Parked At Sea At Puerto Montt

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First I must apologize to my mom for not calling. After my first call from Santiago, my phone battery was too low to call until I charged it again on the ship. After that, when I’ve tried, I haven’t been able to get through. I’m told the ship has Verizon supported nicely, which doesn’t help us since Sharon left her phone at home.



We had requested a 5:30 AM wakeup call in order to make our 8:00 AM tour. Our original tour selection was cancelled due to lack of interest, and we had rescheduled the only one still accepting sign-ups, which lucky for us was the one we had already chosen as our alternate. We rushed up to the Lido and I had some oatmeal and a mixed fruit plate. Sharon had French toast with bacon and potatoes. After breakfast we got the laptop and posted one of our blogs. The captain then announced over the Public Address system that the tenders would not be going ashore today due to choppy seas. They would continue to park in our rather unsheltered harbor and try and board up to 22 passengers that missed our/their departure in Valparaiso. The harbor tug bringing these people aboard were bobbing and yawing and having a very difficult time getting near the Veendam. It took several hours to get all 22 passengers and their luggage onboard.



A special added lecture for our added sea day was scheduled at 10am on polar expeditions by Benjamin, a member of HAL’s Exploration Team. It covered some of the early history of polar exploration, some of the failures and some of the successes. Controversy surrounded some of the attempts to reach the North Pole, as the ability to establish independent verification in the day was difficult. In the first expedition to claim success reaching the North Pole, only the leader of the group had the celestial skills in astronomy to pin-point their position, and when the team returned the rest of the world became more and more skeptical. Perry was the first credited with reaching the North Pole, but people questioned his log recording his rate of return and concluded he came back too quickly to have been at the North Pole when he claimed. A team in the mid-twentieth century tried to duplicate his travel and times, and although they did it even faster than Perry had, controversy remained. The speaker noted that the first man to arrive at the North Pole on foot (Perry was assisted by dogs) arrived in 1969, the same year man walked on the moon. Early success in the southern hemisphere occurred earlier by Amundsen and confirmed a few weeks later by a second rival, Scott, arriving at the same spot. Amundsen had abandoned his attempt to reach the North Pole and had changed his goal to the South Pole, but the British felt he did it quietly in a sneaky sort of way, especially when he edged out their compatriot. The feeling of sour grapes worsened when all of those in the British team with Scott perished in bad weather before returning from the South Pole.



Then it was time to head to the Dining Room for lunch. I had the triple cheese soufflé for an appetizer, a soup that is beginning to blur together with all of the other great soups that I’ve had and penne with shrimp in saffron cream sauce. Sharon had another hamburger, but she said this one was really good, with French fries. We both had the delicious white chocolate crisp for dessert.





After lunch we attended the Traverse Lecture in Antarctica by David Bresnahan. The talk was on a project he spearheaded for the NSF to build a road to the station at the geographic South Pole. The thing is, to get funding to build a road in Antarctica; you can’t call it a road because nobody is going to give money for such nonsense. To maintain a station at the South Pole you have a huge logistics problem. Flying in supplies can be costly, but until this project was successfully completed, there was no alternative. So the first order of business was to come up with a really catch name… something like reliable repeatable sustainable maintainable surface. To make a long story short the road was completed in just over 3 years. In that time they learned how to find crevasses with a tractor and a boom using ground penetrating radar, to avoid losing any more tractors down crevices that will swallow such things whole. Fortunately the driver was rescued but the tractor named Lucy (Sharon thinks the name was Linda) was lost. The team also learned how to make large sleds, with their runners or skids placed beyond the tractor tracks on either side in the virgin snow, to avoid them digging into the tractor’s trail. Fuel is a key commodity needed at the South Pole, but top heavy tanker containers are difficult to pull through snow. Bladder sleds were constructed, with double lined bladders to distribute weight over a flat surface, and very slick thin and light (most importantly light and strong) Mylar-like sheets were used as the skid and surface supporting the bladder.



