Last night the plan was to find a protected bay or cove on the Antarctica peninsula, hunker down for the day (I.e. today), and sail toward South Orkney, which is more-or-less on our course to South Georgia Islands the following day. Overnight, the team found the coves they had in mind too stopped up with ice. New plan: sail through the weather and head directly for South Orkney Islands, an unplanned stop. So that’s what we did today: sail through the weather, not around it.
They say the weather today wasn’t all that bad, well within the Ociana’s capabilities. But it’s been somewhat rougher than the Drake Passage was the other day Today, 20-foot plus swells and wind gusts topping out at 70 knots.
And while the ship had no problem, the same can’t be said for your faithful scribe. I did ok until we sailed beyond the protective land mass of the Shetland Islands. I applied a patch and chewed a Bonnie but not until the horse had left the barn, if you get my drift. But this evening I’m doing fine.
So it’s been a slow day. Breakfast as usual, two backgammon games ( I finally won one) and then , for me, eyes glued to the horizon until mid afternoon. Judy frequented the mess hall as usual. I got up at 3:00 PM for a quick demo of happywhale.com, a fun app to track whale tail signatures. We did the 5:30 briefing, had a drink in the bar and then dinner.
The evening talk was on citizen science and Antarctic phytoplankton and diatoms, microscopic organisms that feed krill, which feed whales, seals and whatnot. Citizen scientists on cruise boats, including ours, gather samples that help build a global data set that real scientists can use in their research.
The final activity, coming up in 15 minutes, is a sighting of the largest iceberg in the world, A32a, three times the size of New York City. It broke free from the Filtchner ice shelf in 1986. It was stuck until last year when it started on its journey to who knows where. Other icebergs have held the record but they’ve broken up with A32a now wearing the crown.
We anticipate arriving at South Orkney tomorrow afternoon. Landing s aren’t allowed but we’ll get a zodiac ride in the afternoon.
Well the first A32A sighting has been pushed back an hour with pass-by at 12:00 – 2:00 AM. They served Bailey ‘s and banana foster to celebrate A32a so the failed 10 o’clock viewing wasn’t a bust. If A32 happens by on our starboard side I might get up to see it. Otherwise, I’ll swipe a picture off google and post it here. You’ll never know the difference!
Update: we went for the 11 PM viewing. I succumbed to a patch-enabled sleep before midnight. Judy got up to see what could be seen at 2 AM
but it appeared they were still backing up. The berg is big and it’s best to give it a wide berth since 86% of the iceberg is underwater.
The morning after the bouncing day before: At this morning’s briefing, the crew estimated we sailed most of the day at Beaufort Force 8 – sea wave height 18 – 25 feet, winds 34 – 40 knots. Earlier that day wind speed was somewhat higher. Chris, the most senior of the expedition team said he has sailed on more than 50 ships and none of them would have handled the sea conditions better than Octantis. I’ve added a video clip showing the waves outside our stateroom window. It may take a while for it to download, so beware!
One disappointment in the Viking cruise system is that when it came time to book shore excursions, most all were fully booked. There’s a pecking order in which those booking expensive suites get preference over those of us in steerage. We hit the Go button at the appointed day, hour, minute and second to no avail. Now I know how the second-class passengers on the Titanic must have felt even before hitting the iceberg.
All we could book for today was the “included” (that is, free) two-hour visit to the local museum. No helicopter ride, no visit to the WWII airfield. We had thought we’d spend a few minutes in the museum and then head out on foot to tour Darwin on our own.
The morning came with rain. We’d done what turned out to be a walking tour of all the spots the bus driver recommended yesterday evening after the Crocodile tour. And, much to our surprise, the Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern Territory is a gem. It has three main areas of focus:
A display of indigenous art that resulted from a competition sponsored by Telstra, a local cell phone company, called the 2023 National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders Art Awards. The artists are from the various aboriginal communities scattered across the Northern Territory, many amateurs or “emerging artists,” some professional. I’m no art critic but I found the art to be quite good and certainly interesting, most of it impressionistic with a few photo and video pieces included. Many used local materials and pigments.
The equally interesting part of the art exhibit is the artists statements posted next to each piece. In each statement, the artist describes the experience in their community that inspired the work. “My grandmother told me the story of . . . “; “When I explore around my community, I find . . . “; or, “I’m inspired by this aspect of nature.” These statements, taken together, give a sense of what aboriginal life is like today and was in the past.
