6:30 up, 6:45 out. The weather looks clear so back to my position on the top of the ship as we head into Admiralty Bay here on King George Island. Yes, bundled up once again with four layers on the top and two (or is that three) on the bottom. We are now getting some calfing glaciers, awesome. We cruised the Bay for just over an hour before exiting to head to Elephant Island. Short commentary today for reasons I will soon disclose.
Today was really about Ernest Shackleton, from lectures to visiting Elephant island and hearing the story once again of this man’s ability to keep it all together when things are so, so bleak. The short story of Frank wild, Shackleton’s second in command looked after the welfare of 21 men for 105 days while Shackleton along with five others sailed off to look for help. The conditions were bleak as the men had to contend with hunger, thirst and bone chilling cold hoping that one day Shackleton would return to save them. We are currently in those exact waters that Shackleton and five other sailed on basically a dingy for the 800 miles from Elephant Island to the South Georgia Island in 15 days, we are covering it in 2 - and I might add in much more luxurious conditions. Speaking of which tonight we were honoured to be invited to the Captain’s Quarters for drinks before dinner. How awesome is that. The Captain’s quarters on this ship are probably the best than on any other HAL ship (well for now considering it will be leaving the fleet). Lets just say it is like a good size condo, rather than a kitchen, there is a bar, then living room, dining area combo (with big flat screen TV), an office and then a bedroom on the other side - we where not able to see. So there were about 20 guests and a half dozen officers in the dining/living area for drinks and appetizers for about a half hour or so before we were escorted to the Pinnacle Restaurant for dinner. Our table was hosted by the Ice Pilot, Jeffery Garrett and his wife Sally, awesome I thought as I had a few ice related questions for him. We had a wonderful night as we wined and dined the night away. This is why we are having a short commentary tonight. We have been burning the candle at both ends during this expedition style cruising as we are trying to get everything in, we are looking forward to a couple of somewhat normal sea days. I say that because we had a briefing on visiting the South Georgia Islands today and there are a few mandatory hoops that we need to jump through before we can actually visit there - environmental stuff - more on that later. For now, here are a few pics of our day, hope you enjoy…
Quote of the day: “Did you ever notice that the first piece of luggage never belongs to anybody?” - Erma Bombek
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