Last Day On Board: Cape Horn & Ushuaia

 November 13

Cape Horn

Today is the last day on board the Viking Polaris, and for all intents and purposes the final day of the adventure.  We were up and on our way to the World Cafe a little after 7 am when the first story for the day took place.  Today I was all casual for coffee in my Miami (Oh) sweatshirt and pants.  As we rounded the corner to the stairs I saw an older couple and immediately the gentleman called out, "MIAMI!"  I turned, smiled and replied what I always say, "That's the REAL Miami - Miami of Ohio!"  The wife smiled and said, "Oh we know - we are a "Miami Merger" (meaning they both went to school there and married a fellow Miamian).  We are the class of '78!"  This really surprised me, and I asked Kim afterwards, "Am I wrong or did they look at least ten years OLDER than me, not two years younger?"  For sure she replied.  

The second cool thing came moments later.  We got our coffee, sat down and I opened our email.  Now, today is the last day of our cruise/adventure.  And the first email I saw (on the right below) came from the best travel agent in the world, Nancy Nelson, reminding me it was time to register for my Christmas Markets River Cruise with Viking.  For two years running I've planned to take my niece Khloe as a graduation gift on this itinerary and it's been cancelled.  But we are going to make it this year!  We leave on December 9th and return on the 21st.  No sooner does one adventure end, then it is time to ramp up for the next!  WHOOOOO HOOOOO.

We were back in our stateroom by 8 am, just in time to change into "lighter" outerwear - since it was a balmy 45 degrees outside - and join the "viewing party" as everyone gathered on the bow to see Cape Horn.  This is the last piece of land before you reach Antarctica.  We were told that if you used your binoculars you could see the lighthouse where the keeper and his daughter had displayed the Chilean flag and would be waving to us.  The top is what we saw, the bottom two are close ups of what you'd have seen through binoculars.

In another "oh that's cool" moment of the trip......I am Facebook Friends with the local CBS-4 Weekend anchor, Karli Barnett.  She's been a very interested observer of our trips dating back to last July when we sailed the Great Lakes with Viking, to Alaska with Holland America, and then when we traveled to Hawaii with Collette Travels.  Karli hosts a weekly chat every Saturday evening for about a half hour with friends & followers and it's become "a thing" for me to update her on where we are.  And she's often commented about our trips, my photos and videos on air.  Tonight when I told her we were winding up the trip she commented for several minutes about the photos she'd seen of our trip and how amazing they were :)

One last photo op as we returned to civilization.....saw houses, cars, and even a town late in the afternoon, what's that all about?  LOL.  It was just great, and we so appreciate everyone following along on our epic adventure!

Over 1,700 social media hits through this afternoon!  Thanks for coming along for the ride!!!

Tomorrow morning we disembark from the Viking Polaris and will begin the nearly 24-hour process of getting back home to Fort Lauderdale.  We transfer from the ship to the Ushuaia airport at 9 am and our flight back to Buenos Aires departs a little after 11:30 am.  We arrive at the international airport a little after 3 pm and will then wait until 9:30 pm before boarding the final flight direct to Miami International with a scheduled landing at 5:00 am on Tuesday morning.  No rest for the weary however as we will be at the Florida Live Arena later that evening for a home game for our Florida Panthers!

Crossing The Drake Passage - Again

November 12

After being unable to have our final set of excursions yesterday we left for South America.  As Kim and I headed up for dinner in the World Cafe the waters began to pick up, in spite of the captain announcing that we were headed out because of "....a favorable weather window which will allow a comfortable journey across the Drake Passage....."  By the time we headed back to our stateroom the ship was in "full motion" and we were more than content to watch television from the comfort of our bed.  Fortunately as we headed farther and farther north into the open waters, the captain was correct.  Now....to be fair, if you've cruised before, imagine your worst time at sea when you said, "WOW the waters were rough" and when you tried to move around you were weaving around and always bracing on the walls and rails.  THAT was last night and today - and we were grateful for the "smooth" sailing as compared to the last time across these tricky waters.  Both of us slept normally, and about 7:30 am when we were completely awake we both went upstairs to the World Cafe and had coffee and a light breakfast.  We then moved farther towards mid-ship and to the comfortable furniture of the Living Room and spent about 90 minutes there.

