Today is Polar Plunge day, so I've put a photo of that up first.
We saw a minke whale right by the ship just before we plunged. Thank you to Mick for giving me these photos.
Here is a video I found on YouTube about killer and minke whales in the Antarctic - warning, it doesn't have a happy ending.
51 of the 220 people on board Polar Plunged. I am near the end. Here are Maury and I getting ready.
Brian/Julia offered whiskeys to everyone who had registered for the plunge. I didn't have a whiskey.
Before we knew it we were up. Here is Maury looking at me to synchronise.
Laurie (Maury’s wife) and Bill did not polar plunge. Thank you Laurie for providing this shot from above.
These are the shots the pro Allen got from a boat looking on.
Not quite synchronised. Maury walks on water.
It was cold at 1.5 degrees and more salty than I had imagined.
Here is a video. We had paparazzi everywhere. It was a big deal on the ship to polar plunge. I am glad I did it, to put in the blog, and of course to feel the Antarctic waters like whales, seals and penguins do - human style.
Laurie got us as we came up the stairs from below. Thanks Laurie for these photos, and for the whale tail and leopard seal photos too.
We jumped into the spa on level 8 afterwards. We had been at the back of the queue, so we were able to stay in for ages and warm up. Janice ordered shots of Bailies for us all, which I did have and it went down very well.
This is Jay, Marnie, Brian, Jacqueline, Maury and me. We chatted and got to know each another. It was fun. They are medics from Canada and they know how to have fun and were eager to learn about everything. They reminded me of Liz and Nigel who we know well in Auckland, they could have held their own here. Brian is a naturalist and more about him later.
Marnie, Janice and me after the plunge. Maybe whiskeys and Bailies and the adrenalin rush had them think they were Sports Illustrated models. I can pretend I am one too I thought. These girls know how to have fun. I loved Marnie's quote "We can be very loud and we are harmless."
Janice started having doubts about being a model. Marnie and I thought we were definitely of that calibre.
These guys were part of a 21 medical party group, and most had done trips together before. They were all either doctors or surgeons, and talked about offsetting their trips cost by getting CME (Continuing Medical Education) - if they can find a way for CME they have part of their trip paid for. Maybe if I had had a heart attack from the polar plunge, they could have resuscitated me and claimed something? They were always laughing. Like our girls' trips we do once a year, they do a bi-annual trip. I definitely have to go back to our annual walking girls group and suggest we upgrade our walks to more wildlife oriented!
We zodiac cruised with Sarah around Pleneau Island.
We saw Antarctic shags.
Leopard seals.
Crabeater seals - who do not eat crabs, they eat krill and fish.
Photo time - Jake arrived with champagne or hot chocolate. A nice touch I thought.
Photo time.
During lunch we cruise to Petermann Island.
This is an Adelie and a gentoo. Thanks Camelot for this picture.
They reside together here. Though we see more gentoos than Adelie. Adelie is the smaller of the two.
I found more about Adelie's on the web. They have an all black head. They can swim up to 7mph, especially when they are swimming to get away from predators.
Back to the gentoo.
The icebergs were incredible here too.
Back on the ship we go up to deck 8 to enjoy the view. It is incredible.
Bill leaves and I stay and keep taking photos.
Marnie and Piers arrive. We take more photos.
Marnie and Piers.
I see a leopard seal floating by on an ice floe.
I reckon it looked at me.
The sun sets.
I collect my Polar Plunge Certificate.
Then Bill and I bump into Mick and Linda in the bar (our Perth friends from the first night). They were having a drink with Judy and Roger from Sydney. And because this was their fifth SilverSea trip they know some of the staff well - Viktoria and Jane were among those, and we had dinner with them all. The staff on this trip are so well qualified and fun to be with. If I had my time again I would have loved their job.
We talked to Viktoria mostly at dinner. Here is her bio.
Here is Jane's bio.
We get a photo of everyone at dinner.
Then it was up top for a dictionary game with Frankie, Ursula, Martin and Isabel on the panel. They are all expedition leaders on the trip. Brian, the organiser of the dictionary game chooses a word. Brian is the trip Event Manager. He also goes by the name of Julia, which tells you something. One of the word he chooses is 'nymphadora'.
Everyone gives their definition. Frankie defines it as "quirky intellectual for academics", Ursula defines it as "a teaching tool for students who struggle with making things clear in exams". Martin defines it as "an orchid only found in Patagonia". Isabel says "she discovered her husband had tendencies for other men. She explains how devastating this was for her and says it is when someone is gay."
I have never laughed so much. They all are academics, from different countries with different accents, and all very articulate. While the definitions seemed absurd, one has to be right. The liars were so articulate in their definitions. We are all in teams choosing the correct definition. Not one of the 50 teams gets it right - it was Isabel!! I can't believe it was correct. And of course Brian / Julia knew it all along!
I went up to him afterwards (that's him standing behind the panel in the photo) and thanked him for leading such a funny session, he had been such a pro. And I wanted to get the spelling right for my blog of nymphodora. I said I had never come across the word. He said, "I would rather be called a nymphadora than plenty of other names I have been called!"