TravelBluebird

Actually, no questions at the lectures; they are going to hold separate question and answer sessions and take questions in “Antarctica Central” which is a room off of the Crow’s Nest where the experts will sometimes be along with maps, charts, etc. DH feels a cold is coming on. We have mostly stayed in the room this afternoon, with me running out to take photos of ICEBERGS and taping further installments of my vlogging series. I have 4 taped so far, but only 2. up due to internet issues. I hope I can get some more downloaded while I’m on board We will dine alone tonight and see how he is doing. I hope it is a minor cold (just a stuffy nose so far) and I hope I don’t catch it. The icebergs are so impressive! The iceberg photos are all from my phone; I have even closer shots from my Nikon. No editing of any kind to these photos—you can’t improve on Mother Nature!

Had a delicious brunch in MDR. Currently watching the next lecture—on discovery history of Antarctica—in stateroom!

@perrysburg No visible HDMI port. When I looked on bluetooth for connectible devices, this is what I saw:

very comfortable but chilly on Deck 3 Promenade with doors opening and closing to outside. I wear a thermal under my shirts inside—great for deck 3 and also lido pool which is cool—I’m. Little warm in theater or in Lifo Marketplce—

Captain’s Talk was excellent—he showed us where we will be traveling and gave us the rules. It is going to be COLD—negative Fahrenheit cold with wind chill. There were a couple photos from the trip that @NorbertsNiece was on! You can see Oosterdam from Palmer Station here—behind the penguins!

Captain’s Talk was excellent—he showed us where we will be traveling and gave us the rules. It is going to be COLD—negative Fahrenheit cold with wind chill. There were a couple photos from the trip that @NorbertsNiece was on!

Great news! All Antarctica lectures will now be broadcast LIVE into staterooms. I will watch the geology one that way this afternoon! waiting for this lecture next in theater—

Ok losing internet! Offf to read more of Endurance (about Shackleton’s expedition) which is on my Kindle

@Hogladyrider It was fun and relaxing! We watched the Barbie movie which was hilarious. And thanks for the Room Service reminder! 💕

@perrysburg will look at the HDMI and Bluetooth situation when we return to the room

Good morning all! Slept in till 7:30. We fell asleep right after our movie last night 😂 We went to MDR for breakfast and found out it was brunch today instead and not opened. So we ran upstairs for coffee. Russ came down at 9:10 for seats for the captains talk followed by our next lecture. Good thing he came down early—no seats at 9:30! Pretty soon people will be saving seats at 6am—but truly they need more re-broadcast spots on the ship. Sea is relatively calm this morning! 33 F degrees at 9am. Overcast. Photo of sea was last night about 11pm

@Bill B LOL. Well SOMEONE was throwing darts at that menu 😂 I ended up also trying the Blackberry Martini. ALSO yum but nothing has beat the Chocolate one so far!

The ship is SO quiet tonight. Window seats available at Ocean Bar. No line for MDR. Quiet Lido. Has a 6am day then 2 port days and another 6am day made everyone exhausted? That is my guess. I can’t imagine a few 9 foot swells took out all these experienced cruisers! We had another lovely dinner at Caneletto’s. The rack of lamb was divine; I had an appetizer serving of the clam spaghetti—al dente pasta and good clam flavor in the sauce. Well done—I loved it! This can be such a disappointing dish if not done right. My husband had the veal meatball appetizer and raved about it (with sage). Finished with a simple bacio gelato for me and pistachio gelatto for DH. Photos tomorrow; they are on my phone which is out of battery for the moment. We have joined all the tired cruisers and have hopped into bed in PJs and are looking for a movie to watch, and its only 8pm!

Definitely taken through the window at the Ocean Bar, so I’m guessing streak on window! I did get the splash of a whale from our boat to Isla Magdalena; missed the fin by a millisecond

Captain made an announcement 1/2 hour ago. He has plotted a course through 2 low pressure systems. 9 foot swells and gale force winds—8 on the Beaufort Scale today, and 7 tomorrow. 9 foot swells, which, as he said, is a “good day in Drake Passage”. works for me! I’ve done 9 foot swells on several cruises. A bit crooked walking down the halls. Does this qualify as the Drake Lake?

