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Published: January 23rd 2013
We enjoyed another relatively calm night cruising off of the coast of Antarctica. As the weather would have it, there was nothing anyone could have seen at Deception Island, so the captain’s call to bypass this in the middle of the night was a good one; still, we awoke to see fog… heavy pea soup kind of fog. With no pressing lectures on our schedule, I decided to use the gym again while Sharon planned on attending mass, with the ten other regulars. She later related the priest’s joke for the day, which I add here because our mutual friend Dena like’s this sort of jokes. Usually they relate in some way to church or the clergy, but honest, the priest told it just before mass so it qualifies. A man had an exceptional dog who could talk. The dog was so smart in fact; he attended college and earned a degree. Someone asked the dog what his field of study was, and the dog replied that he had studied foreign languages. The bemused stranger then asked the dog to say something in a foreign language, to which the dog replied “Meow”. At the gym I was surprised to be able
to receive the Australian Open on ESPN on the monitor atop my treadmill, even though the same channel was indicating “no signal” in our cabin. Still, I watched Djokovic continue his quest for a third straight title.
We went to breakfast after I showered and Sharon returned from mass. In the dining room one could only see more fog, with no likely end coming anytime soon. Sharon had her American breakfast, and I mixed things up with Eggs Benedict with HAL does an excellent job with. The captain came on and gave us a rough timeline for the morning and our sailing in Antarctica Sound and heading for scenic viewing at Hope Island.
With nothing outside to see, I decided to play some blackjack. A couple of interesting hands occurred. On one hand I stood on 16 facing a dealer’s three-card. The dealer then turned over an ace, which is never good, hitting a two for sixteen and then an ace for a soft-seventeen. The dealer started to claim my bet but I shook her off, indicating that she needed to hit another card. HAL’s rules state that the dealer must hit soft-seventeens (not
all casinos do). The dealer was clueless, but the pit boss nodded indicating she should take another card. She drew a seven, thinking now that she had busted the dealer paid my bet as a winner, while I was indicating for her to hit another card (with the seven her soft-seventeen had become a hard-fourteen). I waited for the pit boss to correct her, and when he didn’t, and the dealer scooped up all of the cards, I just thought “Thank-you” to myself. Later when I had made a $25 bet and gotten blackjack, the dealer showed up with an ace. “Insurance anyone?” I opted to insure for less ($5) as this often leads to interesting discussions. Insurance is almost always a bad bet, but this bet hedges a little bit and assures one of getting something for the blackjack. The dealer balked and the pit boss confirmed that with a blackjack you can only take “Even Money” (that is you must insure for the maximum insurance bet, or $12.50 in this case). Insurance is a side bet, and players can place an insurance bet for up to half of their original bet. Problems happen when someone thinks that special
rules apply when a player has blackjack. The original bet and any insurance bet are simply two distinct wagers, and really have nothing to do with each other, other than how big your insurance bet can be. I lost that argument, so I withdrew my insurance bet, and unfortunately the dealer did have insurance. Happily for me, I also got blackjack on my next bet. I had quickly and easily worked my way up to about a $130 profit and decided it was time to find Sharon.
It was a bit early for lunch in the Lido. I had already checked the menu for today, and there was nothing I had to try for lunch in the dining room. Still, Sharon felt like a Coke, so we split one at the bar by the pool. We watched the fog trying to lift, before heading back into the Lido for lunch. Sharon had the steam ship roast beef, while I had several rolls, several pieces of sushi with lots of wasabi, and they were good, and the wasabi was very potent. This didn’t rate in the same category as “Ken’s Special”, the sushi dish my best man Ron
likes to order, but for a light lunch this is fine. To round out my lunch I tracked down two slices of pizza, one pepperoni and one cheese, from the opposite side of the Lido. They were “okay”, and that would more or less be my mom’s “okay”, which is more or less not something I will probably do again. For me, I prefer the pizza crust to be crispier and less bready.