I asked our bus guide, who confessed to being a fill-in commentator, how many aboriginal groupings and how many languages exist in the Northern Territory. She said, “Oh I have no idea. Countless. And a countless number of languages.” One source I found on line lists 16 languages and 56 communities but warns it’s not an exhaustive list. Some communities use more than one language. The Northern Territories is said to be the most linguistically diverse places on earth. It makes me worry about how long these languages, and the cultures behind them, can survive in this modern world.
The artists’ statements speak of the concept of Country. Here are some quotes from a web site I found that helps me to understand what the artists are trying to express in their work https://aiatsis.gov.au/explore/welcome-country
‘Being welcomed to Country means that you are talking to your spiritual ancestors and you’re saying just let this person come through. We trust that they’re not going to do any harm on this Country and so do not harm them.’ — Jude Barlow, Ngunnawal Elder.
“Acknowledging when you’re on the land of Traditional Owners is a sign of respect which acknowledges Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander ownership and custodianship of the land, their ancestors and traditions. Both Indigenous and non-Indigenous peoples can show this form of respect.
Only the traditional owners can speak for and welcome visitors to Country or give others the authority to do so.”
Our bus guides have opened their talks with an acknowledgement that the aboriginal people of this area, the People in the case of Darwin, own and are custodians of the Country on which we are traveling. Such deference is of course a recent development. Aboriginal people were treated as subhuman by early European settlers and as second-class citizens until recently.
Another section of the museum consists of natural history displays of all sorts of flora and fauna. The displays are very nicely presented and detailed in explanations. We didn’t spend as much time, preferring to focus on the art.
The third section of the museum focuses on the December 25, 1974 Cyclone Tracy and its impact on structures and people. Driving around Darwin confirms that this is indeed a modern city. It has, after all, been virtually destroyed to the ground in 1942 and 1974.
In the Bicentennial Park that we visited last evening is a memorial to ANZAC – the Australian New Zealand Army Corp which landed on the Gallipoli Peninsula on April 25, 1915. ANZAC’s objective was to take Constantinople from the Turks. After fighting to a stalemate over eight months, the Allies withdrew. ANZAC lost 10,000 men. April 25 is a day of commemoration in both New Zealand and Australia, honoring those who died in all wars. When in New Zealand in 2016 we visited a museum with a very moving ANZAC display. Australians clearly hold ANZAC day as sacred as do the Kiwis.
We’ve shoved off from Darwin and will be sailing the Arefura Sea to Thursday Island, which we will reach day after tomorrow, November 26. Tonight we’re dining in the special Italian restaurant.
Our rule is that each day of the trip must include two hours or so of sightseeing. Yesterday it was the Florida capitol complex in Tallahassee. Judy’s going to provide some more detail about that excursion further on in this blog post.
Today we took a leisurely drive along the Gulf of Mexico coast from our hotel in Panama City Beach toward Pensacola. We left the shoreline drive about halfway to Pensacola due to a detour and decided enough was enough and hit the main roads on toward Alabama, Mississippi and Louisiana. What we did fulfilled the two-hour sightseeing requirement, so all was well, schedule wise. And being traveling Ricks, schedule is everything. We schedule our goofing off time!
It turned out to be an interesting drive, mostly because the level of development is incredible. One high rise condo/hotel edifice after another. The hotels are built on a narrow strip of land between the coastal highway and the Gulf. Parking is provided, in many cases, in a two or three-level garage on the other side of the highway, accessed via a second-story pedestrian bridge. Our Hampton Inn was one of this sort: a very nice room with great ocean views.
We also passed through several interesting smaller developments, one with a quaint downtown and tree-lined avenues and another with tall structures marking the entrances to the development. The main drag is lined with royal palms; everything is painted white. Very classy, very pricey looking. The edifices looked to us like Hindu stupas so we named the place Stupaville. Who was it who said, “Stupa is as stupa does.” A movie line, perhaps?
