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| Penguins hanging out on the rocks. |
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| The green on the ice across the water is algae. |
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| Icebergs had often turned as they melted unevenly, leaving striking geometric markings above the waterline. |
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| Zodiacs returning to the ship. |
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| Typical view of a populated Zodiac. |
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| Some of the glaciers resembled huge sugarlumps. |
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| The lunchtime rush. |
Life on the Ocean Endeavour was well-regimented and mostly organised around meal times. At the end of the cruise, there was a roll call for all the crew during which the head chef read a huge list of items consumed during the voyage. I don't remember any of the details but it was like a royal feast in a fairy tale. The volume of ice cream alone was so vast it was a wonder it hadn't arrived with penguins perched on it.
All meals bar one were held in the Polaris dining room at the bow of the ship. They were all fairly social affairs, offering plenty of opportunity to sit with other people and groups and get to know one another a little better. With hindsight it was probably the most sociable part of the day. When out on the Zodiacs your attention was very much on the wondrous environment you were in and any formalities about which part of what country you came from and so on became, dare I say, tedious in comparison with watching a group of penguins doing absolutely sod all.
There were more formal social events in the bar in the evenings, but frankly by then it had been a very long day and after a couple of glasses of wine I was typically off to bed. There was a group of considerably younger people on board who managed to achieve hangovers after some nights at the bar, which is almost impressive in a way. I never quite got to the bottom of who they were. Some people said they were influencers, but I couldn't work out whether they just thought everyone who is young and doing something they don't understand is an influencer. Anyway, god knows what they were influencing over the ship's $100/GB internet. I spent the duration happily disconnected from the web. It would have felt wrong to travel so far and still get updates on the state of the bins in my block of flats back home.
Breakfast was a reassuringly uncomplicated affair, something which is appreciated when you've got up at 5:30 AM and showered and shaved in a cramped windowless box of a bathroom that won't stop moving. It was a buffet and consisted mostly of the usual international breakfast components. Cereal, fruit, meat, cheese, bread etc. I ate heartily but not greedily. You need to be well-fed to meet the physical demands of a morning traipsing around in the snow, but you also don't want to be waddling around like a penguin, no matter how tempting that may be.
Lunch was also a buffet and very international. Perhaps too international at times, as I sometimes struggled to select a geographically coherent combination for my plate. I am at the best of times a fussy eater which didn't help matters, but I soon learned to embrace the disparity. Who says you can't have curry on the same plate as pasta? They both taste good to me. This was a more sociable occasion than breakfast, where people are often rushing to get ready before the morning's outing. By lunch we've all been out and about and have lots to talk about. Did you see the Adelie penguin? Was your Zodiac eaten by a leopard seal? What are those young people up to? And so on.
Dinner was a slightly more formal affair, having a menu to select from and table service. Some of the dishes served for dinner were top quality, being well-presented as well as delicious. The staff worked hard during those times and although dinner was usually served while the boat wasn't moving, the Drake Passage crossings presented many tests of balance. When serving myself at breakfast and lunch it was sometimes a matter of putting one foot in front of the other and hoping for the best. Making it from kitchen to table with more than one plate is not a bet I would have taken.
Digressing slightly, walking around the ship while it's moving takes a while to get used to, especially along the inner corridors where there's no external reference. You have to aim slightly to one side of where you're heading and walk in an arc in rhythm with the swaying of the ship. In the dining room there are large windows affording a 270° view of the horizon, which takes some of the chance out of navigating your way to a table. However during some of the choppier waters the horizon alternated through an assortment of surprising and sometimes unsettling angles. Apparently we didn't encounter particularly bad seas so I can only imagine the chaos at dinner time on less fortunate cruises.
All in all the food was excellent, and the only thing that stopped us all turning into Weddell Seals were the daily excursions. A gym was also available. Yeah, right. It did exist because I found it when wandering around the ship. I did find myself exploring every inch of the ship I was allowed into, partly out of interest but also partly to get it mentally mapped. It's a bit of a maze at first although there is a logic to its layout. I will go into the details of the ship itself another time.
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