Antarctica Journal 3.16.09
I had set my alarm for 5:30 so I could watch the ship come into port in Ushuaia, but turned it off as soon as it started beeping. The next thing I knew, it was 6:30 and I’d missed the best part of the maneuvering; the ship had done a 180° turn and was slowly backing into its berth. I took a few pictures of Ushuaia in the dawning light, then went down to breakfast.
After breakfast, Kathy and I picked up our carry-ons (the checked bags had been picked up during breakfast) and went down to the lobby to wait for our disembarkation. There were hugs and goodbyes and let’s-keep-in-touches.
When we were finally allowed to disembark, we had to claim our checked baggage, which had been lowered to the pier in cargo netting. I’d planned to get pictures of that, too, but had forgotten all about it in the excitement of getting ready to go. My Badtz Maru duffle had been crushed under a much larger and heavier duffle bag (it took me several passes through the bags to even find it).
I got the bags loaded into my bus, then climbed aboard. Kathy and I sat together for the ride to the airport. I was very disappointed to have no time in Ushuaia. I expect travel agents to make arrangements in order that all of their clients receive similar experiences. Instead of arranging for travelers to have equal amounts of time in Ushuaia, the arrangements were based on whether or not you’d had a nonstop flight heading down. I’d had a nonstop heading down, so I was booked on the only flight with a stop, resulting in a total of about 45 minutes in Ushuaia, where other groups had several hours there on both legs. Very poor travel planning on the part of the travel agency, if you ask me and many of the other passengers on the short schedule!
The flight to BA was uneventful, but we received 2 meals: a cheese sandwich immediately after take-off and a full lunch after the scheduled stop (Colafate?). Instead of landing at the local airport, we were directed to Ezeizas. I called Daniel while I was waiting for my luggage, but he had a meeting and wasn’t able to come to the airport, after all. I was disappointed, but he had taken a lot of time for me before the cruise and, of course, he has a business to run. Hopefully, his planned chocolate classes in NY will come to pass and I’ll be able to extend the same hospitality he showed me.
We weren’t able to check in until 4:30 (yet another irritating result of the early flight), so I had to cool my heels for about an hour. I was a little annoyed when I had to show a second ID and answer questions about my identity, but wasn’t about to make a fuss on my way home. On my way to security, I found the Persicco booth on the second level and treated myself to one last Argentinean ice-cream. I had dark chocolate and chocolate with almonds, drizzled with chocolate sauce. Yum!
Past immigration and security, I navigated my way through the Duty Free shops so I could drop my bags in the Admiral’s club. I found Ruth there and told her I was going to go shopping, so she joined me. I didn’t find anything to buy – it was mostly a shopping mall charging higher prices than I would have paid if I’d bought them outside and paid tax.
We went back into the lounge and found Theresa and the three of us sat around talking about the trip, comparing experiences. Theresa’s flight left first, then it was my turn. At the gate, I checked on upgrade status and was told there wouldn’t be any upgrades on the flight.
After boarding, there were a couple of women who wanted to sit together and a flight attendant was asking people to switch, so they could. When one passenger refused, because he only wanted an aisle seat, the FA told him to calm down and then said “Let’s not deal with him” very dismissively to the passenger disrupting the seating arrangements. She asked me to switch out of the emergency row for a window seat much farther back in the plane and, when I refused, because I’d chosen the seat for the legroom, she just turned her back on me and went off to ask someone else. She succeeded, because someone else came and sat in the seat next to me.
The rest of the flight was uneventful and I cleared border control, baggage claim, and customs in about a half hour. I was at work by 9! Oddly, I kept expecting the cubicles to move around me, but they stayed solid. I guess I got my landlegs back pretty quickly.
Pictures from these days are available here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/7411850@N04/sets/72157616227216054/
Showing posts with label antarctica travel cruise marathon drake passage. Show all posts
Showing posts with label antarctica travel cruise marathon drake passage. Show all posts
Tuesday, April 7, 2009
Monday, April 6, 2009
Antarctica Journal 3.15.09
Antarctica Journal 3.15.09
I couldn’t sleep (no more Cokes at dinner), so I tossed and turned. I feel asleep a little after 1:30 and had to drag myself out of bed at 7:30 to shower and get ready for breakfast.
After breakfast, I repacked my duffle and then went down to the presentation room to find photos again. At about 9:30, Kathy and I went to the library to settle accounts. Some of my charges ended up on her bill, so we had some changes to make. It all went very smoothly and we were given our passports and a certificate commemorating our Antarctica landing.
At 10:30, they showed a really cool movie about rounding Cape Horn. Captain Irving Johnson had made the film back in 1929 when he was a sailor, but didn’t narrate it until 1980. I really enjoyed it and hope to buy it when I get back1.
I was feeling cold again, so I went back to my room and bundled up under the blankets. I must have fallen asleep, because the next thing I knew, the lunch announcement came over the loudspeaker. It was a pretty boring meal – creamy chicken soup, salad from the salad bar, and a chef salad wrap. Dessert was mango tart, so, obviously, I skipped it.