The geographic South Pole is at 9,200 feet of elevation. Someone at a previous lecture asked what the elevation was at the start of the road, at Murdo Station on the coast of Antarctica. Just smile and remember, there are no stupid questions. Some of the ordeals with creating this “surface” was the various types of snow. Sastrugi is a heavy hard snow that was prevalent along some portions of the route. On the high Antarctic plateau there is the light fluffy plateau swamp. Following completion of the “surface” many air cargo trips supplying the South Pole station have been saved, with great cost savings. The reason for having a South Pole stations is to perform experiments that can be done nowhere else… Indeed, if they can be done elsewhere, the cost is too prohibitive to do them at the South Pole. For example, some astronomy experiments can be set up to collect data on bodies in the southern sky and they can run year round; whereas, at telescopes elsewhere, they may only be able to collect data for a few hours each day.



We tried our luck again at Team Trivia. Sharon and I were by ourselves until we tied up with four others needing to round out their team. We did fairly well, but missed the question about what famous landmark is at the center of London. If you’re thinking Piccadilly Circus the way I did, you’d be wrong, just as I was. I’m pretty sure we had this question on a previous cruise, so I hope that we can remember Trafalgar Square when that does happen. Sharon and I are just waiting for them to ask again what famous landmark was built overnight. We’ve missed that one twice in the past. I’ll give you a hint, it’s not in North America!



We both attended the Vigil Mass at 5 PM, and it was very well attended (about 70 people). We met up with Ruth and sat next to her. They were chatting away as service was about to start and got “shushed” by a lady from West Hampton. We have a bit of humor that Dena and Bill and William may appreciate. We trade humorous stories from the pulpit, so here goes. He said that as he was checking in for the flight, he noticed that the airline clerk was a member of his congregation, and she recognized him. And she obliged him with a complimentary upgrade to first class. He said he took this as one of the benefits sometime afforded men of the cloth. Later on the flight, he said there was a loud bang that seemed to cause the fuselage to shudder. The pilot came on the public address system almost immediately, and said, “We’ve had a slight problem with one of the engines, but there is no need for alarm.” A bit later the pilot spoke again, saying “Please remain calm, there is no need for alarm.” After the third time that the captain broke in saying “There is no need for alarm.”, the stewardess sitting across from him at the bulkhead leaned towards him and said, “I know there is no need for alarm, but I think now would be a good time for you to do what you do best.” So he stood up and started to pass a collection plate. It was his segue to that part of the service where he solicited donations for the three charities benefiting from the service, including one that he picks.



We were again sent upstairs for dinner and joined a couple from Melbourne Australia at a table overlooking the lower level. During dinner we noticed that the glass flower lights above the dining room were covered with an ugly black net. We’re assuming something must have broken or is close to breaking so they’re protecting those sitting under it but it’s not very pretty. At dinner I had the sea salt cod and lobster cake. The dish was delicious and elegantly plated. I followed this with New England clam chowder, which was tasty, but more broth-like than chowder-like. Sharon started with the maple glased mixed fruit dish, and she enjoyed the watermelon it contained. I had the Lobster Cobb salad, and enjoyed this light entrée. Sharon had the Yankee pot roast which she said was not only delicious but generously portioned. For dessert she had the chocolate brownie, while I had the Boston cream cake with a scoop of pistachio ice cream.





We then headed to the Showroom to see Rich Purpura who was billed as a Comedian/Magician. His show was very enjoyable, and although some of his repertoire was obvious, he had a number of word, phrase and number audience participation illusions that can leave you stumped.





After the show we decided to check out Jamm the Piano man but were a few minutes early. The priest passed by and came in to tease us that we were acting like High Schoolers after seeing us steel a kiss in the back. So Sharon got in trouble with the priest twice. Jamm showed up right at 9 and started playing but someone came by and whispered to him during the 2^nd song telling him he had to stop for at least 15 minutes because of some game being watched in the TV area close by so we headed out for the evening. We don’t think that was very fair to those of us there for a scheduled music item when those watching something on TV could have done it in their cabins. Sharon says it’s just as bad as CBS who delays their Sun night shows sometimes for hours because of football games. Rather than wait, we retired for the evening.

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