We skipped lunch and are eating in Canaletto’s agin tonight—they have rack of lamb special we want to try, and service is just so e tea there. we both napped. For the Shackleton lecture, I went down at 1:30om for the 2pm lecture and it was no use-place already PACKED and none of the people were goi g to move. Got 1 seat behind a post. Good thing DH napped during entire lecture! We then went to Afternoon Tea. Great service and yummy finger sandwiches and sweet treats. Not crowded at all. Currently have. Window seat in Ocean Bar—my $5 aperitif Martini choices were espresso. Chocolate and Black ever. Hard choice but picked the Chocolate. YUM. Perfectly chilled too! Snow photo is from back home from my house sitter. OMG colder and snowpack home! It’s like we are traveling to Antarctica to get warm 😂

@Ken the cruiser That is excellent info—thank you, we are going to use that on this cruise!

Last couple of photos as we left Cape Horn area—you can see how conditions for photography (and people) deteriorated. That said, ship very steady so far. In Ushuaia, someone in town told me that for 4 days prior to us, several ships had to delay passage due to difficult seas; looking MUCH better for our Drake Passage crossing. Couple of slides from the ice lecture as well. The Chilean pilot also departed the ship this morning (he came on board around 10pm last night(. Ok, going to close my eyes for a bit!

Next up are Cape Horn including the lighthouse. Sun was out for a VERY brief amount of time when I was outside. Then it started to rain again!

Ouch these 6am early calls are quite difficult for this owl. When we woke up, we couldn’t access the bow camera to see what was going on because a mandatory video and slide show on Antarctica was all you could watch on TV. So after some room service coffee delivered at 5:50am, I ventured out and found that the bow was closed due to weather (wind and rain), as was Promenade on 3. The Crow’s Nest was packed. We could hear the commentary on Lido so we settled there in spite of very streaked windows. The ship stops with the lighthouse and most of Cape Horn in front of it for quite awhile..we ventured out to the “secret place” on 9 in front of the gymnasium. WOW the wind! I didn’t last there long but I got a few shots. After that Promenade AND the bow opened up, so I spent a bit of time on the bow and then as the wind picked back up there and the bow closed (got so windy I could barely walk to get OFF the bow); I ended up on the Promenade finally as we headed through the channel after the Cape. Got a quick Lido breakfast, and then a lovey warm shower. My coat is holding up well so far; my hands though were quite cold as was my face. Then our lecture about ice, which was excellent. Back in the room typing this and about to take a nap after the noon captain’s announcement. Next lecture is about the Shackleton voyage (Graeme Ayres). First are the early morning photos: IMG_5865.mov

I have a 6am call tomorrow for Cape Horn, so must go to bed. I’ll leave you with my favorite photo of Ushuaia, taken right after we returned from our excursion. I ran up briefly to the place at the front of deck 9–super windy, so I could only stand back near the ship. It looked a bit stormy and there was a tiny bit of blue sky—the weather was like that all day couldn’t make up it mind!

Here’s a few from the Train To The End of the World Excursion. We enjoyed it…seeing the Tierra del Fuego National Park was great, as was the stop after at the Post Office at the End of the World. It was closed (Sunday) BUT we did see some crested cara cara birds there! We also saw a fox and wild horses from the train. We were delayed getting back because one lady fell getting off the train, and broke a bone (ambulance had to be called). It is a steep step down off the train at the end; much steeper than when you get on at the beginning or for the stop in between—just beware of it!

Our lunch at Isabel’s. Empanadas (lamb) and king crab “stew”.

A couple images from our geologic talk this morning. Then images from our early afternoon walking around Ushuaia:

Wow. Finished dinner at nearly 10pm! We shared a table since everyone came back from a ton of excursions at the same time, all around 7 to 7:30pm.. Lovely group! Dinner took forever though. I think between appetizers and main course it was an hour wait. First time we’ve had any sort of delay like that on the trip. I had the watermelon and feta salad and prime rib and my husband had the tuna tartiquo and rock fish. i had over 14,000 steps today—probably not enough to work off that dinner!