Days 4 and 5 at sea

Day 4: ????? to ?????

the daily schedule

The daily posting of the ship's position

View from our balcony

The ship is definitely moving up and down, sideways, etc. during the night. Somehow this doesn’t bother THB as he sleeps in.  It helped that the room is very dark with all the drapes drawn.

Breakfast buffet, nothing special. DB feels a bit puckish after having coffee. Turns out coffee is definitely a no-go. She skips the rest of breakfast. THB still feeling good after eating.

The ship is definitely moving up and down, sideways, etc. during the night. Somehow this doesn’t bother THB as he sleeps in.  It helped that the room is very dark with all the drapes drawn.

Breakfast buffet, nothing special. DB feels a bit puckish after having coffee. Turns out coffee is definitely a no-go. She skips the rest of breakfast. THB still feeling good after eating.

We attend a lecture on the birds we’ll be seeing including a smattering of birds that are encircling the HebSky. DB takes a break midway to go lie down. THB and DB attend our second lecture of the morning, Geology 101, which lives up to its name…very basic primer.

A damper for dessert

View off the back

Enough birds flying at back that THB can capture a few 

Bob doing his thing,  a typical lecture with displays on TVs in front of room

We're close enough to Stanley we see a few fishing boats

The bridge control room

St Nicholas, patron saint of sailors

There’s a kayak option and we talk to Sophie about joining up. Full with few paddle-by passengers. Sophie is going to check out the status. We go off to lunch: veggie burger (really a mashed potato patty with veggies smashed into the patty, served on a hamburger bun with fries; THB has a buffet lunch. We share a table with half a couple we’ve talked to a few times (Rosa has been feeding the fish and had a house call from Doc Larry) and the ship photographer (everyone gets a thumb drive of the pics as part of the cruise).

Pic of pics

More pics of pics

There's an 8 page paper every morning. A bit to generic for THB...HebSky Abridged Times?

Lunch on the deck

Kayaking equipment distributed by Sophie and Ewan

We run into Sophie after lunch. Damn, another sign of age: THB and DB had already signed up for the kayaking many moons ago (it’s an extra excursion, so we must have paid many moons ago as well…TBD). We go to the kayak briefing and it sounds doable and terrific. Hang out on the bow/front outside deck on the 5^th floor: not much to see other than maybe 10 birds who are doing a marathon of laps-around-the-ship.

In the late afternoon we take in most of history of the Falkands/Malvinas war: Brits lost way more materiel and Argentina started the war to hide the inadequacies of the ruling junta. For our expedition, the key is to avoid unexploded mines planted by Argentina.

Dinner with British and Canadian couples. Of the 108 passengers, there are something like 28 Chinese, at least 10 from Australia, and at least 10 from the US, one couple from NZ, the pair we dined with last night.

THB has chicken broth soup and DB the Cobb salad, we share lamb and eggplant parmesan, and DB has mud pie for dessert and THB has (pictorial pop quiz):

One lonely star out at 9pm, there’s a giant cloud covering half the sky and the rest are affected by the long twilight or possible a light haze. And, around 10 it started to rain and lightning lit up the sky for a moment, then THB slid into sleep.

A pic of a pic, THB thinks this one was photo shopped

Zodiacs stored up top

Same-same for kayaks, except they are one deck down

Veggie burger

Nobody is going to steal the furniture, chairs are chained to the floor

There's a bird in this pic, upper left

Day 5: ?????? to Falkland Islands

Heading south

Lasagna, shared

Lamb,  shared

Weather: Very nice on the sunny side of ship (with less wind) and cool and chilly in the shade

Quote of The Day:  Where are we?

THB attempts the 7 minute workout. A few of the exercises aren’t easy, primarily the lunge. Breakfast with the NZ couple and it is like talking to a conservative Trumpite (well, Ray didn’t need a script to deliver his views).

Just before the 2^nd lecture of the morning there’s an announcement of dolphins swimming beside the ship. By the time everybody got outside to do a lap, the dolphins had left the building.

A few more lectures and then THB finds out what he really needs to know: we are getting several more stamps in our passports: Falklands, maybe S. Georgia islands, Antarctica.

Here are pics from the lecture, giving us an idea of birds and mammals we might see manana (THB is guessing we’ll be lucky to get near enough take equivalent pics):

THB sends out his first-ever mid-ocean post.

Apple  cinnamon  cake

Landmines left over from the 1984 (?) war

Lunch on the deck! We sit in the shade because there is less wind there. Eventually about 25-30 dine outside. DB has soup and a panini, THB has a salad with marinated veggies as the dressing, fish and chips (very good) and a ginger ale.

After lunch, the kayakers meet up to get “gear” for our first outing tomorrow. It’s elaborate: fancy dry suit (advanced degree required if you didn’t attend the demo to see how it is put on), booties, and life jackets. We line up and amazingly of the 14 (or is it 16), THB is the second tallest person.

DB and THB try on the dry suits and THB ends up with DB’s initial suit and gets one more to her size.

The “gear” meeting is immediately followed by lectures on how to behave when on land and how to get in and out of the Zodiacs that ferry us from the ship to shore. Hopefully tomorrow we’ll have a relatively easy kayak. For most of the senior citizens the big issue will be the length of the outing (no bathrooms available, you have to go back to the ship to take care of business. The biggest issue from THB’s standpoint: no food allowed…not even one or two of the pastries from the breakfast buffet.

Dinner: pretty similar to what’s been on offer every night: veggie dish, lamb or duck or chicken, a fish course, some fancy appetizers, and a few of desserts that THB doesn’t recognize right off the bat (and thus considers ordering).

Book Review: A Farewell to Ice, Peter Wadham: A polar scientist explains the current state of saving the planet from the greenhouse effect, and the future is murder. Wait until the methane buried in the Arctic starts bubbly to the surface; things are gonna get hot very fast. What can we do: Keep after the climate change deniers; do what you can individually (e.g., insulate your house, install solar, drive an electric bike and car; harass your political representatives to change the basis of power generation to renewables; promote the global emphasis on finding, testing, and installing new power sources (i.e., the Manhattan project for renewable power); same-same for taking carbon dioxide. Doesn’t look hopeful as your loyal collapsarian understands the science and political will.  Recommended to those who want to say “I told you so and now it’s too late”