SA Cruise: Day 21

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Another dreary day at sea. It's raining and the sea is still very rough. Our companions are under the weather and stay mostly in their cabin.

Our day is essentially spent attending lectures: Chris Wilson on butterflies, moths, dragonflies and damsel files; two lectures by David Wilson on Darwin in the Galapagos and on the theory of evolution; and Benjamin on the history of Chile and our last two ports of call, Puerto Montt and Valpariso/Santiago. I must say that the lectures have been one of the outstanding features of this cruise. Benjamin, the travel adviser, the Wilson brothers and the other experts have been excellent and very accessible.

Speaking of dragonflies, an interesting fact is that there still are a very few dragonflies left from the hundreds that decided to join our cruise in Montevideo. They are the survivors of those that were lucky enough to be trapped inside when the sliding roof over the pool area was closed. I ask Chris Wilson what they could possibly be subsisting on and he said that there were probably many smaller insects that were trapped at the same time.

At lunch, I connect with a couple of ladies from Las Vegas whom we have dined with a couple of times. One of them, Sandy, has picked up some photos of Antarctica from one of the ship's navigators that are stupendous, and she is willing to share them with me. We eventually figure out how to get them off her computer to my iPad via an SD chip.

About 4:30 pm, the ship makes a right turn into Darwin Channel, which will take us to our next stop, Puerto Montt. This move finally takes us away from the stormy seas, to the relief of many aboard, I am sure.

Entertainment tonight is Francis Diatschenko, guitarist. He's from Australia, product of a Ukrainian father and an Argentinean mother. What an interesting combination! Anyway, he's terrific. Does classical, Django, even a Chick Corea tune. Very enjoyable.

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