Antarctica chapter 11
And back again: Re-crossing the Drake Passage.
We’ve begun our trip back across the Drake and the ship is rolling. Barf bags have reappeared, tucked into the railings by the stairs.
Outside, it’s foggy and there’s little chance to see wildlife. I head to breakfast and Marina’s father asks to join me. I make introductions and he tells me Marina has told him about me.
I ask him about his job, curious about the life of a pilot, and he tells me that the pilot doesn’t touch the controls. Formally, they give commands to the captain who relays them to his crew. It’s his job to know the ins and outs of the harbor and to navigate the ship to port. It was a detail I had missed, assuming that he took the helm himself.
We talk about his work and his plans for the future. We talk about boats and his wife. He tells me that she’s done multiple Atlantic crossings by sailboat, once with a couple and their newborn.
I ask him who’s the better sailor, he or his wife. He says he is; she doesn’t take command though she’s a great sailor and a fantastic cook. She’s a great person to have on board. He tells me they’ll have me over when I’m in Rio. His wife will make moqueca. I tell him I love moqueca and he seems surprised. It reminds me of my first few years in New York where we’d occasionally lunch at Coffee Shop in Union Square. The moqueca was my favorite dish there; worth the splurge to my modest budget.
Home-cooked moqueca? I can’t wait.
After breakfast Laura gives a talk about global warming and climate change, careful to draw a distinction between them. The former is used to describe the rising global temperatures due mainly to the increase in greenhouse gases. The latter refers to increasing changes in precipitation, temperature, wind patterns, etc. over long periods in time. It’s informative if a bit of a downer.
Vide follows with his third presentation of the voyage, this one on the underdogs of Antarctic exploration. He regales us with stories of the German expedition and a Japanese one undertaken during the age of Antarctic exploration. It’s as entertaining as it is informative.
Our next activity is centered around knots as the expedition team gathers in the briefing room to show us how to tie various knots. I once again learn how to tie a bowline, Cherese showing me a simple technique to create the loop I need to represent the hole the rabbit needs to run into. I consider moving onto the butterfly knot, which Andreas admits is a little tricky, but focusing on the line in front of me threatens to make me nauseated and so I leave to take some air.
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In the afternoon the dining room is transformed into work stations and we’re invited to make dumplings. I thank Heidi for adding this to the roster. The tables are full of volunteers. Demos are given and those that know show those that don’t how to make the little dough purses. Unfortunately, the fillings run out before the enthusiasm. Vivian arrives to to wrap up the last of ours and we wait patiently, hoping the kitchen will produce more; it can’t.
After dinner (where the dumplings all served) all of the passengers are invited to play Shark Bingo with Kris. It’s bingo, but with shark mayhem added in. We play two sets, each with a winner at one row or column, two rows or columns, three, and then blackout. Each winner gets to select a prize and then must wreak havoc on the room while the shark song plays.
Kris shows up in a penguin costume. He’s shaved his beard to mimic that of a chinstrap penguin, a colony of which we had hoped to visit. Weather had made that landing unfeasible.
I win the blackout round and don the shark helmet, running around the room ripping up people’s cards and throwing them in the air. One woman holds steadfastly onto hers and I’m at a loss as to why. Seeing people filming the antics, I grab a phone and take selfies with Kris.
Vivian wins another round and chases Kris around the room. The boat has been rocking in the Drake and it’s too much for her. She vomits into a bag, but she’s undaunted and stays. A woman wins and steals Ethan’s shoe, which she hides. Later, when asked where it is she says she can’t remember. I’m drunk!
The final winner mixes drinks and encourages Kris and Jeff to drink with him. Kris gets on the ground and tells him to leapfrog over him. It gets lost in translation and from where we’re sitting it looks more like the winner is trying to mount the penguin. Vivian’s mom captures it on camera.
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After the festivities are over Dilini, Kris, and I play Monopoly Deal. Ellie’s feeling the ship a little bit and retires early. As the night wears on Dilini decides to call it quits. Kris asks if I want to play another round. I tell him it’s up to him; I don’t have to wake up in the morning but he does.
I shuffle and deal the cards. He asks me if I’d ever want to be a guide; he thinks I’d be a good one. I tell him I don’t think so; I don’t know if I could handle dealing with some of the passengers. Though I also say I can see all of the benefits and share one of the things a guides told me: how peaceful and wonderful it is to alone be in a Zodiac surrounded by ice before picking up their first guests. Sometimes they’ll lie down in the Zodiac and look up at the sky and breathe.
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By the time I wake up the next morning we’re close to the Beagle Channel. The skies are overcast but the seas are calm.
I run into Kris and tell him I’ve rethought my postition on being a guide. Given the right opportunity and where I am in my life I would definitely consider it. He thinks I’d be good at it.
The first lecture of the day is on plastic in the ocean by Carina, followed by a demonstration by Eilidh on how to use the Orca ocean watchers app. The app helps her organization protect ocean wildlife.
