First, a brief update on travel in the time of Covid. As noted previously, Chile takes pandemic precautions very seriously. Here are red-vested guards closely inspecting i.d. cards and vaccination records before admitting people to the food court at a Santiago mall…..
For unspecified public health reasons, your ice cream will not actually be placed in the cone, but delivered in a cup….. cone served separately.
To discourage people from congregating in common areas, park benches are wrapped up so they cannot be used at all.
This pandemic madness cannot end soon enough….. Hopefully more rational safeguards will be implemented going forward.
(To be fair, the early stages of Covid hit South America very hard… over-reacting would be a natural response for a while.)
Now on to the cruise….. I would like to refer to it as ill-fated, but that applies more accurately to the Titanic, or even perhaps the SS Minnow (of Gilligan’s Island fame). Our cruise from Puerto Williams, Chile to Cape Town was instead plagued by nothing more than very bad weather.
Instead of going from Santiago to the port for embarkation, the pre-cruise flight was forced to put down about an hour short of its goal at Punta Arenas, Chile, where all passengers were put up for the night at a hotel.
Rather than celebrating the embarkation on board the ship, thirsty would-be passengers were a challenge for the hotel barman, who nonetheless managed a pretty impressive negroni presentation…..
The next day, skies cleared sufficiently to allow us to proceed to Puerto Williams to board the ship.
Bad weather is typically expected in the area of the Drake Passage just south of the continent’s tip, and for a couple of days with turbulent seas, most passengers maintained a low profile…..
Once things settled down, we were able to make several landings on the island of South Georgia, where all the wildlife pictured in the last post were encountered. That part of the visit, however, was cut short and we left the area a day early when a storm produced high winds and heavy swell.
With that, we did not return to anything resembling a pleasant ocean voyage for about 10 days. Instead, winds of 60 miles per hour buffeted the ship, which was tossed about on waves up to 20 feet.
The crew did its best to get the passengers some exposure to the St. Helena islands that were on the itinerary, but to little avail. Rough seas prevented landings, so they tried some short Zodiac “cruises” that ended uncomfortably for many……
Even Zodiac landings were abandoned at some point….. Here is Henry, all dressed up and nowhere to go……
The isolated community on Tristan da Cunha was not open for visitation, so we just drove by and waved…..
So what did the passengers do? Well, what cruise passengers do whenever there are no off-ship activities…….. eat and drink! Here is Henry trying a little red wine, a little white wine, a shot of vodka and a healthy pour of dessert wine!
A very few were productively employed….. me knitting a scarf for our friend Tertius in South Africa……
With plenty of time to finish before we landed in Cape Town!
In fitting fashion, the cruise was delayed half a day from anchoring in Cape Town due to fog…… see the shore? Neither could the captain or pilot!
At long last, we landed in Cape Town.
The cruise line sponsored a shore activity later that day – we chose a 4-mile hike on top of Table Mountain…..
We spied a bush with a lovely display of South Africa’s national flower, the protea, in bloom….
And in spite of the continued high winds that seem to follow us everywhere, the clouds and fog cleared briefly to provide a gorgeous view of the city of Cape Town.
So, we’re in Africa at last – happy to be here and excited about experiences to come.
Emerald Isle to the Norse Lands 