We happened across a very nice little state park, Grayton Beach by name. It sports a smallish campground that even now, in 50-degree weather, was three fourths full of mostly hard-sided RVs full of, I’m sure, bargain hunting old retired folks just like us. There’s a good-sized lake with kayaking and canoeing. Lots of interesting hiking trails. The big draw is, of course, the shoreline. Pure white sand, shallow looking water and very interesting sand dunes blown up by winds from the Gulf. The wind was brisk leading to a chilly walk down to the beach.
Our overarching thought: What must this place be like next month and the rest of the Spring-time season when all these beds are filled with fun-seeking sun worshipers? Someone told us a 15-minute drive takes two hours in season. Just the rack after rack of rental bikes gives one pause.
From there it was pretty much I10 westbound with a detour to the north of New Orleans on I12 passing on the north side of Lake Pontchartrain. Baton Rouge was an hour or so further on (it took us a day by ship last November) and then on to Lafayette for our $60 Microtel hotel. We rolled out of the Supercharger in Panama City at 8:30 and arrived here at 6 PM so that’s 9:30 elapsed time, including charging. Take away two hours of goofing off along the coast and our actual travel time was about seven hours, exactly per plan.
Yesterday I complained about lack of human conveniences at Supercharger sites. Well, I had great experiences at two of our three stops. Sorta. The third turned out to be an exercise in, well, exercising.
This morning we charged up at the Busy Bee Supercharger in Panama City. Nirvana! The Busy Bee is a regular gas station with a collocated 8-bay Supercharger. The convenience store is to die for. Tee shirts, boogie boards plus every fattening foodstuff known to modern man. Pee without guilt – they expect Supercharger folks to come in just like gas pump types.
Judy took the edge off, however, purchasing a couple of doo-dads that ran up a $50 tab. Pee-for-free lost its luster.
Next was Crest View FL. Another 8-bay arrangement with a co-located Panera and Starbucks. I snuck into the Panera and did my thing without raising the alarm. Judy chose the Starbucks for her creature comfort. She succumbed to pangs of guilt and left with a $6 pistachio latte (“I know you love pistachio, Jon, so we can share.”) We cleaned up the mess when one-fourth of the latte spilled on the center console but, Hey, a $6 guilt trip is better than $50.
Our third stop near Biloxi also sported a number of walkable establishments but none that seemed ideal. I instead opted for a discount gas joint across the street but, they must have seen me coming, no toilet facilities. Instead, we opted for the Lowes just before the I10 entrance ramp. “I know right where they put the restrooms in these Lowes, right up front. We’ll park on this end to minimize the walking.” Apparently, I was remembering a Home Depot. We got in our daily 10,000 steps searching for the darned toilets.
The charging stations have been fairly busy with cars coming and going and representing many different states, including one car from Hawaii.
No real surprises on the Full Self Driving front although I’m starting to lose my patience with its lane changing habits. It loves the left-hand lane, even with no cars in sight. I turn on the blinker and force it to its rightful spot in the universe. Late in the day I got too tired to put up with its antics and sent it straight to bed and did the driving myself.
Tomorrow it’s off to Austin with some sightseeing TBD. Tune in tomorrow for the details.
Here’s Judy’s write-up about Tallahassee:
During my childhood we had guests visit in Cincinnati who were visiting state capitols with the goal of vising all 50. I thought that sounded like fun and so I have been visiting as many as I can even though I do not plan on doing all 50. So here we were in Tallahassee, and it is even “our” state capital since we live in Florida.
This capitol building is very interesting. First, we visited the Old Capital Building that is the Florida Historic Capital Museum. This building was built in 1845 and enlarged several times. The current building is the 1902 version with a central rotunda and north and south corridors. The first floor housed the governor’s offices and the Supreme Court. The House of Representative and Senate chambers are on the second floor. It is a beautiful old building with awning on the windows. I had fun taking pictures and walking the corridors. The various rooms now house historical displays and portraits of past Florida politicians.
My love for these old buildings probably started in Augusta, Maine where my Great Uncle Bill Silsby was Speaker of the House and then in the Senate. I must have been 4 years old when I watched him “spank the table” and was very impressed. Both my mother and grandmother worked for the Maine legislature so that is where my interest started.
