Cruise nr. 71 got off to a fabulous start. There are two ships on the Australis line cruising from Punta Arenas to Ushuaia and back – but one is old and the other (ours! Yeay!) is still very new. They’ve "only" completed 71 trips so far, BUT more importantly... the captain was serving on the Mare Australis (the older vessel) for years before he jumped ship! We had a few waves at around 4am, but so far nothing stomach-churning. It’s actually a surprisingly smooth ride and our cabins are outfitted with a big picture window, duvets to keep us toasty at night, and a hot shower to make you think all is normal in the morning. We certainly went down to breakfast feeling energetic and refreshed!
This morning we moored in Ainsworth Bay opposite the Marinelli Glacier. It’s quite disconcerting to see that the glacier used to stretch beyond where we are at anchor, and now it is a white mass in the distance. Makes the talk about receding glaciers all too real.
We had a safety talk last night about life vests, best way to get in and out of the Zodiac and safety precautions we need to take on each “expedition”. So we waddled to the Yamana lounge for pre-disembarkation instructions. I say waddled because I was wearing layers as per instructions, including: underwear (duh), tights, hiking socks, hiking boots, cargo trousers, waterproof over-trousers, undershirt, t-shirt, sweater, outdoor windproof jacket, life vest, scarf, gloves, fleece hat... by the time I had to get my rucksack on with my sunscreen and water bottle... I was feeling just a tad constricted. When we got to the Yamana lounge, we were told to “fasten our tails”. Basically a strap that comes down the back of the life-vest, in between your legs, and then clips onto the front of the vest. Make it too tight, and it can be quite uncomfortable... wear too many layers and it may be virtually impossible to bend over to grasp the tail! I found a method that really worked for me – standing with your feet about a metre apart, start swinging back and forth until the “tail” swings up far enough in front for you to catch it. Since there were lots of people crowing around, armed with cameras, I might make it onto America’s Funniest Home Videos yet...We're ordered into the dinghies in military (but always friendly!) fashion by the Expedition leaders - Mauricio, Patrizio, Rodrigo and Mathias. Naturally, there's always a few people that HAVE to push. It's not like they're going to leave you behind unless you make it to the front of the queue by brute force... but maybe the German survival /beach chair monopolisation instinct is so well-ingrained that even when the ship is NOT sinking and there's no sunning at the other end, they need to make it to the little boats first. I bet they could even give the average Chinese tourist a run/shove for their money!
There was suddenly one spot left in a boat and everyone was waiting for someone to fill it - but no one wanted to leave their other half or group. So I volunteered to be *gasp* separated from my nearest and dearest (and family) and hopped in to the boat. Means I caught some cool pictures of my brother and mother arriving and scrambling off the boat.
Ainsworth Bay, for all its beauty, doesn't have a lot of exciting things going for it EXCEPT for amazing scenery and an Elephant Seal colony th
at is purported to be there more often than not in the main season. To be fair, we did see a few of the animals - one dead (the main Man, poor thing), one comatose (his first "wife", sleeping with the occassional yawn that elicited excited "aaahhh!"s from the assorted tourists), and the escapee on the island just off the coast that had presumably seen our ship arrive and legged (finned?) it to the other side to escape camcorders. Sometimes I wish I had a camcorder rather than a normal digital camera - seeing the big mass of the Escapee hump and bump its way out of the water onto the dry was definitely worth standing in the freezing wind! The expedition leaders are excellently informed and proceeded to give us an overload of information - About the Notofagus Lenga (or dissiduous tall birch? beech? not sure) and its shorter version the Coihue. About beavers and their destructive impact on the forests. About berries that tasted like apples - which we all bravely tried - and the Devils' Strawberries that apparently didn't taste like much of anything, but would create a bad stomach problem - which we all wisely avoided. Too bad, could've been interesting... and just the ticket to counteract all that white bread that they seem to love dishing up here!
No comments:
Post a Comment