12/30/14
At sea, M/V Corinthian,
Bransfield Strait
Well, we have survived the Drake Passage, and I can see the South
Shetland Islands off to my left. It is
quite possibly the most remarkable sight I have ever seen, and I am still
sitting on a boat. We have not even set
sight on the mainland. I have also just
been informed by one of my new friends that we will make a landing on the
Islands today. I guess we made good
time.
As for my new friendships, they
are thriving, and, while I compared them to MathCamp last night, I realized
that it was NYU that would provide a more apt analogy. Hmm, we have slowed down, so I guess we are
making port now. Anyway, at NYU, I was
forced to sit out in the courtyard to smoke, and people approached me, and easy
friendships were formed. With WiFi only
available in the public spaces, it was exactly the same here.
After I closed last night, I continued my
search for the memory card. I could not
find it. I had a nagging suspicion that
it had fallen in somewhere rather than on something. I checked again the memory slot on my
camera. Something looked off. I looked more closely. Hmm, the battery definitely did not look
right. My memory card had been wedged in
with battery instead of in its correct slot.
It was no easy task to retrieve it, but I did.
I reorganized and headed back out around 3 AM
with a Cohiba. I lit up the Cohiba and looked
at the port side of the boat towards the fore.
I believed that we were travelling due south, and I knew that the sun
would rise not in the east but approximately 35 degrees off of south, somewhere
between southeast and south by southeast.
Hmm, no, this wasn’t right. 3:25
AM came with no sunrise. That was when I
figured out that we were travelling southeast.
I ran to the fore deck, and there it was. The glimmer of red and orange. The pictures were not the best, but they were
decent. I headed back inside, only to
immediately go back outside. This was
sunrise. In Antarctica. I was really going to only stay for a few
minutes? Well, the view didn’t change,
and I started to get bored, so I headed inside.
I was going to stay up until breakfast, only four hours off, but I wound
up falling asleep at 5 AM, and I was down to breakfast a little after 8
AM. I only got three hours of sleep, and
it was nowhere near enough.
I found myself next to Davie, whom I learned was Elizabeth’s
stepsister. I
knew with absolute certainty that if I roomed with my family for ten days, one of us would not survive the trip. Breakfast was not as good as yesterday, but
it was filling. We next had a mandatory
briefing, which would be followed by boot disinfecting. John Frick had found me a pair of boots,
which was a lifesaver. We were soon
joined by Andy and Molly and Elizabeth and the three parents. It was seven of them travelling as a
clan. It cost more than my annual gross
salary for their three cabins, much more. Molly was
Andy’s girlfriend, and Andy’s parents paid for her fare as well. While I am
either the oldest or second oldest in the group of my new friends, I believe
that I am the youngest person on the boat who paid for his own ticket.
After the boot
disinfecting, I took my much needed nap, waking up when the announcement was
made for lunch. I threw on my suit pants
and headed down, finding myself behind Elizabeth and Molly and Andy at the
buffet. Elizabeth and I exchanged
greetings, and she invited me to join her family for lunch, an offer I gladly
accepted. Elizabeth started talking about our epic game
of Charades, and the mom looked at me and said that she heard that I was really
good at Charades. I guess word travels
fast on a small boat. I took a fork and
started eating my meal. Andy asked me
where my chopsticks were, remembering the first lunch we had together. I said that the last time I used chopsticks
in front of Elizabeth, I got chicken all over her. She laughed, saying that it didn’t leave a
permanent mark. No, I was no longer the
stranger who splattered her with chicken in Ushuaia. I was now the new friend that absolutely
schooled her at Charades at 1 AM in the Drake Passage.
The mother asked if Andy could have any
chocolate mousse, but they didn’t have any.
Instead they brought him an ice cream sundae, which he shared with his
girlfriend. Elizabeth stole the cookie
that came with it, which she shared with me.
She didn’t like the cookie, saying that it tasted like an ice cream
cone. Andy and Molly did not much like
the ice cream, so they gave the dish to Elizabeth. I explained that she probably needed to use
the cookie to scoop the ice cream, which I did.
Once she realized that there were raisins in the rum raisin ice cream,
she gave the rest to me, explaining that she is a purist and doesn’t like
raisins or nuts in her ice cream. Afterwards, I then wondered
aloud why we only got one dessert for the whole table.
I have now realized that the buffet had
desserts on top, I think, but I was fine.
The ice cream was plenty, and I still had lots of pastries in my
room. The mother went to a photography
class, and Andy and Molly excused themselves, as well. Elizabeth said that she was going to return
to her knitting, and I went back to my room to get my cigar and computer. I went to the smoking deck, where a bunch of
people were assembled to see the land off to the starboard side. I lit up my Santana, uploaded a bunch of
photos, and proceeded to write this entry, which I will now close, since my
cigar is almost done, and I need to get ready for the landing.
Once again, I find myself smoking my Christmas Pipe, with sunrise fast
approaching, after an epic game of Charades.
How can Quebec or Istanbul, where I previously smoked my 2010 Christmas
Pipe, compare to the magic of this night?
It can’t. It seems ironic that
setting foot on Antarctic land for the first time in my life was not the
highlight of the day. Of all my new
friends, I am the only one travelling alone.
Everyone else was travelling with their family or their significant
other’s family. Instead of spending my
time smoking and writing my philosophy, I am now very glad to make new friends, to constantly throw my structured plans out the window. I am
enjoying this trip, and I have no doubt it will make the top five if it
continues like this. My theme for my
2014 Year in Review entry will be about the people in my life, the people on my
trips, but first I must recall the adventures of today before the sun rises and
before we leave the Bransfield, either of which would require a new
dateline.
