Today was supposed to the be the best scenic cruising day of our trip. The idea was to head down the Garlache Straights into Neumaier Channel, where the glacier view was supposed to amazing (look it up if you want to know where it is). We woke up around 8 am to phenomenal snow covered mountains outside our window. Words can't really describe it, so take a look.
We had our usual breakfast, and then took a break from scenery watching to go to the ballroom dance class. The dance of the day was Jive. We were kind of surprised by this, as Jive is a dance typically only danced in International Latin competition, and not socially, especially in the US. So, we were curious as to what he would teach.
Turns out, in this case, Jive was simply his term for single step swing. Ben, the teacher totally redeemed himself with that. It's a useful dance to learn and one we could use some review on. So the lesson was a good use of our time.
After that, we bundled up and went outside to take pictures of the spectacular scenery. Again, I can't really describe it - snow covered mountains, glaciers, and in the distance, a small boat cruise ship.
It was very windy, about a force 8-9 gale and strong gale. And it was blowing. We grabbed a quick lunch at the Horizon Court buffet. Because there had been lots of movement last night, Glen wanted to take a nap before we were supposed to enter Neumaier Channel at about 1:30. I was working on the blog when the ship started listing big time. Everything in the room was rattling and the balcony was about a 45 degree angle. I've tried to capture it below.
Hopefully you can see that the angle of the land to the balcony rail is not straight. I'll give you a hint here - the land is straight, the balcony not so much. Hopefully this gives you a feel.
About then the captain got on the PA (and into the cabins, which means that it was important. Apparently as the ship tried to enter the channel the winds were over 80 miles an hour. Because of that, and the ice, there was no way the ship could make it in safely, and we were turning around. More significant listing. The rest of the afternoon was sailing back out.
An interesting note appeared in our mailbox this afternoon.
Yay, we get to go to the bridge.
We spent some more time on deck and on the balcony taking pictures. I also went down to the Wine bar at 4:00 (supposedly our group meets there every day but it hasn't really been happening. This time, I found Mike and Maggie so I chatted with them for a while and then went to trivia. We're getting better.
Coming back from trivia, we ran into a couple we've seen on coastal cruises dancing. Their names are Johnny and Lily, and they dance in the East Bay. We'd noticed them having a private tango lesson with Cecelia and Ferdinand (the tango couple) just before. We started chatting and exchanged contact information. We also spent some time with them in the Elite lounge discussing cruising and dancing.
After that we got ready for dinner. The orchestra was supposedly playing big band and dance music for an hour so we went to that before dinner. Last time it said they were doing that, they were really playing Jazz. This time, they did do dance music. We danced for a bit before dinner.
At dinner we decided to order some special things because Rich and Joan told us we could. We think we're getting cookies every night (they make seriously good almond cookies here).
After dinner, we went to the tango party. It was a lesson and then dancing. The first dance was as crowded as the lesson a few days ago, but as it progressed, it got better. We spoke to the teachers, and arranged a private lesson for tomorrow morning.
After dancing for a bit, we went to bed. We arrive at Deception Island, our last scenic cruising spot, at 7, and the captain recommends that people go out to see the approach at 6:30. We set the alarm for 6:30 and went to bed.
And I'll leave you with the same view we saw just before going to bed:
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