Capturing the Moment

  Getting into the 'Life at Sea' Groove Shortly after sunset in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean   It has been almost a week and a half since setting sail from Cape Town. In my last post I wrote about being denied entry into Cape Town, even though I had a ticketed international flight. In fact all of the crew, minus a few from South Africa, had to stay onboard and shove off the dock with the only direction and destination being 'North'.    So now, after ten days, how has the situation developed? Well for the first week everyone had to adjust to a slower paced, more behind the scenes workload since we have no guests onboard. We did get access to a few of the guests areas like the top deck which has been a godsend. Our first known destination was Gibraltar in mid April. That has since changed to Tenerife, Canary Islands on April 15th. We still don't know what kind of reception we will get when we arrive but it is a little closer to our current location so it ...

  Stuck at Sea on a Cruise Ship Cape Town Harbor   In a little over a week I have gone from the satisfaction of a job well done as the end of the Antarctica season drew to an end, to having to do circles with the ship off Cape Town while being told we weren't allowed in to dock, to elation that we got permission to dock, to trepidation that neither us nor the passengers were being allowed off, to hurrah!, the passengers are allowed off, to over joyed that the expedition team may be allowed off, to the ultimate denial from the South African government, and a quick 'get off the dock', to where my current predicament finds me now.   I am still aboard the Silver Cloud, the expedition ship I've been working on this winter down in Antarctica. It was an amazing experience, a great ship, and a wonderful crew. I met lots of interesting passengers from all around the world. And of course built a bit of a ship board family as this style of living and working together usu...

  A Look Back at a Summer in Antarctica    As we pulled into Ushuaia, Argentina, I realized that the Antarctica expedition was actually coming to an end. This summer I spent two and a half months working on an expedition ship cruising through the White Continent at the bottom of the world. I crossed the infamous Drake Passage eight times, soaked up knowledge from thirty other expedition team members with different specialties like geology, history, ornithology, ecology, geography, and other marine biologists. The staff also came from a dozen different countries, while the crew and guests onboard represented almost fifty countries. Leopard seal on ice Towering Icebergs  The ship I've been working on is called the Silver Cloud. It is a 240 passenger, ultra luxury expedition ship run by Silversea Cruises. Silversea was one of the first to combine the ultra luxury and expedition market which has since been copied by other companies. Since we are under 500 pa...

 Heading to Antarctica: Chapter 1  I've made it to the beautiful Silver Cloud, my home for the next five and a half weeks. The first voyage is a big one traveling from Buenos Aires, Argentina to the Falkland Islands, on to Antarctica, and finishing in Ushuaia, Argentina. We will cross the Drake Passage twice, sail the waters of Cape Horn, visit the bottom of the world, and hopefully see lots of penguins, but let's start from the beginning.    Day 1: First line of action is getting all the paperwork cleared and then moved into the cabin. My roommate for this voyage is Patrick, the Assistant Expedition Leader, who lives in Finland but is originally from Germany. Turns out he is also one of the best fooseball players onboard. We are pretty involved in the guest checkin procedure, but end up sailing off the pier around 6:30pm. Proud Gentoo mother King Penguins!  Day 2: We spend this day at sea, cruising from Buenus Aires to Puerto Madryn, Argentina...

        After being stuck in the middle seat of the middle row of an 8hr red eye flight from Miami to Buenos Aires I checked into the company provided hotel right in the mix of the old part of the city. I was able to do a lot of walking, checked out a famous memorial graveyard filled with massive tombs, crypts, and statues, and visited a local arts fair selling things from leather made goods to local foods, to jewelry made out of horseshoe nails. I met a few of the other expedition team but it wasn’t until the next morning when the vans pulled up that I realized about 20 of us were all embarking at the same time. I knew the incoming Expedition Leader, Brad, from my time of the Silver Muse in Alaska. And my good friend Ceili, who has also worked at UnCruise and Tole Mour, would be on, but otherwise it was a lot of new faces and names for me to learn. Not to mention the fact that I was going from an expedition team of 2, to a team of 28! Pretty soon I woul...