Despite a few things not going as smoothly as we would have liked during embarking and unpacking, the rest of the evening went much better. We have a nice table in the Trellis Restaurant on deck 5 on the edge of the balcony overlooking the lower part of the dining room. The team serving us were really good too and very chatty despite the first night mayhem. Our steward also seems to have a good grip on things so it seems we have all the required elements in place to enjoy those aspects of the cruise.
Since leaving Buenos Aires we have had two additional visits by Pilot Boats, one about 2 hours out of port and another around 4:00 this morning. From what I can gather the transit from port along the Plate River estuary is quite a narrow channel hence the need for pilots at such a late stage.
The temperature was much cooler this morning compared to the previous 3 mornings and early we had partially cloudy skies. While Nicole and Pip disappeared early to go to the gym I decided to visit the Tuscan Grille to grab a decent coffee at the Elite breakfast while they expended some energy. The WiFi has a much stronger signal there than in the cabin so I was able to catch up with what was happening in the world.
In the morning we attended the “From the Podium” talk in the theatre which was an introduction to Antarctica by a chap called Mickey Live who is the onboard naturalist. If we weren’t already excited about the prospect of visiting the region then Mickey turned the dial up considerably. The theatre was completely full with standing room only and his delivery was excellent. We thoroughly enjoyed it.
I had researched tours at Ushuaia prior to leaving home and the go to company for private tours , a company called Pira Tours were all fully booked and had been for some time, we had read you could still book trips on the pier and were going to do that but having come away from the talk we have made the rare decision to book a ship tour so not to miss out.
After a hour or so we returned to the theatre for another talk by our old friend Dr. Dave entitled H2Ohhhh MY! which was similar to the one we saw last year on Solstice.
After a small but late lunch it was back to the cabin to sit out on the balcony in the lovely warm sunshine. This afternoon it was perfect sea day conditions.
Our evening consisted with a drink or two at the Elite drinks gathering followed by a trip to the theatre to see Jane Curry, it’s the 4th or 5th time we have seen her now and it’s still the same routine but entertaining all the same. The only downside was we were sat one row from the back and poor Nicole accidentally had a whole glass of wine spilt over her which meant she had to go back to the cabin to change and wash her hair.
We do get the feeling someone is testing us with all the little things that keep happening.
Another sea day tomorrow which looking at the daily programme will be very similar to today.