She had shown me the app on one of the first days of the cruise and so I head up to deck 8 to take in the scenery and admire the unbroken sea before we once again caught sight of land.
In the afternoon, we’re invited to do arts and crafts in the deck 8 restaurant. Tamsin shows us how to make penguin bookmarks and we set ourselves to the task, selecting our colored squares to use as our bodies, picking out complementary scraps for the eyes, flippers, and beaks.
Outside a pod of dolphins has been spotted and I get up to take a look. They’ve come to greet us as we navigate the channel. They surf our bow wave and then depart just as suddenly as they had arrived.
We play hand after hand of Monopoly Deal in the lounge. It’s down time for the guides as Vide, Heidi, Cherese, and Kris join us. I offer to buy them drinks. Duties are light, and I buy a round for everyone.
Before dinner there’s to be a charity auction. Someone lets slip that that a chart of our voyage will be up for grabs and suddenly I’m determined to bid on it. I give Dilini my limit and tell her not to let me exceed it. Vide tells us that on past cruises someone bid north of $10,000 US for the expedition flag.
By now we’re well into the channel and the verdant hills look close enough to swim to.
Vide disappears, reappearing dressed for the occasion. A fair number of people have gathered for the auction. Proceeds will go to Happy Whale, the South Georgia Heritage Trust, and the African Albatros Association.
The first item up for sale is a polar plunge pin. These were once given out to participants, but that practice has been discontinued. It’s now one of a few pins left. The bidding starts low but steadily climbs into three figures. Ultimately, a Chinese man in the back of the room places the winning bid and a round of applause accompanies his success. He beams.
Next is the opportunity to name a whale. A photo of the tail of a humpback whale that was spotted on the trip is shown on the screens; it’s been uploaded into the Happy Whale database and has yet to be named. The bidding starts a little higher. The German couple enter a bid as do the newlywed couple. By now it’s an open secret who the couple are.
A dinner with Syzmon is the next lot. Vide starts the bidding at $100. The room is silent. Vide calls again for bids; his eyes search the room. He calls once again and I raise my hand. The bidding ends at $100. I invite Ellie and Dilini to share in the spoils.
The next lot is two nights at a luxury safari lodge in South Africa near Kruger. It’s a beautiful lodge and the bidding starts surprisingly low for the value it provides. Ultimately a couple from Connecticut win the lot well below market value. They’re thrilled.
The expedition flag is up next. It’s been flying above the ship for the duration of the voyage; its edges are tattered and frayed from the wind. The bidding starts low and creeps up. At $150 it’s sold to a Czech couple that have been a joy to see on the boat. Vide tells us they got a deal, over $9,800 US less than what others have paid in the past.
Finally the chart is up for bids. Cherese has painted penguins, an albatross, a fur seal, a humpback whale, and a red dragon upon it. The bidding starts and I immediately place the first bid. Bidding goes around the room. A Chinese man in the corner, Vivian’s parents, the couple from Connecticut, the Indian man who won the polar plunge pin.
The bidding hits my max and moves slightly beyond. I bid one more time and hold my breath. Going once. Going twice. Sold.
Cherese brings me the chart and tells me she’s happy I won. Vivian asks if she can take a photo with the chart, followed by a crowd of people A woman tells me I should charge money for photos. I smile and tell her I’m happy to collect from her. She demurs.
The couple from Connecticut tell me they stopped bidding when it was clear how much I wanted the chart. I tell them they got an amazing deal on the safari. They agree; they’re ecstatic.
I ask Szymon if he can help ask the officers to sign the chart. He tells me it’s not a problem. I give it to him to take to the bridge. The Czech couple ask the guides to sign the flag, which they happily do.
People ask if dinner with Szymon is an intimate affair. Whether there’ll be a special table with candlelight. Whether there’s a special dining room. I tell them I expect a violinist.
At our final briefing Tammy presents a slideshow of our trip. Previously, she had offered a slideshow of the polar plunge, and it was great seeing the different ways in which we approached it and how she captured us. The slideshow of the trip interspersed photos of us with those of what we had observed.
The last photos are of the wedded couple on Portal Point. The photos are amazing and if I hadn’t already felt teary-eyes before, I now find tears running down my cheek. By now it’s an open secret who they are and I’m so happy that they’ve decided to share their joy with the rest of us.
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In the end, dinner with Szymon is at a table in the main dining room. Ellie and Dilini join as do Ethan and Adele. We eat and drink and start the celebrations for our final night on board. It’s the first act of many.
A small boat arrives after dinner to drop off the pilot who is to take us on the final leg of our journey. Marina’s father is standing by the window looking down at the boat and I ask him if he’ll meet the pilot. He’s not sure.
A group of us head to the briefing room to play Monopoly Deal, what’s become a core group of the trip. Szymon, Laura and Cherese join us. We have two decks: Carl’s and Heidi’s. Kris’s deck has been missing for the past few days and no one can figure out where it’s gone. I buy a bottle of wine, cocktails are procured. A second bottle is purchased; things get sloppier from there.
