Cruising towards Cape Horn

Viking Jupiter. Day at Sea

Oh dear, another day at sea. I wonder what we will do today.

First off for a walk on the 2nd deck before breakfast. Don is enjoying all the breakfast specials, eggs benedict, waffles, French toast, lots of bacon, sausages, as well as having his fruit and yoghurt each morning. Lee just sticks with fruit, yoghurt and granola, I save myself for the fabulous dinners each night.

Our cruise director, Heather Clancy, is an opera singer so this is her day. At 1:30 we will see a “Live from the Met” Presentation of Aida from 2012. At 10:30 Heather will give a lecture about the Metropolitan Opera, Giuseppe Verdi (the composer) and the opera Aida. Have to fit lunch in between 11:30 and 1:30. We have an afternoon break after 3:30 until 5:15 when there is a lecture about Sir Ernest Shackleton and his daring exploits exploring the Antarctic. We will go to the next lecture “A look at the Night Sky” at 6:30. Dinner is booked in the Chefs Table at 7:30. And we will catch a bit of the performance by Reuel on his piano at 9:15.
Not much worrying about what to do.

Here is the Nautical term of the Day: Go for the Pig and Whistle. This term was used in the early sailing days of the English Navy. Once a week, the sailors were allowed a ration of rum (known as the “pig”). A young sailor would be sent down to the cargo hold to get the rum and told to “get the pig and whistle.” If he stopped whistling while he was out of sight, he was believed to be drinking the rum and so was lashed.

Don went to the first lecture about the opera and agreed to go to the presentation but only lasted until intermission and then he left to go to the pool deck.

The lecture about Shackleton was fascinating. Sir Ernest Henry Shackleton (15 February 1874 – 5 January 1922) was an Irish explorer who led three British expeditions to the Antarctic. Shackleton's first experience in the polar regions was as third officer on Captain Robert Falcon Scott's Discovery expedition of 1901–1904. The 2nd was the Nimrod expedition of 1907–1909. He and three companions established a new farthest south record by reaching latitude 88°S, 180 kilometres from the South Pole. It was the largest advance to the pole in exploration history. Also, members of his team climbed Mount Erebus, the most active Antarctic volcano. For these achievements, Shackleton was knighted by King Edward VII on his return home.

In December 1911, Roald Amundsen's was the first to reach the South Pole and ended the race to be the first. Shackleton then turned his attention to the crossing of Antarctica from sea to sea, via the pole.

In 1914 Shackleton set off on an expedition consisting of 27 men on board the sailing vessel Endurance. His hope was to become the first man to cross Antarctica. Due to an unusually thick ice pack and a freak wind shift, they were trapped in the Weddell Sea not far from their planned Antarctica landing, where they drifted frozen in the ice flow for many months until the ship was crushed by ice and finally sunk. The men eventually made their way to Elephant Island in 3 lifeboats, but given that there was no hope of rescue, Shackleton set off with 4 other men in a makeshift 23 ft sailboat with a mostly open deck. 16 days and 800 miles later they arrived on the desolate west shores of South Georgia, where due to the poor condition of their boat, Ernest was forced to cross the mountainous spine of the island on foot. 36 hours later, despite the lack of any surveys, they managed to find their way to the small whaling station of Stromness and were then taken to Grytviken where Shackleton mounted 3 rescue attempts to save the men on Elephant island. The 4th (the first major Chilean Navy rescue mission) was successful and miraculously, every man survived the ordeal. They returned to England in 1917. In 1921, he returned to the Antarctic with the Shackleton–Rowett Expedition but died of a heart attack while his ship was moored in South Georgia. At his wife's request, he was buried there.

The lecture on the night sky was about the Southern sky and Lou Thieblemont was hoping we would be able to go out on deck that night to see the skies. Unfortunately, it was a thick cloud cover so no go.

Our dinner tonight was a 5-course dinner, complete with wine parings was called La Route Des Indes designed to feature a variety of spices. The Silk and Spice Road existed in the 3rd century BC running from China though modern-day Iran and Iraq through to Europe. Other goods also came with the silk; including cardamom, cinnamon, cloves, ginger, pepper, nutmeg, mace and long pepper and they were worth a fortune. The lure of the spices spurred the age of exploration, colonization and discovery. This led to new previously unknown edibles and plants like vanilla, chocolate and chilies. Another gourmet dinner, we love eating here, and will try and book more times.

The performance by Reuel was excellent. Another busy day at sea!Read more