After lunch, I repacked my Badtz Maru duffle and carry-on backpack, then rested until it was time for the 3pm tour of the ship2. We went through the mud room and saw the old scientific/spy machinery that had been left in place because it was too expensive to remove. Is it cynical to reflect that leaving it in place means it’s available should the ship be recommissioned for active service? We saw the emergency steering mechanism, which looked like an over-sized steering wheel, rather than a ship’s helm, not to mention it faced the interior of the storage area, so the helmsman wouldn’t be able to see where he was steering. The engine room was fairly interesting, too. We went up to the bridge and saw Cape Horn for the first time. The Chileans refused to let us get closer than 12 knots, so we weren’t able to “round the Horn” in the classic sense, unfortunately. I’ll have to take a cruise from Chile, if I want to experience that.
After the tour, I headed straight for the bar for the last cookie time. More and more people trickled in, hovering around the bar, waiting for Max to arrive with the tray. Just after 4:30, we could smell cookies, but there was no sign of Max in the corridor. All of a sudden, there was a surge towards the lounge. Max had tricked us by going around the deck and coming in through the lounge. Luckily, there were enough chocolate chunk cookies that I was able to grab one for me and one for my roommate. Unfortunately, before I realized it, I’d eaten her cookie. There were still a few left on the tray, so I grabbed another and carried it up to her, before I could eat that one, too., By then, it was nearly 5 pm and time for Rupert’s Voyage Recap3 and Sam’s photo journal slideshow.
In the half hour between the end of the slideshow and the beginning of the final camera class, I went to the bar to hang out and met Kenny and Karen, who live in NY. I had to run off at 6:15, but probably should have stayed. The camera class was supposed to be an intro to Photoshop4, but Ellen didn’t seem all that familiar with it. She couldn’t show us how to straighten a horizon, which was just about the only thing I was interested in learning. She spent a most of the time showing us how to clone pixels and use them to delete things, like people and wrinkles, from photos, which I don’t really believe in. To me, a photograph is a capture of a moment in time and should be left alone. Straightening a horizon doesn’t bother me that much, but erasing people and wrinkles isn’t something I would do. All in all, I was disappointed with the class.
We were kept late again, so we had to rush off to change for the Captain’s Dinner. I hadn’t brought any formal wear (and neither had most people), but I put on a pair of dark gray slacks with my NY skyline shirt. I sat with Kenny and Karen, Connie and Mike, and Natasha and learned that the $350 fuel surcharge was really to cover an insurance policy, rather than to cover the actual cost of the fuel for the trip. I’m going to request a refund, though I doubt I’ll get it.
During dessert, there were the usual speeches, with thanks and praise going around to everyone, some deserved (the ship’s crew and staff and the Quark expedition team) and some not so deserving.
After dinner, I hurried up to my room to make sure my bags were ready for the morning, then went down to the bar to hear John play guitar and sing (I missed the new song he wrote for this marathon) and to see the Kiwis do the Haka. It was getting late (for me), so I brought down two boxes of Daniel’s chocolates as a bribe and then got my camera ready to record. Tim started the show with an explanation of the Haka, then, with much encouragement from the crowd, he and Rod took off their shirts to the thing right. It was an impressive show. I waited to see if John would do an encore of the Antarctica Marathon song, but, at 11:15, I called it quits and went to bed.
Pictures from these days are available here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/7411850@N04/sets/72157616227216054/
1 Around Cape Horn – Mystic Seaport sells it on-line.
2 Ship Tour
• Mud room – Russian spy ship, ostensibly for scientific research
• After 4 years, became tourist ship
• Sonar equipment – large microphone – too expensive to remove equipment, so it was left in
• Can go 55 days without taking on fuel or water
• Ioffe and Vavilov are sister ships: Ioffe is the receiver and Vavilov is the transmitter. Both could be used as receivers, with a sub transmitting
• Emergency steering
• Side thrusters – useful for navigating among icebergs
• Stabilizers
• 2 engines – max. power is about 14.5 knots
3 Rupert’s Recap
• Record lifeboat motor/drill
• 2 ships
• 20 zodiacs
• 4 ATVs
• 206 participants
• 36 half marathon runners
• 180 marathon runners
• 7 excursions
• 2 continental landings
• 1530.4 knots covered
• 1 knot = 1.15 statute miles
4 Camera Class 5
• ISO – light sensitivity – higher ISO = more light
• (AV?) AP – aperature priority
• TV or SV – shutter speed
• Composition is key
• Pattern is a legitimate subject
• Diagonals are good
• Picasa, Elements (can’t move pixels)
• Photoshop (can move pixels)
I couldn’t sleep (no more Cokes at dinner), so I tossed and turned. I feel asleep a little after 1:30 and had to drag myself out of bed at 7:30 to shower and get ready for breakfast.
After breakfast, I repacked my duffle and then went down to the presentation room to find photos again. At about 9:30, Kathy and I went to the library to settle accounts. Some of my charges ended up on her bill, so we had some changes to make. It all went very smoothly and we were given our passports and a certificate commemorating our Antarctica landing.
