Exciting news, albatrosses, lectures and upcoming Celebration Night

We begin today’s post with very exciting news to share: Captain Love has invited us to visit him on the bridge on 6 February at 11:30am. This means that we shall have a chance to see everything that goes on there and witness his 12pm “Captain Ting-Ting” message to the entire ship. Apart from the fact that he’s invited us, he’s a really very nice guy who has a warm and friendly manner. He’s from Sherborne in Dorset so we already have a connection.

Last night we were remarking how very light it is until quite late. It feels quite like Scotland in the high summer and yet we are at around 55 degrees South, where the equivalent 55 degrees North is Newcastle upon Tyne. However, at nearly 10pm, it was twilight with a bright gibbous moon, but getting cooler by the moment!

We were also noting that the ship must carry a huge amount of fuel, food and water, given that our last provisioning stop was Montevideo. They will not have provisioned at Falklands because we were anchored out in the bay and our next physical landing stop will be Punta Arenas in Chile, meaning that we shall have run on one load of goods for nine days. That’s some logistics.

Michelle gave her talk on one of our other stops in Chile: Coquimbo. It was a typical, adjective-heavy presentation full of flourishes and fun - she really is quite wonderful. Coquimbo means “Place of Tranquil Waters” and, for a location with such a lovely name, it has the most ugly piece of architecture I think I have ever seen: The Millennium Cross - look it up. We’ve seen quite a few of her presentations and, amusingly, every main square in South America cities appears to be called Plaza de Armas. It translates as “Barrack Square” which makes Ana de Armas sound a lot less attractive than she is!

Once we hit Chile we shall be traversing its 4,000 Mile coastline - the longest of any country that’s not an island - yet it’s only 125 miles wide. 

We had a very interesting lecture on gemstones from Cally Oldershaw this morning - free from the technical issues that blighted her first outing. She is the former curator for gemstones at the Natural History Museum and she really is very interesting indeed. She’s doing a series of sessions along with a colleague who will be doing Geology - we’ll report back on those as they happen.

There’s been a pair of Shy Albatrosses following the ship all day, swooping low to the water and gliding effortlessly without moving their wings. As you glance out of any window, you’re likely to see them sailing majestically by or trailing behind the ship as if they’re considering coming aboard. Maybe they’ll roost here tonight? Who knows?

The promised clean of our balcony and its glass has not happened. This is a great shame as the view is obscured by baked-in salt from the early, bouncy part of our journey.

We had afternoon tea today for a change, forgoing lunch, following various activities. Crab sandwiches and an orange and almond tart were delicious. Then a scone with jam and “clotted cream” - very nice but of course, 8000 miles away from Cornwall, it ain’t clotted cream but whipped cream that they scoop out in a very clotted cream-esque shape (there's a proper name for this shape, but I can't recall it). I have lost my sunglasses … again. I did so last year at a concert at the BIC, where they fell out of my pocket. Today, the same thing has happened, but this time, amid the clotted cream teas. I’m hoping someone will hand them into Reception. UPDATE: Yep - handed in this evening, probably by a staff member from the restaurant. Phew!

After our tea, we felt we needed to punish ourselves so hit the Promenade Deck for our usual seven laps. It was bright (no sunglasses) and very cold with one side of the ship being in full sun but a blasting cold wind and the other with no sun, but slightly more sheltered. We hammered our way round in reasonable time - not quite our fastest, though - and then headed back to our cabin for a cuppa, a read and writing the blog.

It’s formal night tonight, so Gabrielle is going to look even more stunning than usual in a floral jumpsuit, slit to the thigh, making it look like a dress. OMG! As for me, I shall prise myself into my dress trousers which, although my size, conspire to give me a wasp waist. Add the Mr Bond white tux and the look is complete. It’ll be off to the Glass House for drinkies, then to the restaurant for a meal and finally to the theatre to see a show of shows - based on the Tony and Olivier Awards. Should be good as the resident band and troupe are pretty excellent.

Fun facts time: since leaving Port Stanley yesterday evening to midday today, we’ve travelled 198 nautical miles at an average speed of 12.5 knots. Crawling! We have a further 210 nautical miles to our next milestone (not stop) and we were 96 nautical miles south of the Falklands at midday. The temperature is 9 degrees and the water is 8 degrees. We pick up a pilot at around 5:45 am tomorrow and we expect to round Cape Horn at 10am or thereabouts where the wind speed will double and so will the swell. The Captain has already warned us that it may be rather bumpy so Gabrielle has her trusty wrist bands at the ready and is preparing to spend the day in bed. She’ll report on that in our next post.