Pics of where we've called home for nearly two weeks

The Living Room

The Explorer's Lounge - pre-dinner drinks

The World Cafe - many meals

Manfredi's - our very favorite dinner spot

The Internet - surprisingly - was strong and I was able to make and upload three short videos to Facebook for our followers to enjoy.  I think they present a much better picture of our experiences than the still photos.

Because the motion was "ok" (and it was very interesting to me that it seemed like almost the entire guest population was out and about throughout the day - everyone weaving and constantly trying to maintain their balance!) we were able to keep our reservations for dinner at Manfredi's.  At 5:30 we went to the meeting in the Aula (remember that's the big theatre/auditorium).  Look at the crowd over our shoulders......it's packed.  So, you say.....well, the ship is still "rolling" and you simply cannot walk a straight line and must hold on to which ever wall or rail that you find yourself weaving to.  And yet, EVERYONE seems to be out and about at dinner, at the meeting, like it's no big deal.  Have to hand it to the guests - roll with the punches, literally!  At the meeting the captain came out - Captain Maggie (yes, a woman has been at the helm and she's not only done a superior job under difficult circumstances but has been an excellent communicator).  In the background was a screen celebrating Viking's 25th year of business.  Note the three ships - on the left a Viking Oceans, in the middle a Viking River Longship, and on the right a Viking Expedition ship.  Yes, we've been on MULTIPLE of all three :).  After thanking everyone for being such a good group of guests Capt. Maggie expressed her heartfelt thanks for everyone being flexible because THAT is what it takes in Antarctica.  She then called out the entire crew (well, not the ENTIRE crew, some were still working!) and we had a toast to a fabulous trip!

A FULL house in the Aula tonite!

25 Years of Viking / Captain Maggie

Cheers to a great trip!

Following the meeting and toast we headed down to Manfredi's for dinner.  Fabulous as usual and when our girl, Modessa, brought our wine we asked for a photo op.  It's been great!  Not only was dinner great but looking out the windows was quite the show.  First, sitting on the first level (there is a sub level below Deck 1 where the restaurant is to be fair) we were much closer to the water so the impact of the uneven and rough seas SHOULD have been more noticeable, but it was barely noticeable that we were shifting about.  And THIS is what was amazing, because outside the waves were going from literally about the height of my head to about ten feet below me.  I kept trying to catch this on film and these two shots capture it about as best as I could.  On the left the waves are way up - at least fifteen to twenty feet high....moments later they've dropped down and are well below the window level.  Yet we rode comfortably along enjoying dinner!

Waves UP.......WAVES DOWN - WOW

Another fabulous dinner experience!

Tomorrow we are scheduled to arrive at Cape Horn at 9am and so there is a "Cape Horn Party" on the bow at 8:30 am.  Of course we'll be there!  Then we sail around the bottom of South America, where supposedly it will be very scenic AND are scheduled to arrive in Ushuaia around 8 pm.  We'll spend one final night on board and then begin the travel day home on Monday morning.

Cuverville Island

 November 10

Today was a BUSY day!  It's the first day that we've had multiple bookings.  When we left Porter Point yesterday we were not sure where we were going, but the goal was to find a spot where we could have a shore landing and see penguins.  Expedition Leader Marc explained this morning that one of the ships scheduled to be at Cuverville Island had to rush back to South America with a medical issue so their slot opened up, and here we are.  We had originally been booked for both a zodiac cruise and a special operations cruise on November 5, but the times got changed and we had to drop the Special Ops boat.  We were told we were on a "Wait List" and when we checked this morning there were no available slots.  But shortly after the 9:30 am meeting our Viking app showed that we had a 2:30 pm landing and a 6:00 pm special operations cruise!  This conflicted with our dinner reservation at Manfredi's, but as much as we love it there, we can eat any time.....but cannot ride in a special operations boat in Antarctica "any time."  The morning brought sunshine and blue skies and LOTS of ice bergs.  I cannot impress upon you enough how unbelievable these are.  Those of you who follow us know we love Alaska (been there six times!) and we've both remarked that if we saw any of the "just ok" ice bergs that have floated by EVERY DAY, ALL DAY long that I have NOT photographed, that would have been an amazing day in Alaska.  And another thing which is just mind-blowing to us is this....here is a photo from our August trip to Alaska......

