Sea Day - 1/17/2025 and 1/18/2025

Today was a sea day so we thought we would take some time and give a little more color concerning the staff and some of our fellow travelers, as well as the required decontamination that we did have to perform before reaching South Georgia because bird flu and other things can spread through travelers between the islands.

The best word of the day is “following seas” which is what we have and means that the wind is blowing in the same direction as the ship which makes it a good bit less choppy. It’s very comfortable even for those prone to motion sickness.

Shawn has talked a lot about our favorite waiter Marvin, but there are other staff that we interact with on a daily basis that are also very friendly and helpful. There is no assigned table seating for meals, but Conrad likes routine and getting to know particular staff, so we have managed, with Marvins help, to always sit at one particular two top all by ourselves, thus allowing us to get to know these staff members in more detail. Some of these other staff members are Osy, Kevin, and Paolo.

The staff leads a tough life in that they sign 8 month contracts that have them work every day during that time before having three months off. They also can work multiple jobs, such as Ella, who is our fantastic room attendant during the day, who serves beverages in the dinning room at night. Another example is Antonio, who Shawn met in Buenos Aires as we were bussed to the airport, who was just starting his 8 month contract as a bartender, who also serves beverages in the dinning room for dinner.

The staff is super friendly and we really enjoy interacting with them.

Some of the guests that we have met and interacted with are Chris and Betty, with Chris being a former VP at Rutgers, John and Michelle from upstate New York who are avid hikers, and John having started a wood working co-op. Francine from NYC, who is elderly and has lost her husband but still travels by herself and still is doing all the hikes without assistance. Some of her stories about what she has done in previous travels are much more daring than anything we would try!

There is only one child of all the 128 guests on the ship. He is 7 year old Jet, we think from South Africa, traveling with his parents. He has already been to all 7 continents and is very bright! All the guests love to talk with him, and he has taken a particular liking to Shawn. He is a prolific writer for his age and is writing a story onboard, and reads her the updates at night in the library. It is very cute to watch, and Jet's mom seems to appreciate the time and interest that we've shown.

The daily routine of the ship is morning and afternoon excursions by zodiac, with late afternoon, to early evening lectures concerning things done that day, or things to come. The topics can range from wildlife to photography to regulations with are getting more strict due to Bird flu now reaching all the way down to Antarctica. Today's task was to decontaminate all our outerwear before we get to South Georgia as the local authorities will do an inspection of the ship and random passengers to determine if we will be allowed to disembark at different landing sites around South Georgia. Things are getting very strict down here! The whole process did not go smoothly today, but hopefully will get easier in the coming days as we think this process needs to be repeated multiple times.

1/18/2025 was another Sea day with some interesting lectures and lots of relaxing and eating but not much else of note