They have two more attempts planned before we reach the Falkland Islands.

Sunsets over the last couple of days have been essentially non-existant.  Why?  Sahara sand.  As the sun gets lower in the sky, the sand simply chokes it out.

After dinner, we hit our favorite spot - The Explorers' Bar, with Alex, our expert mixologist.  If you look in his hands, you can see the bottle of vodka that Beverage Manger Tammy and Alex are infusing for me.  Tonight, I enjoyed the first fruits of their labor, and it was wonderful.

Tonight, Entertainment Director, Arann, conducted a music trivia contest in the Explorers' Bar, along with the Explorers' Bar duo singers.  Arlona and I were the clear winners.  The fact that we were the only team participating may have affected the outcome.

The Explorers' Bar Duo

It was another good day aboard the Viking Polaris.  Tomorrow, we will dock in Mindelo, São Vicente, in Cabo Verde and have an afternoon Jeep 4x4 tour planned.