Are We There Yet???

Tuesday is our actual first day aboard the ship.  We killed time in Ushuaia until mid-afternoon walking around and having some pizza (I think this may be the universal food) for lunch.  It’s rainy today which we understand from the local is the normal weather of the region – either rainy or snowy.  I guess we were very lucky to start our trip with a little sunshine.

A bus met us at the hotel to begin the procedure to transfer us to the ship.  The Ocean Diamond has been in port since morning preparing for our arrival.  We were greeted by our new family upon entering the ship where we relinquished our passports.  First order of business was making sure our luggage arrived safely in our cabin.  Being ever organized, we unpacked before we ever set sail. 

The Ocean Diamond is a former cruise ship (by this a mean non-artic) which has been fortified to allow it to make our journey.  While not an ice-cutter, it will handle the amount of ice we will encounter.  Our cabin was large for and had a nice sized window. 

The rest of the afternoon was spent on safety, first a briefing, then a drill.  As with most well run operations, they are quite serious about this.  This also gave us an opportunity to meet some of Quark’s personnel that will be guiding our tour.  A mostly Canadian group, they all seemed ready to lead our group on this great adventure.  Shane is our tour director, being assisted by about 20 more in various capacities, from adventure programs to nature experts to just general help.

After completing all mandatory safety drills, we were off to the Antarctic.  We have a little over a day and a half to cross the Drake Passage before arriving at our first stop in the Shetland Islands.  I think I mentioned that this can be one of the roughest spans of water in the world.  Equipped with a variety of nausea relief, I went to the small briefing by the ship’s doctor to determine what was best.  They all seem to work well, so you are mostly managing the side effects.  Many passengers already had the transdermal patches on and should be good for most of the voyage.  I’m opting for the ‘non-drowsy’ meds over the Dramamine. 

While not the focus of the cruise, the food is still a feature non-the-less.  Since tonight was David K’s birthday, we opted for the more intimate Restaurant on deck 4. The food is the same has in the Dining Room on deck 3, but you have the advantage of looking out much bigger windows, where we could spy the last of the land before entering the passage.  Light rays shown through the clouds on our departure.  A birthday cake was delivered along with a song by the staff to mark David’s special event (turning 50).

Tomorrow: a full day at sea.