Days 8 and 9

Day 8: Somewhere in the middle of the Southern Ocean or in the southern part of the Atlantic Ocean

Weather: Cold and overcast, waves 2-4 meters, feels rough at time, brief snow flurries, one rogue wave washed up onto the third deck, right where crew members walk to take a smoke break

Quote of The Day:  Where is THB?

In the middle of some ocean, Atlantic or Southern, that’s where THB is…with nothing to report for today. Meals, lectures, sitting around, posting, and meeting a few more people (we’ve got a new strategy: be the first ones to sit at a table for 7 or 8 and chat up whomever joins us).

Beaufort Scale skit

Dessert of vanilla pudding

Pre-game snack for Shackelton recreation

Department of ship etiquette: the room came with an unlimited mini-bar: splits of champagne, red and white wine, and soft drinks. So far we are through one small bottle of white wine. We received 200 free wifi minutes (with posting, we’ve used up all our minutes). After that it $18 for 100 minutes.  No reserved tables at meals; often the staff splits up at lunch and dinner to join in if empty seats.

Day 9: Transition from the Atlantic to the Southern Ocean

Weather: Chippy,  blustery, wind chill drops temps into the 20s

Quote of The Day:  Where are we?

In the middle of some ocean, that’s where THB still is…with nothing much to report for today. Meals, lectures, sitting around, posting, and meeting a few more people. 13 nationalities aboard (passengers only? Looks like the crew is also in the mix). There are citizen volunteer data collection activities (e.g., counting birds, water temp, etc.) that THB and DB don’t bother signing up for.  The staff does a cute skit demonstrating the most of the different levels of wind on the Beaufort scale.

We move our clocks forward an hour, we’re further east now; daylight savings time? There’s not much of a reason to bother other than it synchs up with the bridge and few of the citizen data collections.

Main activity: verifying our outfits for visiting S. Georgia are de-bugged and de-seeded. More lectures and part 3 of the Shackleton recreation.

Hail sticking on our balcony

Le Patch

S Georgia Island

It's cool and beautiful 

Lunch on the deck

Carbo loading a day early

Pic of a pic

Another pic of a pic

DB spots the first iceberg of the trip

DB spots the second iceberg, only looks small compared to number 1

Lunch on the back deck: gorgeous water, clear skies, very chilly. Share a table with yet another Canadian couple (they are near Calgary so this weather is pretty familiar for them).

And, DB makes the first spotting of an iceberg; it’s a monster! Normally they don’t see too many icebergs in early November. Then she finds another one, sort of mini-me to the first one and it’s also huge. With our binocs, we can even see some calving going on as sprays from the base of the iceberg are a steady happening. Another theory (and more likely) is that the gigantic spray is from waves hitting the berg…wait, the sprays may be coming from the bottom of the berg, how can they be 50’ high?

Book Review: The Incendiaries, R O Kwon (novel): THB got bogged down in the middle of this coming of age in college story. Cults, Koreans, drinking, going in debt, avoiding adult-like behavior. Not recommended