Antarctic Cruise Day 6/40 - North Sea sailing - First day at sea - trivia, science, and ceremony

Antarctic Cruise Day 6 / 40 - Our first sea day

Trip day: 6 / 40

Port days: 4
Sea days: 1
Countries: 1
Continents: 1
Ports: 1

Last night featured a rock and roll show, and I'm not talking about the entertainment.  They announced that it might be a little rough as we entered the North Sea and they weren't lying.  We were a-movin'.  It was mostly side-to-side - not much the other way, but it was a surprise.  It was nothing violent but we sure knew we were moving. Today, we had an opportunity to talk with the Captain and he said that they recorded 75-knot gusts on the bridge last night! For the non-sailors out there, 75 knots equals 86 miles per hour, or cagtagory 1 hurricane force winds.  Given that we endured those kind of blasts, the ship handled it all amazingly well and smoothly.

This morning, while we are still rocking a bit, it is much smoother.  We sailed through  the English Channel.  I looked out the window and in the distance, I could make out white cliffs. While we were already a bit west, I’m fairly sure these were the white cliffs of Dover. 

After breakfast, Arlona attended an art workshop.  They gathered organic and inorganic material around the ship.  The crew also provided some from Amsterdam that they gathered yesterday.  They examined the items under the microscope and painted what they saw.  The resulting canvas tiles will be combined for display later in the cruise.

A look at a dried apricot through the microscope - yes, even though it looks orange, under the microscope, there was blue and yellow

Arlona’s artistic interpretation

I took the opportunity to walk Deck #2 and photograph it.

To go forward on deck 2 from midship, you walk through a guestroom hallway

All the way forward, you hit a crew door and a stairway to the right

Take the stairs down to deck #1 and turn right

And…we’ve found The Hide again

New, we’ll return to deck #2 midship.

Port side has The Studio – a gathering and education space

Microscopes set up for this morning’s art project

Starboard features Expedition Central – the hub for expedition information, maps, spotting scopes and more

A view down two floors to the deck #A embarkation area

A well-lit hallway behind the lifeboats leads aft from Expedition Central

The floor is inlaid with places that Viking visits

The Fitness Center is just past the windows

There is a large yoga area

There are many weight and cardio machines available

The Nordic Spa is directly across from the Fitness Center with the Salon right next door

It features a large main room with a therapy pool and lounge areas

Of course, Viking’s traditional snow grotto available

The Spa also has a steam room

For those the prefer a dry heat, there is a sauna

There is a quiet area featuring three lounges

There are several “fireplaces” that use light and water vapor to simulate flames

Continuing toward the rear of the ship, we get to the Aula auditorium area.

The Blue Room, outside The Aula

Lectures and enrichment happen here - by my count, it can seat about 190

The Aula is inspired by the University of Oslo’s famed ceremonial hall and features 270-degree views, a movable panoramic screen and 4K laser projector

The very back of deck #2 features Finse Terrace, named after the Finse Plateau in Norway.

After Arlona finished up her art project, it was time for the cruise's first trivia. 

In the Viking Living Room on deck #5, we ran into yet another stellar crew member from our world cruise, Maressa, who greeted us warmly.  That reminds me…I forgot to mention yesterday that as we headed out to our excursion, we saw Valbona, an amazing member of the world cruise shore excursion team.  She is our expedition program coordinator for this sailing and we couldn’t be happier about that.

We sat down for trivia with a sparse crowd.  There was a four-person team and four two-person teams. That meant we could finish no lower than fifth place.  In the end, we scored 11/15 correct and that was enough to finish in first place.  This is significant.  Why?  This is the first passenger sailing of the Viking Polaris.  That means that Arlona and I are the first-ever trivia winners on the Polaris!

Our misses:

• What Broadway musical featured the song, “Seasons of Love”?  I said, “Rent”.  Arlona overruled with “Hamilton”. (It was “Rent”)
• Which city is farthest west: Atlanta, Cincinnati, Detroit?  I said, Cincinnati.  Arlona overruled with Detroit. (It was Cincinnati)
• Which mammal has no vocal chords: giraffe, elephant,rhinoceros? We guessed elephant because of its trunmpeting– it was giraffe.
• What is Astraphobia the fear of?  We had no idea and guessed oceans. It was the fear of thunder & lightning.

Still, we prevailed. We not only secured bragging rights until the next trivia, we have secured our place forever in the annals of Viking Polaris trivia history as the inaugural winners, with all the rights and privileges thereto. (There are none)

After another nice lunch in the World Café, we wound up talking with two couples we met in the hallway.  So far, most passengers have been very friendly and wanting to chat and meet other guests.  With so few people on the ship, you start to recognize faces pretty quickly.  Remembering the names is a bigger challenge!

The latest numbers I’ve heard are that there are currently around 145 passengers on the ship, including several of the guests that were here for the christening.  Somewhere around 30-35 of them will disembark in Madeira in a couple of days, leaving the 100+ or so guests onboard for the journey to Ushuaia.  We will lose several more there plus gain about 120 new passengers for about 220 in total going to Antarctica.  In any event, the passengers will be outnumbered by the crew for the whole voyage.  

Late this afternoon, we attended the Captain’s welcome reception in The Aula.

This venue really is quite special.  When the screen is raised, it offers panoramic views of the ocean.  The screen quickly lowers on rails into position from the ceiling.

They can also drop shades behind the screen and on the sides to blackout the room.  The shades are printed with the same Edvard Munch paintings that hang in the original Aula in Norway.

Captain Olivier welcomed everyone onto the Polaris – the photo behind him of the Mani, Mars, and Polaris was taken by helicopter as we prepared for yesterday’s departure from Amsterdam

The senior staff introduced themselves:

• Chief Engineer
• Staff Captain
• General Manager
• Ship’s Doctor
• Financial Officer
• Expedition Leader
• Executive Chef
• Captain Olivier
• Restaurant Manager
• Beverage Manager
• Executive Housekeeper
• Guest Services Manager
• Travel Consultant
• Entertainment Director

The expedition and science team who will be coordinating our expeditions in The Falkland Islands and Antarctica - it includes marine biologists, geologists, glaciologists, ornithologists, chemists, and more

This team of peopled will be conducting scientific research as well as coordinating  expeditions onto the ice, arctic kayaking, travel in the two submersibles on the ship, and generally overseeing all things to do with the expedition aspects of this voyage.

We opted to once again grab dinner at the grill in the World Cafe.  I skipped photos of salads and sides.  Here's what came from the grill.

I had slices of a tomahawk steak with a baked potato

Arlona opted for the pork chop – they also found her a bowl of applesauce for the perfect touch

We returned to our room to watch the Viking science talk that we missed earlier today. It is great that Viking makes everything available on the TV.  

We also began our time travel as we set our clocks back an hour. We're heading west and will gain a total of five hours over the course of this cruise - all but one of the six we lost flying to Amsterdam.  We'll get that one back when we fly home in November.

Tomorrow, more education about the expedition experience.