We were in Antarctica Sound heading to the Argentinian station. This part of the sound is known as Iceberg Alley with the long line of tablau type icebergs that were part of the ice shelf that break off and eventually make towards South Georgia Island. We hoped to arrive at Hope Island for some scenic cruising, but had to settle for seeing the pack ice that was blocking the channel of the Weddell Sea. This is the same sort of pack ice, and nearly the same spot that The Antarctica was overcome by the pack ice in the very early twentieth century, and where Shackleton a few years later began his nearly two-year Odyssey of saving all of the lives of those on his
expedition. He had tried to reach Hope Island, where a stash of provisions had been left by survivors of that first ship, should someone in the future succumb to the Weddell Sea. Winds and current prevented that from happening, and Shackleton was forced to take a much longer and precarious route to survival via the Shetland Islands. The pack ice was getting much closer to the ship, and there seemed to be some anxiousness in Dave Wilson’s voice when he was saying “… and the captain won’t want to get much closer than this. The Endurance (Shackleton’s ship) was lost at about this spot.” The captain maneuvered the Veendam in place, in a 180 degree rotation, so that both sides of the ship would get a view of the pack ice. There was a very low cloud ceiling pressing down on us, and visibility was restricted to what we could see near the waterline, or to that which was very near to us. The pack ice was similar to a thick soup of snow and bergie bits, and icy flotsam in stagnant near freezing waters. The darker, shinier, more reflective waters that bounded the pack ice, moved by the gentle ripples from the Veendam, on this otherwise glassy smooth waterway was clearly distinct from the pack ice. The boundary was there for all to see. The captain informed us that we would not be able to get to Hope Island, and he advised it would be best to keep ahead of schedule to maximize our viewing possibilities by continuing to the Argentinian Station in Antarctica Sound. The fog was thinning some, and Dave Wilson spoke over the PA announcing a large tableau iceberg ahead on our portside. I wasn’t really prepared to see something so big floating freely in the water and passing so close to the ship. Massive doesn’t begin to describe this slice of ice cleaved by its sheer weight from an ocean facing face of the Antarctic Ice Shelf. Many times larger than our ship, a wall of ice extending over one hundred feet out of the water, and flat on type… an ice barge really hauling its cargo north to warmer waters. Some tableau icebergs can be the size of Delaware or Belgium.
We spotted many boxy buildings, some no more than sheds, some larger obviously community buildings near the waterline. They pointed out one building way to the left and back on the ridgeline. That used to be a British building, which they abandoned about the time of the Falklands War. More recently, they refurbished it and gave it to the Uruguayans. With binoculars, one could spot people walking between the buildings. Not many people could be seen outside, just two or three. On this day, with limited visibility, in the middle of summer, it was trying to snow. A colony of Adele penguins has a rookery adjacent and to the right of the Argentinian station. As we passed nearer to the station they were urging all on board to gander outside and take in a deep whiff of what he referred to as “ode de penguino". You’ll never forget it, and it will clear up the nasal passages. For that alone he feels someone could make a fortune by bottling the smell. There were many penguins down by the rocks at the water’s edge, and more still on the snowy slopes leading up to their burrows. Penguins could be spotted going up and down the pink stained snow. You guessed it, evidently Adele penguin guano has a pinkish hue, as opposed to Magellanic penguin poop that was of your normal birdlike quality and color.
The captain reported that with the visibility worsening, we would be headed off to chase some reported sunlight at a nearby scenic spot. I took this as an opportunity to visit the blackjack table. It’s never a good thing when you keep losing your double down bets, and the dealer is getting all of the blackjacks. I cut my losses at $240 and decided to find Sharon and checkout our next scenic site.
We decided to go up on the bow to take some pictures. Sharon took my picture by the Veendam’s brass bell. Some icebergs were quite close to us, and we had an array of overhead lighting, often filtered by the clouds, that gave the nearby landforms and cliffs that we were seeing that old style tin plate black and white photograph look; although, I guess you should expect that black and white look when what you are seeing is rocks, ice and tuxedo penguins (Adele penguins). Sharon took a photo of a passel of frenzied penguins appearing to skim across the top of the water. The first time that you see penguins moving through the water from high atop a cruise ship, they look like flying fish darting across the top of the water. You would swear that those aren’t penguins at all! And they move fast! Being so high up, and the penguins are only about two feet tall, it looks like the flipper of something pops out of the water and then curves back into the water in the direction of movement. In reality, it’s a whole penguin out, and perfect form, back in again. Did I mention the move fast, so unless there’s a passel of them moving continuously in one direction, it’s hard to photograph. And yes, we learned all about “passels” of penguins and “pods” of whales, in case you were wondering. We did something else up on the bow, give me a second, it will come to me. Oh yes, we kissed. Sharon’s cruising acquaintance from a previous cruise told her that I must kiss her on the bow in Antarctica, just as someone she met had done with her. It was pretty special. If it wasn’t for the do not disturb the wildlife with loud sounds direction that came over the outdoor PA, I might have rung the bell.