At 10:30, they showed a really cool movie about rounding Cape Horn. Captain Irving Johnson had made the film back in 1929 when he was a sailor, but didn’t narrate it until 1980. I really enjoyed it and hope to buy it when I get back1.
I was feeling cold again, so I went back to my room and bundled up under the blankets. I must have fallen asleep, because the next thing I knew, the lunch announcement came over the loudspeaker. It was a pretty boring meal – creamy chicken soup, salad from the salad bar, and a chef salad wrap. Dessert was mango tart, so, obviously, I skipped it.
After lunch, I repacked my Badtz Maru duffle and carry-on backpack, then rested until it was time for the 3pm tour of the ship2. We went through the mud room and saw the old scientific/spy machinery that had been left in place because it was too expensive to remove. Is it cynical to reflect that leaving it in place means it’s available should the ship be recommissioned for active service? We saw the emergency steering mechanism, which looked like an over-sized steering wheel, rather than a ship’s helm, not to mention it faced the interior of the storage area, so the helmsman wouldn’t be able to see where he was steering. The engine room was fairly interesting, too. We went up to the bridge and saw Cape Horn for the first time. The Chileans refused to let us get closer than 12 knots, so we weren’t able to “round the Horn” in the classic sense, unfortunately. I’ll have to take a cruise from Chile, if I want to experience that.
After the tour, I headed straight for the bar for the last cookie time. More and more people trickled in, hovering around the bar, waiting for Max to arrive with the tray. Just after 4:30, we could smell cookies, but there was no sign of Max in the corridor. All of a sudden, there was a surge towards the lounge. Max had tricked us by going around the deck and coming in through the lounge. Luckily, there were enough chocolate chunk cookies that I was able to grab one for me and one for my roommate. Unfortunately, before I realized it, I’d eaten her cookie. There were still a few left on the tray, so I grabbed another and carried it up to her, before I could eat that one, too., By then, it was nearly 5 pm and time for Rupert’s Voyage Recap3 and Sam’s photo journal slideshow.
In the half hour between the end of the slideshow and the beginning of the final camera class, I went to the bar to hang out and met Kenny and Karen, who live in NY. I had to run off at 6:15, but probably should have stayed. The camera class was supposed to be an intro to Photoshop4, but Ellen didn’t seem all that familiar with it. She couldn’t show us how to straighten a horizon, which was just about the only thing I was interested in learning. She spent a most of the time showing us how to clone pixels and use them to delete things, like people and wrinkles, from photos, which I don’t really believe in. To me, a photograph is a capture of a moment in time and should be left alone. Straightening a horizon doesn’t bother me that much, but erasing people and wrinkles isn’t something I would do. All in all, I was disappointed with the class.
We were kept late again, so we had to rush off to change for the Captain’s Dinner. I hadn’t brought any formal wear (and neither had most people), but I put on a pair of dark gray slacks with my NY skyline shirt. I sat with Kenny and Karen, Connie and Mike, and Natasha and learned that the $350 fuel surcharge was really to cover an insurance policy, rather than to cover the actual cost of the fuel for the trip. I’m going to request a refund, though I doubt I’ll get it.
During dessert, there were the usual speeches, with thanks and praise going around to everyone, some deserved (the ship’s crew and staff and the Quark expedition team) and some not so deserving.
After dinner, I hurried up to my room to make sure my bags were ready for the morning, then went down to the bar to hear John play guitar and sing (I missed the new song he wrote for this marathon) and to see the Kiwis do the Haka. It was getting late (for me), so I brought down two boxes of Daniel’s chocolates as a bribe and then got my camera ready to record. Tim started the show with an explanation of the Haka, then, with much encouragement from the crowd, he and Rod took off their shirts to the thing right. It was an impressive show. I waited to see if John would do an encore of the Antarctica Marathon song, but, at 11:15, I called it quits and went to bed.
Pictures from these days are available here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/7411850@N04/sets/72157616227216054/
1 Around Cape Horn – Mystic Seaport sells it on-line.
2 Ship Tour
• Mud room – Russian spy ship, ostensibly for scientific research
• After 4 years, became tourist ship
• Sonar equipment – large microphone – too expensive to remove equipment, so it was left in
• Can go 55 days without taking on fuel or water
• Ioffe and Vavilov are sister ships: Ioffe is the receiver and Vavilov is the transmitter. Both could be used as receivers, with a sub transmitting
• Emergency steering
• Side thrusters – useful for navigating among icebergs
• Stabilizers
• 2 engines – max. power is about 14.5 knots
3 Rupert’s Recap
• Record lifeboat motor/drill
• 2 ships
• 20 zodiacs
• 4 ATVs
• 206 participants
• 36 half marathon runners
• 180 marathon runners
• 7 excursions
• 2 continental landings
• 1530.4 knots covered
• 1 knot = 1.15 statute miles
4 Camera Class 5
• ISO – light sensitivity – higher ISO = more light
• (AV?) AP – aperature priority
• TV or SV – shutter speed
• Composition is key
• Pattern is a legitimate subject
• Diagonals are good
• Picasa, Elements (can’t move pixels)
• Photoshop (can move pixels)
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