Szymon manages to finagle another bottle of wine (or two) before the bar closes for inventory. Tomorrow they’ll have to turn the ship around, tallying up what’s been consumed this trip and refilling the stocks for the next voyage.
We play into the night until finally someone decides it’s time to go to bed and the party breaks up. We have a very early morning wake up call as we’re to begin disembarking at 07h. Our bags need to be placed outside of our rooms by 06h. The wakeup call will be early. Our final request of Szymon is that he starts with three Good mornings. Till now he’s said it twice. He agrees. We tell him we’ll be listening for it.
I find it difficult to convince myself to go to sleep. I don’t want to forget any part of the evening or of the trip. I play my memories over and over, hoping to capture every detail. Outside, it’s calm and warm and I step out onto my balcony to take in the evening from the Ocean Albatros one last time.
Good morning, good morning, good morning. Szymon greets us, true to his word. I get up and get ready to disembark, packing my final items into my pack and putting it outside the door.
I step out onto the aft decks to admire the sunrise behind us. It’s a beautiful farewell.
Thanh invites me to take breakfast with her. Her partner is still sleeping. They’ve delayed our disembarkation slightly (our ship is still under sail) and they have a little more time before they have to be out of their cabin.
It’s great spending a little more time with her at the end of our voyage. She tells me how relaxed she’s been being divorced from the world and how she’s going to look to find more time for herself. I think it’s wonderful and offer full-throated support for the idea.
Arriving at the port we use our thrusters to push ourselves into our berth. A few other cruise ships are already docked and I watch from the balcony of my room as we’re tied up to the dock. My sheets have already been stripped and I ask Ari if it’s ok if I am in the room. She tells me it’s fine as she busies herself with others. I say goodbye to her and thank her for all the work she’s done.
We’ve been broken up into groups for disembarkation and given bus numbers. I’m on one of the early buses not going to the airport, along with Dilini and Ellie. It’ll take us to a spot for people to leave their luggage before their later flights. I’ve booked a hotel near the drop off point in the interest of minimizing the distance I have to carry my luggage.
The guides are lined up to say goodbye. Cherese had told us how she doesn’t like hugging people and has a technique to dissuade people from hugging her. She’ll give a very long awkward hug to the first person in line; usually this discourages others. I hug each of the guides in turn and tell Cherese I’m going in for the awkward hug. She laughs and obliges.
On the bus I look back at the ship. The remaining passengers are waiting to be called to their buses. I see Marina and dad standing in one of the large windows on deck 5. I wave, but they don’t see me.
Dilini’s flight isn’t until the afternoon and Ellie is staying another few days in Ushuaia. We decide to have lunch before Dilini leaves and I offer to store Ellie’s bags before she has to check in to her hostel.
We brunch at a cafe in town. We see a few of our guides seated in the back. The German couple occupy a table near the front.
After brunch we walk Dilini back to where she’s left her bag. She calls an uber and we say our goodbyes. She’s headed north to continue her travels through South America. Soon she’ll be on another cruise, this time around the Galapagos in search of sea turtles, one of her father’s favorite animals.
We embrace and then watch as her car merges into traffic and winds its way towards the airport. I walk Ellie to her hostel and we make plans to have dinner that night. I want to take a nap.
Passing a comic book and game store I see that they have Monopoly Bid. The packaging is the same and I chalk up the name change to translation. The cards on the box look simpler, but I imagine it’s a more stylized way of portraying them. I buy it to replace Kris’s missing deck and look for a guide to give it to.
I pass the spa manager on the street and ask her to give a package to Kris. I lament the fact that I hadn’t had the opportunity to avail myself of her services. She welcomes me aboard another time. I text Kris to seek out the spa lady.
Later, after buying another pack for myself, I’ll open it to play with Ellie to discover that it’s a much-simplified version of Monopoly Deal, designed for small children. I’ll text Kris to tell him that the gift is in no way a reflection of my opinion of his mental capacity. I’ll give mine away to a young girl passing on the street with her parents, explaining to them I bought the wrong game. The girl will practically dance away, hugging the game tightly as she twirls in the presence of her parents.
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Ellie texts me to tell me she’s run into Mirjam and her brother. They had been traveling with their mother and had spent a lot of time with her as she didn’t speak much English. They’ve invited us to join them for drinks at a bar later. I tell her I’m planning on seeing the Ocean Albatros off but will come join them after. They’re scheduled to embark at 20h.
I make my way back towards the port at around 19h and find a bench by the parking lot upon which to sit. The ship sits behind another and I wait, the relative warmth of the afternoon slowly seeps out of the early evening.
A horn bursts through the air. Lines are cast and the ships are under way. The Ocean Albatros slides slowly through the Channel, headed west; first to South Georgia before turning south once more on its penultimate cruise of the season.
I watch until the ship is a mere suggestion on the horizon. The sun has set; the light fades. I turn to walk up the hill to the bar—to share a drink with new friends, to toast friends just departed. 🇦🇶
27-29 February 2024
