January 19, 2008 - Aboard Professor Multanovskiy
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We had an early breakfast as the Zodiac departures had been announced for 8:!5 AM. It was snowing quite heavily. My instinct was to stay back or at least leave the Camera bag and equipment behind. The "What if" question forced me to carry my camera bag and my sunny optimism about the snow stopping shortly forced me to hop onto the Zodiac!
We cruised around on our Zodiacs with 50-metre visibility and falling snow for the next 90 minutes or so. My "waterproof" pants were soaked and the wetness had seeped through my trousers as well. The camera bag was taking a pounding from the Snow and I tried to shelter it as much as a Penguin Parents shelters her new born between her legs during the winter months.I did not open my camera bag and take a single picture. There is absolutely no sense in ruining $4K worth of equipment by trying to capture a still, grey sky and dark waters!
My fingers were numb. Unlike many folks who ad bought their monster gloves with them, I had chosen some lighter gloves as they would enable me to operate the Camera easily as well. The constant snow had soaked the gloves and my fingers were cold and numb. When the Zodiac driver decided to return to the ship around 9:45 AM, I was overjoyed!
On reaching the boat, I had to request someone to pull my gloves off and undo my life vest! It was most certainly a far from pleasurable experience. Almost all of our "Waterproof" material had allowed water to seep in. Mike, Antti and I all hung our waterproof pants, regular pants and gloves to dry in our cabins. I had a hot shower to restore my body circulation.
I must mention one thing about the gear we were given. The Quark expedition Jackets consists of a Gore-Tex outer layer and an inner fleece layer. We were all provided these Jackets by Quark and get to keep it as a souvenir. To a person we felt that this was the best Jacket for winter wear, PERIOD. All I wore was a cotton shirt under the Quark Parka. My upper body (with the exception of my fingertips) never experienced even an iota of the cold Antarctic weather. Kudos to Quark for designing this and giving it to us for free. To top it all, it is "Made in Vietnam" ! Ah, the Joy!
Although the final Zodiac cruise of the voyage was scheduled in the afternoon, I decided to stay in as did many others. I copied my pictures to my hard drives and spent time chatting with the other passengers. The Zodiac voyagers did not see anything apart from a few fur seals. I did not miss much by staying in.
The post dinner entertainment was the Hugh Grant movie "Love Actually". I passed and went to bed.
January 20, 2008 - Aboard Professor Multanovskiy
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We had started our way back to Ushuaia, Argentina and were on the Drake Passage. I started my course of Phenergan (Motion sickness pills)! During Lunch, Tim (the Kayak Master) mentioned that on a scale of 1 to 10 where 1 represents DRAKE LAKE (CALM) and 10 represents DRAKE SHAKE (you get the idea), we were experiencing a 4!
Many of the folks have already started skipping Lunch by staying in their Cabins. I slept between Lunch and Tea but tried to stay awake between Tea and Dinner by chatting with folks and playing cards. The sea had calmed a bit by now. However, worse weather is predicted for tomorrow.
We watched "Ice Age" after dinner. Quite a bad movie. I cannot believe how folks on the ship thought highly of this!
I read a bit of Bruce Chatwin before falling asleep.
January 21, 2008 - Aboard Professor Multanovskiy
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I could not sleep beyond 5:30 AM. I got up and shaved and showered despite the heavy rolling of the ship! Breakfast was Scheduled at 8:30 AM. We heard heavy crashes and sounds of glasses breaking a few times and before we knew it breakfast was cancelled. If we wanted something to eat, the Kitchen staff could perhaps give it to us in our hands. No sit down breakfast as the plates and glasses had broken twice already due to the heavy rolling!
Antti and I had some OREO cookies. I went to the Bridge to take it the sight. I saw waves washing over the Bridge windows! I returned to my cabin and had a nap until Lunchtime. It was still quite bad. The ship was rolling heavily. I had lunch with a few hardy souls and we managed to put all of our food into our mouths. After Lunch, Mike, Antti and I headed to the bridge and spent some time there.We witnessed 45 degree inclines frequently and had to hold onto the supports to keep from flying from the right side to the left side of the bridge and back! I headed back to the Cabin, read for a bit and had a short siesta.
We had tea at 4 PM and played cards afterwards. Around 5 PM we started cruising into calmer waters. We had crossed the islands at the Southern tip of South America and they were protecting the ship from the heavy swells that we encountered while crossing the DRAKE passage. Today was to be our farewell dinner and it was delayed until 8 PM. We were all asked to settle our shipboard accounts with the restaurant manager.
I exchanged $500 in Travellers checks to $500 cash (All I had to do was Sign the checks without dating them). I settled the ship tab and provided tips to the Russian crew and the Kitchen Staff. The expedition staff were not included in the Tip suggestion list. The Tips for the Russian crew and the Kitchen staff was well worth it. I would not grudge it at all. The number of times the Russian crew had to work to unclog the toilets because some idiot in our group had thrown something there that was not to be thrown in there! I think people sometimes lose it completely when they leave home! As Tim (Kayak Master) rightly said "Perhaps they should make an announcement that if you cannot put it in your mouth, do not flush it down the toilet".
We had farewell cocktails at the Bar at 7 PM. There were speeches from all the expedition staff as well as some speeches from passengers. The gist of it being "we are a great group of people - expedition staff" and " the expedition staff are fantastic - passengers". I completely concur with the passengers´ sentiments. This is the best expedition staff I have seen in all my travels. I have to hand it to Quark on this one. Martin was clearly the expedition leader and the entire crew´s prior experience on the Antarctic was clearly on display.
We had dinner at 8 PM. Far more people showed up than had been showing up for the past 2 nights :) The farewell dinner was decent. After dinner, we returned our shoes and life vests to the staff. We were treated to a Slideshow of pictures from our 14-day voyage. Most of them were taken by Jaime (Expedition Naturalist) and a few were contributed by members of our group. We were told that QUARK would send us a DVD of our voyage in 2-months or so. We shall see.
Martin told us that today´s situation could be compared to a violent storm and Tim said it could easily be a 5 of his scale. I am glad to have survived it!
We returned to our rooms and packed up. The ship had dropped anchor for the night in these calm waters. We would start sailing again around 3 AM or so and try to be in Ushuaia (Argentina) by 7 AM tomorrow.
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