Antarctica Arrive30 Dec 2010
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Team Antarctica ready to brave the Drake Passage
The Plancius
View of Ushuaia
| Departed Ushuaia yesterday on the Plancius of the Oceanwide Expeditions cruise line. 97 Passengers + 45 Crew/Staff. It´s a 3,000 ton ship with 7 levels. Lowest two levels are the engine room, water treatment, de-salination, grey/black water, fire control, etc. of which we (Lidia, Elizabeth, Cary & I) were the only passengers to request and receive a tour thereof. VERY noisy as there are three 16 ´cylinder´diesel engines that drive generators developing 2.1 Million watts of power for the electric motor that drives the ship´s propeller; we had to wear serious headgear (noise mufflers) while we conduct our one hour tour. Uppermost, seventh, level is the bridge from where the captain and his staff drive the ship. I spent a lot of time up there while in transit, watching, asking questions, and shooting the breeze with the Russian and Dutch crew. The other four levels are the cabins, kitchen, dining room, lounge, library, outside decks, and areas for exiting/returning the Zodiacs; ten passenger outboard motor rafts we used for shore excursions and on-water ´explorations´. Our cabin was on the 4th level on the port side. It was quite comfortable, and conviently located to most everything; not that the ship was that large in the first place. The passengers were from many different countries; 45 from China (who unfortunately did not ´mingle´ very much with we others). Consequently there were really only 52 with whom we interacted. They were from the U.S., Germany, Netherlands, Japan, Brazil, Belgium, Spain, Switzerland, Italy and England. One family from Massachusetts had five children, three of whom were triplets !! Youngest was about 10, oldest 16. Strangest story (of day one) was as we awaited boarding after passing through customs. We saw an older gentleman in a wheelchair with his wife using a walker. We wondered which cruise they were going on. Come to find out, they had declared on the cruise application their health to be fine and were intending to go on our cruise !? Oh, and by the way they were in their late 90´s, and he was blind !? They were not allowed to board. We sent sail on 29 December and had a pretty mild crossing of the Drake Passage, which can be the roughest in the world. First stop in Antarctica was Half Moon Island, where our first Zodiac ride allowed us to land at and walk around on the island with a colony of Chinstrap penguins. Antarctica is amazing in size and beauty. Can´t wait to see more. Ciao for now. |
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