We can sleep in! Today is mostly a sea day with a midday stop, but we'll remain onboard, at Elephant Island. Taking it easy, I send greetings to people who aren't in the group chat as postcards of sorts, and we head to breakfast in the Lido.
Then, a man we hadn't met before approaches us and asks if we speak English. He needs to share his story with someone, as he'd been wrestling with it all night, and we seemed like "good, normal vacationers." Normal? Well, he doesn't know us, so we'll forgive him for that. But onto his story. It feels like something out of Agatha Christie: nobody can leave the ship. He tells us that last night, near the ship, he filmed something very extraordinary and was still shaken by it. He had to share. He saw a dorsal fin about 6 feet above the water, then two orcas diving onto it and attacking, possibly even killing, the whale. He asked if orcas do that. According to us, they do, especially with young whales. What an experience! We listen in awe and are a bit envious. He wants to ask Jim or Neil for extra explanation about his video. I hope he shares the video. I did ask him to. He didn't show it to us. Why he chose us out of the at least 100 people around us, we don't know, but it was very nice and special.
At 10 o'clock, we're in the Mainstage for a presentation about the upcoming ports, followed by Jim and Neil's daily update and Q&A. We've heard it before, and again today. Both the shore excursion manager and Jim and Neil say that this cruise is very special. Despite the heavy clouds, we've seen a lot that others couldn't, and the sailing has been much smoother. Until today, but more on that later.
We were supposed to arrive at Elephant Island first thing in the morning, then between 1:30 and 2:00, and now it's 1:00. We're looking forward to seeing elephant seals.
In the cabin, we take some time to read and write, and around 1:00, the captain announces that we're near Elephant Island, but due to too much ice, we can't follow the planned route. So, we decide to have lunch first. Once we find a spot, the captain announces that we've arrived.
Downstairs, jackets on, and to the aft deck. It's been raining all day and it's windy, around force 4-6. Outside, it turns out to be seriously windy, about 35-40 knots, and it's sometimes challenging to stay upright. We snap a few photos of the glaciers, although you can hardly see anything due to the weather conditions. The wind picks up, and the small tables by the deck chairs, which have been stacked for days, slide across the deck. We decide to put them under the shelter. People hold onto poles and mostly take photos of each other in the wind. When the captain announces, barely audible over the wind, only if you put your ear by a speaker, that the weather will worsen further and we will leave the island, we head inside.
8 Bft - gale-force wind - 34 to 40 knots (64-66 km/h) - sea, moderate high waves, foam streaks.9 Bft - storm - 41 to 47 knots (73-75 km/h) - land, branches break off / sea, high waves, rollers, visibility worsens due to foam patches.The Lido is open until 2 o'clock and it's now 10 minutes to. We hang our jackets in the cabin and go get some soft serve ice cream, then grab some food from the Dive at the poolside, where it's quite cold by the way. The pool is splashing around. The fries here are so delicious. Never had better. Jan reads and I write, and at 3 o'clock we waddle to the future cruise desk. And there we go again 😱 We had to wait quite a long time, so it's now cocktail time. Everything is earlier here than anywhere else and at quarter past 4 we find a nice spot in the Gallery Bar next to the casino.
An hour later, we head back to the cabin to review the menus for tonight and opt for the Dining Room. We get a table for 2, but it's next to the service station, which makes it a bit restless, but everything is restless with this wind, so it doesn't matter much.
At quarter past 8, they have a break until half past 9. We walk along what we call the red-light district; the corridor and curtains are red and remind us of a brothel, to a window from where we can see the waves from deck 1, and they're quite impressive.
Taking the elevator to our cabin, Meagan and Gabe step in on deck 2. They apparently have a cabin on deck 7, and we head to deck 8. We don't plan to leave the room tonight and watch two episodes of Poldark in bed, swaying with the motion of the ship. The wind picks up, and the ship creaks intermittently, with waves crashing against it, causing some movement on the Lido deck above us. It seems like it will be a restless night.