March 11 – At Sea

Today we continued our cruise south to Cape Horn.  You can tell we’re getting closer to Antarctica because it is definitely getting colder and nobody is going to the outside pool deck.  Everyone is staying in the solarium.  If I can remember my geography correctly, I think we would be the equivalent to southern Hudson Bay and the season would be early fall.  The high today was fifteen but there was a brisk breeze.

During the morning we attended a lecture by a naturalist who goes by the stage name of MickeyLive.  In a very humorous way he explained what the changes in our course meant by displaying GPS generated maps.  He told us when to expect the legendary high winds and seas and told us not worry as they were not as bad as history books had told us.

He told us that we should feel fortunate because of the medical delay we will now be transversing some of the more interesting sites, such as the Chilean Glaciers, during the day while most cruises take a different route and sometimes pass along these sites at night.

He showed us areas along the route where we could expect to see different forms of wildlife.  We should be able to spot humpback whales, penguins, porpoises and assorted birds.  He told us at what time we would be passing these locations.  He is also going to provided lectures from the observation deck during this time.  So we’ve booked six to eight in the morning on Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday.

Mickey also explained how the different shaped valleys were formed.  If the valley is shaped like a sharp “V”, then valley was created by a glacier moving forward. If the valley is a smooth “U” then it was formed by the erosion from water of a melting glacier.

In the afternoon we had planned on attending a lecture on wine and food pairing. Unfortunately we were too late.  I’m sure it will be presented again sometime during this cruise.

In the evening we went to the theater to see a lounge act by Travis Turpin.  On the positive side I will say he had a good voice and a very funny act.  Unfortunately the act is very dated.  He performed impersonations of Frank Sinatra, Sammy Davis Jr., Dean Martin and of course Elvis Presley.   He showed a video of his family and joined in a family sing along.  Of course there was a good portion of the old American red, white and blue and football.  I can’t help but think had this been 1971 it might have been a great act.

For dinner we both had Moroccan lamb shanks.  It was excellent. Keith, our dining room companion has been getting everyone to have a glass of port after each meal. I’ve grown to like the taste but I’m sure it is not too good for my diabetes.