Finding Fjords, Glacier Gazing and Sighting Sunken Ships

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We’re enjoying another sea day, and for the first time, we awake caught up with the blog. That will soon change. After over one week from Ohio, I finally make my way to the gym for my morning workout. We are winding our way through the fjords that eventually will find their way to the Straights of Magellan later today. At first I’m a bit miffed by the TV monitors mounted atop each treadmill, but at least I can see over them to watch the scenery on each side of the Veendam. The gym is on the Lido deck (11^thdeck) and the treadmills are facing forward at the front of the ship. Then I noticed that one of the monitors has the Australian Open on live, and quickly I’m watching it in front of me. It’s early round play so things aren’t that competitive, but I do see the two-time defending champion Djocovic handle the American Harrison rather handily. The half-hour flies by. The gym has more people working out than I thought there would be. I decide my arm hasn’t recovered from being over-strained before our trip, and I am hoping it will be healed by the time I start playing racquetball again in February. Sharon went to mass while I was working out.



We had time for a leisurely sit-down breakfast in the formal Rotterdam dining room on the Veendam. I had the Spanish Omelet, and Sharon was surprised to see me eschew oatmeal two days in a row. Sharon had her traditional American breakfast that she reserves for sea days. We had a light morning as far as activities go, picking up today’s Sudoku and checking out the day’s dining room menu on the way back to the cabin. I checked for continued coverage of the Australian Open, but ESPN had moved on to other sports. Sharon did some reading and checked for blog questions. We then made time for some scenic viewing as we came in view of a glacier, having about a 100 foot face where it meets the water. For some time we’d been passing through water with chunks of ice, many about the size of a refrigerator, but some quite a bit more substantial. The cruise director pointed out one such ice chunk, about the size of a tour bus that was floating on our port side, and noted how it contained all of the types of ice that can be seen in these ice chunks. Now when I’m sizing them for you, remember, that’s just what I see above water, 90% of the ice bergs are below the water line, and when they are close, you can see the true depth to which they reach. Visibility today is clear, the low cloud ceiling of yesterday has lifted, and the water is highly reflective of the fjord cliffs all around us. As the cruise ship positions itself, more of the glacier comes into view, until eventually we see most of the mile and one quarter of the glacier touching the waterline. From the face of the glacier sheets of ice have been calving into the water producing all of the ice flows around us. The tour guide remarked, emphasizing and supporting what Sharon had already noted, that this is the best direction to be taking the Antarctic cruise (from Chile to Antarctica) because you see the fjords first, then the glacier, later the Magellanic penguins, and finally Antarctica. In the reverse direction from Brazil or Argentina, the glacier seems like a minor footnote and may not be appreciated. We are probably a mile or more from the face of the glacier, and aren’t close enough to see any ice calving into the sea. We’re told that height or the ice quickly grows to one half mile thick, and at its thickest in this glacier field is two miles thick. This approaches the height of the ice in Antarctica at the South Pole. The Veendam does a slow 180, pointing the stern of the ship to the glacier, then the starboard side, before continuing on to find the Straights of Magellan.



We went to lunch during this maneuver, and I had the Thai spring roll, tasty with a note of sesame; fiesta chicken soup consisting of mostly chicken stock and some thin red tortilla strips; and a mushroom quesadilla, featuring a tortilla with cheese and mushrooms and cheese folded in half and cut into three small sections. Sharon had (surprise) the cheese burger without the cheese. Unfortunately it came with the barbeque sauce, grilled onion and tomato under the patty, so the meal was a complete wash. There wasn’t time to change the burger, service was a bit slow today, and we had team trivia to rush off to before dessert menus came.



We arrived in time to get the scorecards and when the cruise director was asking if we’d like to join a team, there was the second “Bright Star” alarm announced by the captain over the PA, and she had to depart for the designated deck to help address the passenger in distress emergency. When she returned about ten minutes later, she went right into the game, and Sharon and I were a team of two. Someone did come in and join us about half-way through; but, we were so unimpressed with our answers we didn’t bother having our sheet graded by another team. We actually did much better than we thought, and got a total of 8 points, missing the bonus question of course. Later when we met up with Ruth, we found she could have helped a lot on the questions that we missed, such us Gertrude Ederle was the first woman to do what? One point if you said swim the English Channel. She also knew who defended the Boston Strangler. Do you know which two actors/actresses refused to accept their Oscar’s won in the 1970’s? Everyone remembers Marlon Brando, the self-serving rejection he offered, when he didn’t even bother to show up for the Oscars in person. But did you remember George C. Scott refused his Oscar as well.



