Cruise Day 1, 2, and 3 – Drake Passage Crossing
Greeting, everyone!
I begin this post on Jan 4th, 2023, with our evening arrival and boarding of the Silver Cloud. Count this as Day 1 of the cruise.
As I mentioned in the previous post, we met our cabin steward, Karen, when she escorted us to the room. Shortly after our butler, Tarik, came to introduce himself. Tarik is from Egypt, and Joy immediately got him talking about his family! He has three kids – an 8-year-old daughter, 4-year-old son and 2-year-old daughter. The son is in love with baby penguins and wants Dad to bring one home!
As Tarik left, our bags arrived, and we began unpacking. This is our 30-something-ish cruise, so we kinda have it down to a science now. There is still some art involved, but we quickly divided closet and drawer space and worked our magic. It only took about 15 minutes to get stuff put away, and luggage stowed under the bed! [This was a cakewalk compared to the nightmare we had on the world cruise, which involved rearranging furniture!]
We enjoyed a moment on the veranda, taking in the darkening sunset that looked like wildfires and Silversea’s Silver Wind sitting in harbor – she will take on passengers tomorrow.
We have our friends and former neighbors with us again! Lu and Duane Kroeger joined us from Denver, Colorado. They were fortunate to decide to leave Denver 2 days ahead, since winter weather is getting more severe. So they left on Sunday, Jan 1st, the day before the next snow hit town! Needless to say, their travel went much smoother than ours!
We have dinner in La Terraza for 1st time. We are supposed to have reservations for this restaurant, but since it is boarding day the restaurant is lightly attended and they sneak us in! We meet Abdelhakhim – he is a great waiter! We will ask for him again! And the food here is excellent!
Silver Cloud pushed off from the dock, but over the next three to four hours it appears we just hovered in the bay. The Silver Wind was always visible! Then sometime overnight we set out in earnest to leave the Beagle Channel and head into the Drake Passage. Ooooooo! Will be the Drake Shake or the Drake Lake? We want the latter…!
Cruise Day 2 we’re crossing the Drake Lake! Yay! But we learn that night that a storm front is coming through. The Captain was going to change course and increase speed in an attempt to get ahead of the front before we reach the Antarctic Sound. Meanwhile we have multiple training courses to attend in preparation for our journeys on to the Antarctic lands!
We receive training on kayak safety, zodiac safety, do’s and don’ts on the landings, the IAATO (International Antarctica Agreement for Tour Operators) requirements, and procedures for handling boots before and after landings to ensure we don’t transfer organic material between locations.
On Cruise Day 3, Drake Passage Day 2 we learn the Captain’s plan succeeded!
He did such a great job staying ahead of the storm front we actually had Drake Lake the entire crossing and we have a chance for an early excursion on Day 2 of the Drake Passage! We arrived at Elephant Island! Look at that beautiful glacier coming down the middle!
We attempt to have an early landing in Elephant Island’s Echo Bay. Zodiac operations commence, and the Excursion Team heads out too look at the location, conditions, and viability of making a landing. The sun is shining, but we find the water is too rough.
Captain Dominin had another idea to see if we can land on an island he knows of in the area – no details provided. But again, the water was too rough. Oh well, they tried! We’re out enjoying the sunshine anyway!
But we manage to find a pod of fin whales and some humpback whales so that takes away some of the disappointment of losing a possibly early landing! Here’s a nice little tail I captured:
We made it through the Drake Passage as the Drake Lake! Let’s hope we can repeat that on the return. This can be some of the most treacherous water in the world!
Cruise Day 4 has our first planned excursions for this voyage. More in the next post!
