Antarctic Cruise Day 23 / 40 - sea day 11/11 - sub and albatross
Trip day: 23 / 40
Port days: 6
Sea days: 16
Countries: 3
Continents: 2
Ports: 3
♫ We all live in a yellow submarine ♫
Meet Ringo & George - submarine siblings of the two on the Octantis - John & Paul. These two, Ringo and George, will be transporting the intrepid passengers of the Viking Polaris to depths of 200 meters beneath the surface of the ocean.Today, we had our mandatory safety briefing, going over all the safety aspects and procedures of the subs. Then, we all had to sign waivers indemnifying Viking, and pretty much anyone that could spell "Viking" from any liability if something goes wrong. It all seems crazy to me, but in this litigious society, I get it. We also had to demonstrate we would take a big step up by stepping unassisted up on the stage in the Aula. Apparently, one passenger did that as the ship hit a pretty big swell, causing them to tumble into the podium, sending it off stage and shattering. The passenger appeared to be okay. The podium, not so much.
Next, it was on to another winning trivia performance and another joint team effort for the win. Here is today's picture section - name the mythical beasts.
- Nobody knew this - a chimera
- Pegasus
- Minitaur
- Medussa
- Centaur
- Cyclops
Our lone miss today - totally my fault by the way...
- Who said, "I'm not the greatest; I'm the double greatest. Not only do I knock 'em out, I pick the round."?
- Since I had heard Muhammed Ali say that he was the greatest frequently, I figured the double greatest must be someone else so I lobbied for, and we chose, Mike Tyson. Of course, I over-thought it and it was Muhammed Ali.
Here's an interesting one that was an unneeded tie-breaker:
- How many muscles does a cat have in each ear?
After lunch, I met with Laura, one of the naturalists on the ship so she could check out some of my whale photos. She wanted copies of some of the images to submit to a whale identification and tracking site -
HappyWhale. We'll see if any of the pictures get a positive ID on a known whale.
Next up, Arlona went to deck 5 to sit in the Living Room, read, and enjoy the sunshine and bird. I bundled up and went out into the wind and chilly temps - about 47F - to shoot the many petrel and albatross that are following us.
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| Petrel |
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| Albatross |
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| Albatross |
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| Albatross |
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| Albatross |
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| Albatross and a friend |
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| Albatross |
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| Albatross |
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| Albatross |
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| Albatross and likely a petrel |
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| Albatross and petrel |
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| Albatross |
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| Albatross |
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| Petrel - possible a cape petrel |
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| Albatross |
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| Albatross |
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| Albatross |
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| Albatross pair |
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| Albatross pair |
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| Albatross |
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| Albatross |
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| Albatross |
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| Albatross |
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| Albatross |
The ship was moving quite a bit this afternoon and evening. It was moving enough that we found one of these on our bed.
They also placed them in all the public restrooms.
Dinner tonight was only in the World Café with the other dining venues closed. Behind the serving line, we saw all the officers, from the Captain and General Manager on down. Dinner featured lobster thermidor and other specialties including Grand Marnier souffle and a creampuff tree.
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| The sushi chef, Arlene, walked by and asked if I wanted some shrimp tempura. Uh...yup! |
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| The creampuff tree |
We also found these spiffy certificates in our room for our performance in yesterday’s boat competition.
We’ll see if one shows up for our drink competition win.
The walk to our office (the Explorers’ Bar) to work on this blog was interesting, to say the least. The side-to-side rocking is the heaviest that we have encountered so far on this trip. Here is Arlona doing her best attempt at walking straight. And again, to be clear, this is on the way to the bar.
They weren’t serving anything in stemmed glasses as the stemmed glasses most likely wouldn’t have survived the bumps and rocking. We will see if the results of tonight’s drinks will offset the ship’s movement and we walk straight on the way back to the room.
Tomorrow morning, we anchor in Stanley in the Falkland Islands. We’re taking a 4x4 tour to Volunteer Point where we expect to see a huge colony of king penguins. Of course, that comes after we get rocked to sleep tonight. Or…get thrown out of bed…
When you have the time, visit the Hide when the waves are up. The leather wrapped handles offer good support as you watch the waves occasionally wash up to and across the windows! Thanks for your pictures and narrative!
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