Sharon was torn between continued picture-taking, or dinner, and I’m glad she joined me for dinner because we got our first table for two. We could see what we were missing; on the other hand, we were inside where it was warm. On the bow with the wind blowing things can get very chilly pretty fast. Sharon ordered the Mushroom Chorizo Strudel with goat cheese for me. I started with the Seared Ahi Appetizer described as being cut very thin. That may be an understatement. It came very pink and appeared to be painted on to the plate, it was that thin. Running your fork across the plate would pick up most of whichever of the three overlapping slices you were targeting. The slice would simply collect on the fork the way that snow collects in a snow shovel. The ahi provide three tasty bites. I had suspected that this appetizer might not be very filling, so I was glad I had asked Sharon to order me the strudel, which was wonderful. For my next course, I had the smoked seafood soup which was a very nice presentation in a soup that approached the consistency of a chowder. I then had the crispy sweet and sour shrimp. Three large breaded and fried shrimp came with some rice, a very small portion of Asian vegetables and for me, just the right amount of sweet and sour sauce. Most people would probably have preferred a much more substantial serving of sauce on something billed as “sweet and sour” (e.g. drowning in the sauce). Sharon ordered the 8 ounce steak and baked potato, and she must be getting hungry or the steaks are getting smaller, because she nearly finished this steak, just as she did the other night in the Pinnacle. We both ordered opera cake and it was delicious. I think this is perhaps much closer to what I expected last night’s chocolate tres leches cake to be.
I suppose I should have learned my lesson by now about playing blackjack, but I decided to give it another try. I’m not sure how many hands in a row I lost; it had to approach fifteen, because I was down close to $100. I had a couple of pushes with the dealer for the two good hands that I did get. I had some good chances, double opportunities, but the dealer always seems to have the answer. The only question is will things start to average out soon enough to suit me. When I first sit down I will wait to get the feel for the table, I won’t be aggressive, and after a few consecutive losses I will only be making minimum bets, so I shouldn’t get hurt too badly. But it can’t go on like this forever, eventually you have to just say, another day. Well things did turn around, and I started doing quite well. After a couple of six hand winning streaks I found myself up $110 and decided I didn’t need to press my luck any further. I’d quit even for the day.
After a day of chasing sunlight we had reached the spot in Antarctica that we had sought for so long: a place in the sun. We witnessed an incredible southern sunset sky in Antarctica with tableau icebergs passing beneath a radiant sun bursting through the distant clouds, reddish and pinkish streaks framing the floating ice fortress. To the side, and island whose bare granite sides reached snowy cloud covered precipices. The sea in these frozen waters was brimming with life, the blow of a humpback whale in the distance, then another closer to the Veendam. Adele penguins rush in a frenzy in their wake, seeking the krill fortunate enough to escape the fate of winding their way to the whale’s belly. I couldn’t resist taking some pictures… I slipped on my slippers, not even bothering to put on my hat or coat, and slipped from our lanai cabin on the lower promenade deck planning to take one or two quick pictures and pop back into the cabin. Perhaps we were on the lee side of the ship, but I was surprised how pleasant it felt out in the open air, not the frosty bite of winter we had experienced earlier today when venturing outside. I was able to take many pictures before returning to the cabin about five or ten minutes later. The view was so grand, that we left the curtains open after retiring for be and enjoyed the incredible sunset, which for some reason seems to take a bit longer up here.
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Janet
non-member comment
Skirting Antarctica Sound
Thanks guys for another great blog of your trip. Glad Sharon is getting to see a lot penguins. I'm enjoying reading about your trip. Looking forward to seeing all your pictures after your return to another cold place Ohio! It is 20 degrees right now. Have fun and enjoy! Janet