It is past 2 AM here, and I am
wide awake. I have drunken about a
bottle of wine today, along with two glasses of champagne, yet I feel as sober
as a judge. Davie might be joining me
out here soon, so I will need to go quickly for that reasons, as well. After I closed, I started to get ready for
the landing, no, that’s not right. I
went up to the library, where all of my friends were hanging out. We parted ways to get ready for the landing,
and John Frick came up to me, telling me he had some pants for me. Perfect.
I had boots and pants, I would be waterproof. This was on one of the islands, so I was not
going to make it Official. No cigar, no
water bottle. I just wanted to see how
the landing would work.
We went down
into the Zodiacs, which took us ashore.
Fuck this island/continent business.
With the wondrous view ahead of me and the wildlife ashore, I didn’t
care about Official or unofficial. As
soon as I set foot ashore onto dry land, I uttered one syllable: five. There were only two continents left: Africa
and Australia. Danny was taking his time
with photography, but I soon saw L---. No, she was walking slowly to keep pace with her grandmother, so I walked
off alone. There are no words to
describe what I saw. Only pictures can
suffice. I will not even try.
I got to the end of the trail, where there
were the same seals and penguins we saw on the way in. I wanted to do my cigar/entry before dinner,
but I realized that the smoking deck would be off limits due to the Zodiac
operations, so I might as well just stay ashore until the last Zodiac
back. I then saw Danny, Beth, and Davie
walking in the opposite direction, so I tagged along with them for the rest of
the time. As we were heading back on the
Zodiac, Davie saw a whale, so we tried to find it, and we did. Then we saw three more, but my camera was
dead, which was perfect, since it meant I could just watch with my own
eyes.
After we got back, we needed to
change for cocktail hour, which meant that we would all be dressed to the
nines, me in my trademark suit. Beth, of
course, looked gorgeous in velvet and Sam, as well. Nevermind,
if I play Joan Rivers I’m not going to finish this entry in time. We met the crew and played a game at trying
to figure out who the captain was, as we drank champagne.
Afterwards, we headed down to dinner, where I joined Beth's family, us all in the same seating arrangements from
lunch. Davie went to join, I think,
Danny and Sam, leaving an empty seat, which was taken by John Frick. When he sat down, I gave him, literally, a
hero’s welcome. I reminded Beth about
the chicken incident and Ushuaia and said that I was going to use the
chopsticks again. She told me to go for
it, saying that I couldn’t burn her with cold duck salad, but she didn’t think
I could eat the duck salad with my chopsticks.
She was wrong. It was a veritable
feast, and I drank too much wine. After
dessert, Andy and I ordered more veal, Andy because he was hungry, me because
it amused me and because I’d rather have a cigar after veal than after dessert. I took out two pairs of chopsticks, and we
ate the veal with chopsticks. I could
not finish the veal, so I handed him half of one of my pieces with my
chopsticks, and he grabbed it with his, which very much amused Beth. She excused herself for a nap, saying that
she would join us later for charades.
I
went out to the smoking deck to smoke my Epicure and write my Locke. Afterwards, my friends were nowhere to be
found. I figured that they were all
tired from our epic session last night and had went to bed. I was going to smoke my pipe, write my entry,
and do the same. However, I needed to
find out our location so that I could write the proper dateline. The place to do that was on the bridge.
Lo and behold! All of my friends were there and had been
there since dinner. I got our position and course,
and we soon went down to play charades.
Beth and Dom joined us right as we were getting started, and it was
another epic session, lasting two hours.
Afterwards, we decided to head up to the 6th Deck. It was approaching 2 AM.
Okay, this was a problem for me now. I could not not write my entry and smoke my
pipe, no matter how much fun I was having.
I knew that, in this case, I would choose fulfillment value over
enjoyment value. I figured it out. I would get my laptop and pipe and do it up
there with them and then hang out with them afterwards. I ran back down to the 3rd Deck,
rubbed out my tobacco, got my smoking gear and laptop, and headed back up. I asked if anyone would be offended if I
smoked, it being totally off limits up there.
They were pleased by the idea and a few wanted to share the pipe with
me. Okay, I could smoke with them until
30 minutes before sunrise and then write my entry. Well, it was too windy to light the pipe, no
matter what I tried. Beth suggested I go
inside just to light it, but there were smoke detectors right in the entrance,
so that didn’t work. Fuck it! I went back down to get my torch and came
back up.
Everyone was on the very top
deck when I got back, so I went up there, where there were flammable
materials. It probably wasn’t the
smartest idea, but I didn’t care. I lit
up the pipe easily with the torch and gave Danny and Davie their puffs. Well, it was late and cold, people were tired
and freezing, so everyone but Davie and I called it a night. I didn’t want to delay my entry any longer,
but I had a problem. The 6th
Deck outside area was not connected with the rest of the outside. How would I get my lit pipe to the 5th
Deck? There was only way. Put my hand over my pipe and make a run for
it. I did exactly that. The hot smoke hurt, but I had no other
option.
I went down to the 3rd
Deck, got the cord to recharge my now dead camera, and proceeded to write this
entry, which I will now close so that I can watch the sunrise in 4 minutes,
publish, and get a few hours of sleep.
Oh, while I was writing, some of the officers came up to me, not
surprised to find me in my usual spot but surprised to see me smoking a pipe
instead of a cigar. They wanted to try
the pipe, so I gladly obliged, but it was too strong for them. I would have loved to chat with them longer,
but I was on a tight schedule. Okay, now
I need to close. 2 minutes to sunrise.
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