Days 28-30 Feb 2-4

Day 28 (Super) Saturday Feb 2
Very early this morning the ship was supposed to hook up with a pilot boat at the entrance to the Beagle Channel, and anchor briefly at Puerto Williams (see if you can find that on a map!) to be cleared by the Chilean authorities. This didn’t happen because the weather was so bad, (I have to admit to taking a sea-sick pill last evening, it was already pretty rough then). At the time there were apparently 50ft waves & a Force 8 gale around Cape Horn. We were cleared by e-mail, and then made our way to a fortunately very benign Cape Horn, the weather changes so quickly in this part of the world. It was cold with a biting wind at first, but brilliant blue skies & sunshine as we rounded it (going the ‘wrong’ way, i.e. West to East, having gone round Horn island to the North at first). This to some extent made up for the disappointment of yesterday (for those of us who didn’t have a more personal involvement with the Falklands of course). Alan took back his unkind words about the captain yesterday, he was convinced we would be so far away we wouldn’t be able to see anything. We are now on our way to the Magellan Straits which we reach this evening, to get to Puerto Arenas tomorrow. Hopefully we will be able to get in there OK, also an ‘anchor port’.
Joined another quiz group today but not so amenable as our ‘regular’ group, felt like an interloper so won’t do that again! Did find out that there are cheats among us however, one of the guys had a little book full of useful facts & figures which he looked at from time to time! The lengths some people will go to for a free beer!
The Cunard singers & dancers at last did another session, ‘Funkadelic’ which was very good, followed by the excellent harpist Shirley Dominguez. Alan bought all 3 of her CDs, Trisha & Hilary bought 2. We had missed Alan & co’s stunning karaoke performance last night so went tonight, not so lively & there was at least 1 singer who sounded professional so not so enjoyable I think. Needless to say I didn’t sing, being possibly the world’s worst!
Day 29 (Sad) Sunday Feb 3
Sad because once again we didn’t make it into port, this time apparently the Chilean authorities said it was too windy for the tenders, and although the water looked pretty benign to us, it was very windy up on deck. A tug brought on an entertainer (though not her luggage, see tomorrow!) & 2 people who ‘missed the boat’ in Montevideo, & then took off Kelly Monteith and Tracey Shield, I didn’t envy them the journey in all honesty. At least we got to see the Magellan Straits in the daytime, I guess we just go slower to our next port. We heard the captain is nicknamed ‘No port McNaught’, now we know why! Spent yet more time looking for accommodation, have emailed my sister for an opinion, will definitely book something tomorrow!
It was actually a plus seeing the Straits in daylight, and apart from the people booked to see penguins, I think most people were pleased, particularly as early on the weather was good and the snow-capped mountains were spectacular. Alan certainly thought it more than made up for not seeing Punta Arenas. Some people saw porpoises (dolphins?) & penguins, unfortunately I didn’t, & nor did my ‘official photographer’, Trisha. I haven’t spent a lot of time on deck, my daughter asked me if I have a tan yet, and the answer is ‘no’, it’s very windy most of the time on deck, even when it was a lot warmer, and there’s always something else to do. Some are tanned, but mostly the Americans who embarked in Fort Lauderdale who were presumably already brown.
The weather turned very rough once we entered the Pacific this evening, the dancers & singers did really well to keep their balance while performing ‘Vanity Fair’ once more. I am feeling a little down tonight, I think a month at sea is really enough, but might be due to the fact that we’ve been at sea without setting foot on land for some time now, we’re getting ‘stir crazy’.
Day 30 (Manic) Monday Feb 4
Not really manic, just in contrast to yesterday when I didn’t ‘do’ much. Lots of people do spend most of the time reading & sitting around, I try not to, though sometimes I guess it’s good to sit & do nothing.
Went to Peter Crimes’ lecture on ‘Glaciers, Glaciation & Global Warming’ which was really interesting. He believes that sun spots are responsible for the weather, & that global warming is a myth, in fact the Earth has been cooling since 1998 and it’s all political speak in order to raise taxes. He may be right, it certainly gave us something to think about, & I bet the Americans love him. Still doesn’t mean we should waste valuable resources and destroy the rain-forests.
I stayed in the theatre for another lecture on ‘Thinking to happiness’ i.e. CBT, which in my present state of mind was a good thing to do. The weather is now lovely, bright blue skies but with a cool breeze, fortunately the sea has calmed down, had to take a seasick tablet last night, it was so rough. My large bottle of water worked it’s way to the edge of my chest of drawers & fell off in the middle of the night, I thought the television had crashed to the floor, the noise was so loud.
Hilary Kay showed the DVD of her programme on Chippendale, which was fascinating & rather sad, because he created such wonderful furniture (if you like that sort of thing) but died a pauper.
It was ‘Parade of the Baked Alaska’ in the restaurant this evening, a rather strange tradition on a cruise ship I always think, & we’re sure they use cardboard not the real thing, on this ship at any rate. It did happen before we reached New York too, only I forgot to mention it! It happens on the penultimate evening of a ‘leg’ so I guess this is the last time we’ll see it as we will have left the ship by the end of the next leg, which we think is in Sydney. Valparaiso is the end of this leg, over 200 people are getting off, which seemed like a strange destination until Trisha told us about the ‘special offer’ in the Mail on Sunday some months ago which had a really good price from Southampton to Valparaiso!
Alfreda Gerald sang ‘a tribute to the divas’ this evening, in a borrowed dress & shoes (she took the shoes off not long into her performance!). I thought she was great fun & a good singer, not a ‘belter’ and very versatile.
I didn’t go to the ‘Putting on the Ritz’ ball because my left foot was extremely painful. Finally booked very cheap accommodation in a ‘student’ place in Auckland, don’t suppose my sister will approve but I may move out on the Saturday to somewhere a bit more up-market, depending on how ‘grotty’ it is. It is at least central.
Made the ‘Midnight Buffet’ for the first time, it was a ‘special’ with fantastic ice carvings & decorated food, luckily Trisha was on hand. I’m going to have great fun adding photos to this blog once I get to NZ. I do intend to write another one once there, about ‘building the house’ (haven’t heard from Ron once I paid him, now there’s a surprise!), & any travelling I do there, rather depends on the house cost as to how much I do.