At sea, M/V Corinthian,
Beagle Channel, En route to Ushuaia
As eager as I am to get back to New York, it has been both enjoyable
and fulfilling to have this last day on the ship with my new friends before
they, leave my life. I am sitting out on
the deck with only my fleece on over my pajamas, and I am quite content. We are clearly no longer in Antarctica. When I woke up this morning, some stuff from
my vanity had fallen onto the floor.
That was the brunt of the Drake.
We had passed Cape Horn, and were out of the Drake. I sat down to check on my status updates, not
much having happened, since everyone back home was still asleep. I saw John, and we chatted while we waited
for Katherine. After having stayed up
with us until 3 AM the previous night, she slept all day, and that was why we
hadn’t seen her yesterday.
They had my
favorite for breakfast: corned beef hash.
Dom would later join us, and after John went up, I left Katherine and
Dom at the table to go say hi to Danny and Sam and their parents. After they went, I think I went to have my
Cohiba. The events of the day are very
blurry. Afterwards, I tried
unsuccessfully to take a nap and then I headed up to the lounge, where I began
to edit down the Travelogue entries so that I would feel comfortable sharing it
with my fellow passengers. As I was
editing Day 2, I walked over to Vanessa and read to her the exchange of our
first meeting on the bus. She remembered
it. They announced lunch, but I was
still editing.
Once I was done, I headed
down to lunch, where I sat next to Danny.
I hadn’t even noticed that Beth was on the other side of the empty seat,
but she seemed pleased to see me. She
asked me if I was going to use the chopsticks for the ice cream, and I said
that I could. We then noticed that Sam
hadn’t finished her ice cream. She was
not excited about the idea, but Danny and I convinced her to let me do it. After lunch, we all headed up to the lounge,
where we relaxed for a couple of hours.
I handily beat Alan at chess while Davy gave everyone massages. We had picked up the pilot during lunch, so I
went into the bridge to meet him. It was
underwhelming.
Beth said that she felt
like she could be doing something productive. Thinking of the suitcase of philosophy books I had brought with me, I quipped, “I’m in the same boat as you, literally.” She appreciated the joke. I also walked over to Phil and shared the
link to the blog with him. He was eager
to read about our first dinner together, and he thought my writing excellent
and my stories hilarious. He decided
that he wanted to save it so that he would have some good reading material for
the flight. I also added my new
friends on Facebook I spent most of the time sitting next to Beth
in a comfortable silence. Emily was once
telling me how she would rather be friends with someone with whom she could sit
in comfortable silence than someone who can always engage her in
conversation. Being someone who hates always having to engage in conversation, I am starting to
understand what she means. It was then
time for the briefing/recap, and I sat next to Vanessa and her parents.
In port, M/V Corinthian,
Ushuaia, Argentina
This will be a short one. After
I closed, we pulled into port, and it started sleeting, the first precipitation
of the trip, so I raced inside. I
settled up my account, and I headed up to the lounge, where I set next to Beth
and across from Danny. Cocktail hour
began at 6:30 PM, and I was still in my pajamas. I asked Danny if he thought I could head down
like that or if I should shower and change.
He encouraged me to change and forgo the shower. I asked Beth the same question, and she said
I definitely needed to change. I went
back to my cabin, showered, changed, and joined my friends in the lounge. I had left my laptop up in the club, so I
went to retrieve it. When I got back, we
got back to adding each other on Facebook.
I even added Meredith and Alan, they having joined our group over the
past day or so. It was then time for the
recap, and they showed a slide show of all the pictures from the trip. Everytime a picture of me came up, I heard a
resounding chorus of “Steve” from my friends behind me.
It was then time for dinner. I followed Danny down, but he and his family
took a table of four. I saw Vanessa, and
I asked her if her parents were coming down, knowing that Phil would not
disappoint me with good material.
Vanessa and Dom had already sat down, and there were only two chairs
left. Phil told me to pull up another
chair and moved over so that I could sit next to him. I did just that and went up to my cabin to
return my laptop. However, the chair was
gone when I got back, and Phil said that he was rebuffed by the waiters.
All my friends were at fully occupied tables
at that point, but there was an empty seat with Luke and his family. They are a military family, both parents
having served, and Luke on his way to West Point. They are also possibly the only family on the
ship that does not have Facebook, not even 14-year-old Adrianne, possibly the
only teenage girl in America that does not have Facebook. Throughout the meal I was struck by how
intelligent the whole family was, especially Luke and his siblings, all of whom
were mature beyond their age. The meal
was excellent, with Luke and me ordering double portions of the steak.
They had given us so much silverware, and I
said that all I needed was my one pair of chopsticks. True to form, I ate the entire meal with just
that one pair, except for the sorbet, which required a spoon. After dinner, Danny told me to meet him up in
the lounge later, so I grabbed my laptop and headed to the smoking deck, where
I lit up a Padron and proceeded to write this entry, which I will now close so that
I can I write #TheFinalChapter. I have
had an amazing time on this ship, and it is trip that I will remember the rest
of my life. All that remains is one last
wild night in Ushuaia and the rest of #TheJourneyHome.
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