We walked out of the West Portico of the Old Capitol and were facing this extremely tall building that is the new capitol building This building was completed in 1978 and is 22 stories high. The top floor is an Observatory Deck which we visited. The view was of the very flat terrain that is much of Florida. As we toured the House and Senate on the 5th floor, we realized that the legislative session would be starting tomorrow. People were working on getting everything ready for the big day. The Governor’s Suite was on the Plaza level with the Rotunda. This building was very pretty with its oval Rotunda with a beautiful brass Great Seal of Florida in the center.
Just another aside, while visiting in the Governor’s office I learned that Florida has Boys and Girls State that is similar to the Youth in Government program we had in Minnesota. Both Jeff and Rebecca participated, and I was a volunteer. Jon joined me for a few years during Rebecca’s last year in YIG. These programs give the youth the opportunity to experience some of how government works especially the bills. Both Jeff and Rebeeca learned a great deal.
As we were leaving the governor’s office a woman came in and asked the receptionist if by any chance, she could have a few minutes to say Hi to Governor DeSantis. She said that they had worked together in Palm Beach government years ago. The receptionist, a true pro at her job, politely deflected the request, given that the governor was busy planning for the up-coming legislative session and running for President and who-knows-what.
Wednesday was our first day in Melrose. It is so different to be here and not set foot in Rebecca’s house. We have decided her family will use the sunroom and we will use the basement for now. So here we are and how is this new social distancing in Melrose going to work?
Mid-morning Grandpa asked Griffin if he would like to go for a walk with us and Doby (our grand-dog). Griffin is wonderful at Social Distancing. He wore his mask and walked on the other side of the street most of the time. He is very conscious of keeping his distance. At lunch time we asked Esme and Griffin if they would like to have a picnic in the backyard. Yes!! So, they went and got their food and we got ours and we sat on opposite sides of the back yard. After we ate Grandpa and Griffin played kick ball not touching the ball. Esme did cartwheels. It was fun to all be together in the back yard even if we cannot hug.
Thursday, Bonnie and her boys came over and did their schoolwork in our back yard. Bonnie’s family was on one side of the yard and Esme on the other side. Griffin was inside. They worked until noon time. I am thinking it might have been this day that Grandpa helped Griffin with his schoolwork. Griffin was at the table on the sunroom that is outside our door and Grandpa sat inside the door.
Friday, we ordered a pizza and went to pick up everyone’s. As I walked inside with my mask on, I noticed the tables were all stacked against the counter so no one could get near it. The guy behind the counter asked my name, where the car was and told me to go back to the car and he would bring it out. We had a fun time visiting with Bonnie, Tim and their boys. The kids were on separate blankets that were at least 6 feet apart. After the pizza the Moms took their own computers and started a movie for the kids to watch. It took a few times, but they managed to get the computers starting at the same time.
Bonnie was a teacher and she has been helping Esme and Griffin. She does some Zoom sessions and has put together packets for them. She also takes them for hikes and bicycle rides. I am not sure if that may have just started last week. I have been crocheting a blanket for their family and was able to give it to them that night.
Saturday we went to Hampton Beach area in NH and met Jeff for my much needed lobster roll and then Jon’s ice cream. The place is now operating as it normally does. You order, pick it up and the picnic tables are now available to eat at. The tables are being cleaned immediately after people leave them. It was very pleasant to sit by the ocean, eat favorite foods and visit. We had also visited Jeff on Thursday in our back yard when he brought Jon his new computer. Yes, he did finally have to give up and get a new one.
We have taken walks with the grandkids, Doby and by ourselves. We visited with Mark, our nephew, wife and kids a couple of times. They were playing in their front yard about 5 blocks away from our house.
The social distancing is working alright with the grandkids. Actually, it is not as bad as I thought it would be. We just can not be in each other’s houses and can’t hug but we can chat with each other from our door or in the back yard. Jon has helped the kids with some of their schoolwork by taking a picture of their computer screens with his telephoto lens from our door. He can then read the screen and help them. We have been able to have more time with them than I thought.
We had our car refrigerator all loaded and running and we had dropped off a few food items we were not taking with us to Marilyn and Steve the night before. Since we did not go to bed until 10:30 PM we set the alarm at 5:30 AM but Jon woke up earlier. We ate our cold cereal breakfast and off we went in the dark. This is the first time we left in the dark and I hope I did not forget to do something because I could not see as well. We left at 6:05 AM.
