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| The sea had a beautiful, glassy quality to it. |
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| The waves look great in 3D. |
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| It is frequently a very alien landscape. |
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| I tried to capture the blue glow within the ice in the scans but it's not as good as the actual reels. |
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| Tabular iceberg goes a bit parallelepiped. |
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| An ice arch! |
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| The ice arch was very exciting. We didn't go under it because that would have been incredibly dangerous. |
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| Our ship hiding behind some ice. |
There was always something on in the Nautilus Lounge in the evenings. The Nautilus Lounge as previously mentioned was the main bar at the aft of the ship. While perfectly comfortable, it was showing some signs of wear. There were a couple of spaces where seats, which were bolted to the floor, had evidently broken. During our trip another one went out of commission. There were no fiddles on the tables and drinks were served in regular glasses so looking after them in choppy water was your own responsibility. I never lost one but others weren't so vigilant.
The evening activities varied from lectures to more standard cruise ship fare. The crew came from a wide range of backgrounds and had many talents and areas of expertise so you couldn't call any of it dull. There were lectures on the Ocean Endeavour (as previously mentioned,) experiences working for British Antarctic Survey in the '70s, along with general Antarctic history and other topics. There was an evening of music put on by the crew, the highlight of which was for me a rousing rendition of Our Home on Elephant Island. This song was written to the tune of Solomon Levi by the physicist Reginald W. James during his stint on Elephant Island along with the rest of Shackleton's men, under the wing of the dependable Frank Wild. Its chorus is "O Franky Wild-O tra-la-la-la-la-la, Mr. Franky Wild-O tra-la-la-la-la-la." And people say modern pop is nonsense.
More traditionally there were team games one evening, and near the end there was a quiz that had to decamp to the otherwise unused smaller bar upstairs after someone collapsed. They were fine, but better safe than sorry. With everyone letting their hair down now the early morning expeditions were done, things devolved into madness when we were asked to say what colour a hut we visited at Damoy Point was. But I'm getting ahead of myself.
There was also a poetry jar, where people could submit poems, some of which were read out at the end of evening briefings. The overall favourite was titled "Poopy Poopy Penguin" which sets the bar somewhere I'm comfortable. I would say that there were more serious entries, but I don't want sound sniffy about "Poopy Poopy Penguin". It was genuinely good. Of more questionable value was my own entry, which I present here because I liked it even if nobody else did:
HIPSTER PENGUIN
I was into antarctica before it was cool
My krill is organic, my style is old-skool
I'm a hipster penguin
I stand on the shore squawking squawks you don't know
My tastes are demanding but like whales yours just blow
I'm a hipster penguin
This place was all chinstraps when I first arrived
Now the whole neighbourhood's been gentoo-rified
I'm a hipster penguin
I'm just better than you, it can't be denied
I slip through the water, I skip fly and glide
You wish you could be me, we both know it's true
I'm a hip little penguin, but I think you're cool too
At the very end of the cruise there was a raffle and auction to raise money for the WWF. I bought some raffle tickets but won nothing. The auction was far too rich for my tastes. The crew dressed up in penguin onesies for the occasion and were on hand with bottles of champagne to top up the drinks of anyone who bid. This had predictable results which is of course why they were doing it. I could only marvel at the financial fortitude of those involved as a map of the peninsula which had been illustrated en route was bid up to $6000. I hope it didn't bust their luggage allowance.
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