Now look at the banner photo above.  We see this ALL the time, every day.  And we thought that on this day in Alaska it was so amazing to be so close to the glacier!  Just a sampling of the ice bergs floating oh-so-close to the ship......

Ice berg off the bow at the "Continental Landing" party yesterday evening

Coffee with a view this morning

The Zodiac Landing at Cuverville Island:  Home of the penguins :)

Our group was next to be called when we noticed the ship was moving......OH NO, has the weather turned and we won't get to go?  After about twenty minutes the announcement came on that the ship was moving CLOSER to land to make our journey to the landing zone easier and shorter AND to allow us more time on Antarctica.  We were called down about 2:40 pm and soon were on our way in the zodiac.  It was a smooth ride and not that cold.  Zipped through the many huge and magnificent ice bergs until there it was.....and what caught the eye immediately were the hundreds, if not thousands of penguins all over the place.  We had a "wet landing" where we slid out of the zodiac into two feet of a clear arctic water with huge stones on the bottom.  The beach was all made up of these uneven rocks but the expedition team was there to assist us to the snow steps and once there we were free to wander to the top of the crest to view the glacier & ice sculptures.  And all....ALL along the way were penguins.  The rule is you may not approach THEM to within fifteen feet, but if they come to you, that is fine.  We spent the next 45 minutes wandering up and back from the highest point we could journey and take one photo after another of all the penguins who were not shy about approaching us and about making all kinds of noise.  It was certainly one of the highlights of the trip.....and you'll notice that it was so comfortable we took off our hats and gloves! 

The landing site and snow steps

One of the M-A-N-Y penguin groups

Hangin' with the penguins

Good afternoon :)

The panoramic back drop.....WOW

Photo op amidst the locals :)

And at the top of the hill, MORE penguins!

The penguins come right up close to check you out and then waddle away

The orange poles you ask?  Mark the path we can go and "X" where we cannot

Breathtaking view of the glacier, the penguins, the ice - note the clouds & sun - just, WOW

Returning to the "beach" / landing area, penguins come to say good-bye

Y'all come back now, 'ya hear?

Thanks for stoppin' by!

The Special Operations Boat Excursion

Our original one-and-only cruise on a special operations boat had been cancelled (by us) because it conflicted with a zodiac cruise.  That was the first day here in Antarctica.  At the time there were no slots available and we were told we'd be put on a "wait list."  As of this morning we'd heard nothing, so we went to the expedition desk to ask and were told by guest services that we were not scheduled for one, and that there were no slots available.  But the helpful Viking girl said we COULD go down to the launching point and see if there were cancellations because that was happening from time to time.  We went to the morning briefing and when we left there I opened the app to see double check our landing time and BOOM there was a special ops time - at 6pm.  So after the twenty-minute or so return from our landing with the penguins we were back on board at 4:30pm with an anticipated meeting time of 5:30pm for the next excursion.  Headed up to the room and I didn't even bother to take off most of the gear as I began working on the penguin pics.  Went down at 5:30 and by 5:50 we were headed down to board the speedy boat.  We'd ridden these in July on the Great Lakes and they are super fast and fun.  This time, not nearly as exhilarating as we spent most of the time cruising slowly around the waters in search of whales.  We did see a penguin colony and eventually did find two whales.  But they were out in the distance and only once did we get the quickest of glances of a tale - mostly just saw the blow of water into the air.  Still it was great fun - chilly, but great fun.

In the hangar, READY TO GO!

And we're off, cruisin' through the arctic waters

A penguin colony from the boat (left) / Zoomed in view (right)

WHEEEEEE!  This is an "E" Ticket ride (do you know what that means?) :)

Driver's view as we search for whales

That was fun :)

And we ended the most wonderful and full day with dinner at Manfredi's.  We'd had a 6pm reservation, but obviously missed that due to the special ops adventure.  Still when we arrived a little over an hour late they graciously seated us at a table where we had great conversation with two other guests while enjoying wine and our dinner!  WHAT a day!!!