Jon had put together a list of the quarantine expectations and sent it to Rebecca. He was just trying to make sure all of us were on the same page. Unfortunately, I think it would have been better if he had done it earlier. We texted Rebecca about it and she came back expressing the fact that Esme and Griffin have a wide family they are interacting with between Kevin and her house. It made me feel like she was not thinking we should be going up. I think Rebecca and I were probably both emotional. Rebecca is really scared that especially Dad with his cardiac issues might get sick and she would not forgive herself. So, what is the answer? We did not want to spend the summer in the heat of Florida. We felt we should come now just in case there is a surge as a result of so many states opening up. We also felt we could help with the grandkids so when I thought she was saying we could have no contact with them I was wondering why we were coming up.
We have since calmed down and looking for the middle ground. Of course, we knew we would not be cuddling the kids! We would be able to see them only from a distance. We figured we could be in the back yard with them and go for walks and do things from a distance. Yes, she did agree with all of it. So, I do think we are on the same page but just need to make sure we do not get sick.
This is really a scary time for all of us and we just do not know what we should be doing. It is not just the physical aspect of the disease but also the social emotional effect this is having on everyone. Griffin is struggling and not wanting to do his schoolwork. I wonder if it is because he has no control over his life. He is a social child and had lots of play dates both at his house and at friends. He also has lots of energy and with both of his parents working from home he has less opportunities to expend that energy. How does a six-year-old amuse himself all day without his friends?
I have said all along my generation is really only dealing with being alone. The next generation is dealing with working from home, while homeschooling their children. The children are dealing with being cooped up inside without their friends and much less opportunity for physical activity because their parents are working and can not take them out. None of this is normal for any of us and everyone is struggling. We all want it to end but many of us are fearful about what will happen as we open and all mix together.
Well back to our trip north. We made and ate our peanut butter, jelly sandwich at a nature walking park. It was a little off the road and we were by ourselves. A family had left for the walk when we arrived, and they returned as we drove away. We had a bag of snacks in the back seat and snacked several times. We gassed up twice and every time we used the restroom. At the beginning of the trip maybe half of the people were wearing masks. By the afternoon somewhere in Virginia we stopped for gas at a convenience store/truck stop. We were the only people in the whole place with a mask on!
We got to our Marriott Courtyard Hotel at 8:45 PM. It had been a 14.5-hour drive and around 900 miles. Jon went in to register and discovered it was cold outside. It had also been raining off and on. There were not very many people at the hotel. The lobby was full of laundry the desk clerk was folding. They had plastic divider up around the front desk. We rode the elevator alone. In the morning I went out of my room just as someone was getting into the elevator. We looked at each other and I know our instinct was for him to hold the elevator but we both knew that was not possible now!
We took our small bag with cloths and toilet articles, our refrigerator and the bags of food we would need for dinner and breakfast. We were both grateful we did not need to go get food for dinner. We were exhausted! We warmed up the left-over meatloaf and mashed potatoes and settled in with the TV watching a Netflix series we have been watching.
We were both awake around 5AM so we decided to get up and go. We ate our cold cereal breakfast and were on the road just before 6 AM. The drive-up Interstate 81 is beautiful with the Blue Ridge Mountains off to our right. There were lots of trucks and construction all along the way. I decided that morning I wanted a Dunkin Donut’s frozen coffee and possibly a takeout for lunch. Going across Interstate 84 we stopped at a drive thru Wendy’s.
We were in Pennsylvania at the time. We noticed that things were pretty closed down. The shopping areas had no cars in the parking lots. We took our Wendy’s to a Rest Area at the same exit and ate at a picnic table we had sprayed down. The restroom building had big signs saying you were not allowed in without a mask. The people we saw outside also had masks on. I did get my Dunkin frozen coffee before we got home. We got to Melrose around 4:00PM.
We were first greeted by Doby. We could hug and cuddle him, so I did lots of that. I am not sure how much he remembered me since he had not seen us since Christmas. We unpacked our car, talked with Rebecca before she went to pick up Griffin. When they were back Griffin knocked on our door and we talked from about 8 feet apart. There is a small mud room between our houses so that provides the 8 feet if we both stay inside our door frames. It was so much fun for me to watch Griffin’s facial expressions as he told us everything. He was excited to see us. We made ourselves an omelet and toast dinner and relaxed with TV. We were both very tired.