We went to the third in a series of lectures on Darwin by Dr. David Wilson. It focused on how he came to develop his theory of natural selection in the evolution of the species. Observations made in the many years since Darwin penned his theory support the theory, but it takes many years of diligent observation to observe subtle changes. Researches documenting the finches on one of the smaller islands in the Galapagos, about the size of a football field, got so that they virtually knew every finch and every plant on the island. When a super-dry season, or drought occur (and staggering photos of normal vegetation on the island and vegetation after the dry season were boggling at how barren the land had come, and the lack of food had caused a steep decline in the finch population; but, the researchers found that as little as one-half millimeter in the length of the finches beak could mean the difference in its ability to survive. With the longer beaks they could find and consume the much harder dried seeds that did remain. And not only that, but the next spring females would seek mates with the longest beaks. By contrast, following an extremely wet season, just the opposite would occur, and those with short beaks fared better; thus, a balance was struck and in the middle was a ground that could whether both droughts and monsoons.



We went and sat in the back for today’s $30,000 bingo, where some of the winners had sat the day before. I thought I was the first to stand in the first game, but someone from the side shouted out “Bingo” as I did. We didn’t even get a chance to “Boo” her when she got within one, and I didn’t get the thrill of at least hearing one number called that might let me win. Oh well, it is Sharon’s turn to win anyway. Things didn’t get any better in the second and third games. During the fourth and final game, blackout bingo, if you win with 46 calls or less you win the $30K. After 23 calls the caller tells his bad joke. Today he asked what happened to the passengers when the red and blue boats collided. Get ready to groan: They were marooned. Sharon got to within one of winning the game (not after 46 calls but quite a bit later), but someone immediately called “Bingo”.



We went out to photograph the fifty year old shipwreck off of our port side. We observed the shipwreck of this 1960’s era passenger ship, whose stern could be seen rising out of the water and hung up on rocks peeking out of the water. The captain explained that the wreck occurred after its captain and the waterway pilot were exchanging pleasantries. When they had concluded their conversation the captain clapped his hands and said “Well, All right then.” An overly alert junior officer at the helm, hearing the captain’s command of “Well, Hard Right then.” Promptly executing that command grounded the vessel in the shallow waters. All people on board found refuge on the small island, and were rescued the next day. The captain assured us that on HAL bridges, commands are always clearly given as port or starboard, for just this reason.



For dinner I started with the scallops in coconut sauce. They were tasty, as was the asparagus soup that I ordered. It was very good, but I think I preferred the asparagus soup I had gotten earlier before boarding the Veendam (in Vina del Mar). I enjoyed the chicken cordon bleu entrée which was light and tasty, perfectly baked and accompanied by very nice vegetables. Sharon ordered from the “Everyday Menu” getting the 8 ounce sirloin steak medium well, but she said they cook it too much for even her. We both had the chocolate avalanche cake a la mode. The cordial of the day was the “Banana Split” consisting of banana liqueur, white crème de cacao and amaretto. During dinner we noticed that the rear facing window of the Deck 7 dining room appeared to have a cracked pane running top to bottom down the left side of the pane. Someone from an inside table noted that there was an albatross flying above the ship’s wake, alerting us by pointing out “Albatross”. We all saw the incredible wingspan of the bird, making just slight adjustments to its wings as it soared without once flapping its wings, catching updrafts when needed, gaining speed and approaching the water at other times. Soon three other albatrosses had joined the first, and they seem to follow us for miles.



With no casino again tonight, and only one combination show featuring the three guest stars on this part of the cruise, we decided to watch “The Marriage Game”. It took a while but they finally got three couples to go up on stage to put their marriages on the line. The women were isolated first, and the men started out with some easy questions like where were you the first time you kissed your wife. They worked up to where is the strangest (or most unusual place) that you’ve made whoopee with your wife. The first couple seemed to be doing a lot of stuff in the car. The second couple seemed to be doing a lot of stuff on the beach. And it raised everyone’s eyebrows when we found out that third guy was a dentist, and what they were doing in the dentist’s chair. Scores were very close during this first round, and then the men were secluded, and the woman had some questions that would clearly find the winner. They first had to say what it was they could do that would let their husbands know that they were interested in sex. They then had to say what movie reminded them of their husband’s lovemaking: “Superman”, “Mission Impossible”, “Gone in 60 Seconds” or “Finding Nemo”.

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