Saying good bye with class!

 

This group of passengers have been together for 60 days. As was the custom, the farewell from the Captain was held the day before our last sea day. That last day is always filled with packing,sorting and saying goodbyes. So on Friday evening,It was our turn to officially say goodbye to the crew,officers and ship.For this special farewell,the captain and crew hosted a get together for us. There were plenty of toasts to go around!. The evening started off with a short concert by one of the waiters who has a beautiful voice and on a couple of occasions before he had sang a song in a couple of programs.  The entire group of passengers were enamored with his talent and had begged to hear him one more time. I’d be lying if I said there weren’t tears of sadness and joy during his Preformance. We were then treated to a movie that had been produced using clips and pictures taken throughout the journey.It was fun to remember the trip from day 1! Then we had dinner,served by the officers, in the Crew’s Mess! It was so exciting to be allowed into the quarters of the crew. Of course the entire evening was bittersweet as many of those surrounding us have become friends. 

The first course was the most delicious crab cake ever.. in fact , I ate Albert’s too! That’s something I must remember to make more often at home!

Our table mates this evening.The two women joining me were my fellow mahjong players. We played almost daily and I can say that my skill level improved somewhat. 

Our main course was Beef Wellington. It was way too big a portion but delicious.

  

Desert was individual baked Alaska which tasted delightful. As we were finishing

The chef and pastry chef brought out a beautiful decoration of Antarctica

Some of the officers.. the great thing about Viking as a business is they fully believe in promoting from within so many of these officers started out as crewmen in their departments. The night was a rousing success and even though we were at times sad, it was such a great feeling of family that everyone at our table left smiling!

                  Thank you Polaris for the experience of a lifetime!

More Ice,Ice Baby!! Today is our last day of exploration.

 

Okay, today is cold and windy…but Im ready!

Into the Zodiac we go… Al is equally dressed for the weather.. AND it is windy, cold and there is water being sprayed onto my face,back and legs. Today is a true test of the equipment Viking has given us. Right away there is a gallon of water sloshed into my gloves…and my pants are soaked, but underneath I”m dry. Boy am I glad I wore my goggles!  Did you now that the ice has names? Like big chunks are Ice bergs, smaller ones are Bergy Bits,partially submerged ones are Growler’s and really small chunks found together are called Brash ice.  During today’s zodiac cruise we got to see examples of all of them.

Immediately after our zodiac ride, we turned around and hoped on a SOB for one last cruise. We were wet and figured why not finish our trip off with another activity .  Well, that would have been fun except for the fact that we were very wet, my gloves needed wringing out, and i found the water pants had done a good job,but not at the waist…. So our SOB ride was rather cold. Im really glad we had our gators and goggles! Our pilot took us out to open sea and looked for whales,sea lions and penguins. We didn’t see much of anything but more ice…. It was still very pretty and Im glad we went.

 

 

We enjoyed the last adventures and will remember them always. Tomorrow day and night we have a crossing of the Drake passage again until we reach the Beagle Chanel and Ushuaia. Sunday we start our trip home. 

A whale seen today

 

Linda’s penguin encounter.. I’m on my own today

 Today we had the fun of heading into sea ice. The captain decided to put the bow right into a pristine piece of sea ice as a background for taking pictures for his Christmas cards . He asked all passengers to make their way to the bow so the picture could be taken. First a picture of all passengers, then a picture of of the 80 LWC passengers and then one of the staff. It was a beautiful backdrop! 

We have an exceptional crew! 

 Cruising on the zodiac to the landing spot. A preview of the colony

More icebergs on the way.

Ive made it onto land and looking at the colony. There are three or four separate areas that the penguins are nesting. Many of the males are walking on the shore looking for pebbles to take back to a female to build a nest. 

Notice the ground color…lots of penguin poop! For once I was glad I don’t have a sense of smell much anymore.. I was told it was horrible! I have hundreds of pictures, but will include only a few more of closeup pictures some of the expedition team took so you can get up close and personal!

Carrying a pebble

It was a great outing and Im happy I got to see so many penguins in one spot!