December 29, 2107

 Today was the final day of the Antarctica Experience portion of the cruise. When we awoke the ship had reached Antarctic Sound with the expectation of cruising in Hope Bay. There was a one meter swell and the wind was 50 km per hour from the southeast, temperature was 0° C and snowing. The visibility before 8 a.m. about three km but gradually reduced and the photos are pale, not as distinct as when the sun is shining. There were large icebergs and areas of the tiny “bergie bits”.  Some of the icebergs were larger than ship!

   After breakfast with Mike and Cathy from Colorado and Phil and Marlene from Toronto, we bundled up and walked on the Promenade Deck 3 for 40 minutes. By 10:30 am, an announcement was made that Hope Bay had ice in it, so the ship would be steering out of Antarctic Sound toward the northwest and the fog horn was used several times during the late morning and in the afternoon. It was time to go in for a nice warm hot chocolate.   Steps 6,314

    For lunch, we invited Jan and Doug to join us in the Pinnacle Grill to celebrate their 45th wedding anniversary today. (On January 1, 2018, we will have been married 500 months.) They had gone for a soak in the hot tub this morning to say later that they dipped in water in Antarctica.  Again today, by the hot tubs and the pool with steam rising from them, there were two 50 cups thermos covered in quilted covers, one containing hot chocolate and the other bouillon for people to drink to warm up. After lunch, the four of us met Joyce and Shin for a game of Canasta in the Lido buffet.  We watched the snow or rain falling past the windows during the afternoon. Visibility was about one kilometer.

    Jerry and Violet did not join the game, but attended the Antarctica Expedition Team lecture “Disaster and Luck: The 1902 Swedish Antarctic Expedition”, presented by Dr. Peter Carey.  After the card game ended we checked the voyage map and saw that the ship is travelling away from Antarctica towards Elephant Island.

    Jerry and Violet opted to go to the movie, “Antarctica: Ice and Sky” which started during dinner. Joyce and Shin helped us celebrate Jan and Doug’s 45^th wedding anniversary with wine and special anniversary cake at dinner.  The sky started to clear slightly, and the fog had lifted.

   Tonight’s dinner choices were: Appetizers Chicken Orzo Lemon Soup, Corn & Zucchini Soup with crabmeat and Shrimp Mango and Citrus plate; then entrees of Baked Chicken with Spanish Rice and Prime Rib of Beef with Yorkshire Pudding and mashed potatoes. Finally, for dessert we chose Mint Chocolate Ice Cream to go with a special anniversary chocolate cake, different from the lunch cake.  Jan and Doug brought a bottle of Chilean Merlot, a gift from their Valparaíso host for their anniversary, that the wine steward opened and poured for the six of us.

   After dinner, we bundled up and went to Deck 3 to take some photos of the most northern island of the South Shetland Islands, Elephant Island.  It was the place where Shackleton left 22 men from his expedition to wait for him and a small team to bring rescuers for them in 1916.

  Tonight’s entertainment in the Mondriaan Lounge is Francisco Yglesia, a harp player and former member of the Group Los Paraguayos.  He was accompanied by the five-piece orchestra and the harp was amplified.  We prefer the sound of the harp without amplification and went up to the Crow’s Nest on Deck 9 to see the coast of Elephant Island as the ship passed it and look at the maps for our passage through Antarctica. The maps still needed to be updated for yesterday and today’s journeys. A fog had rolled in about three meters above the water and extending seven or eight meters above the ship. You could see patches of blue sky peeping through the fog. The captain was using the fog horn because of the thick fog.

   About 9:15, the captain announced that, although the ship was passing Elephant Island, the fog was too thick to see anything and the ship did not angle any closer to the island. The fog horn sounded intermittently throughout the night.  On a clear day, you could see the 1916 site where Shackleton’s crew waited to be rescued more than 100 days with only two overturned boats as shelter for 22 men.

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