Our first morning on the voyage began with a walk on the deck (for me while Ken still slept!) to catch the 6:38 am sunrise while we sailed past the Florida Keys. They were visible during the night by a few lights, a glow, or antennae masts, but by day, invisible. The stars at night were amazing! I have to see if there is an astronomer among all the scientists on board.
The ship, Viking Octantis, one of two Polar Explorer series, is only five years old and is fresh from two weeks in dry dock getting a five-year spruce-up with brand-new beds, a fresh coat of exterior paint, other interior touches, and all new crew.
It is smaller than the Viking Ocean ships with only 378 guests and 256 crew members. The length is 665 feet and beam width of 77 feet. It has state-of-the-art stabilizers, which will definitely be put to the test when we cross the Drake Passage between Argentina and Antarctica! I’ll let you know later…
We flew from Grand Rapids to Chicago O’Hare to Fort Lauderdale yesterday after a too-short night’s sleep and arrived to the ship about 2:00 pm. After the required safety briefing and a snack, we retired to our cabin, literally for Ken. He laid down for a “nap” and didn’t get up until this morning! I wasn’t much better, never went to dinner and climbed into bed early. We left Fort Lauderdale’s Everglades Port at 6:00 pm, and I watched from our cabin, while the ship cast off and made a 90-degree turn to head out of the channel to the open seas.
Today is a sailing day, due to arrive in Cozumel at 8 am tomorrow morning. We have signed up for a 2-tank boat SCUBA dive with lunch tomorrow. We have not dived in Cozumel since the late 80s, so I’m sure the town has changed, as well as the reefs. It has been one of the top diving spots in the world with amazing reef life. It will be good to see it again!
To pass the time today, we explored the ship a bit more, had a briefing on our Galápagos excursion November 15-17, and went to a presentation by the Chief Science Officer about all the research being carried out on our cruise.
Before dinner, there was a champagne reception to meet the captain and all the officers. Last evening all the department managers introduced themselves. Quite a crew and from 40 different countries!
And of course, we ate! The food is so good and plenty of it, so we have decided to control ourselves by having soup or salad only at lunch! We had sushi and seafood for dinner.
Probably another early night to bed, so we can be up and out to the dive shop! Buenas noches. Hasta mañana…
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