Cruising through a phalanx of icebergs, accompanied by whales creates a different construct for the normal cruising ambience.
Everyone within the sound of my voice in the past several months knows that the darling wife (DW) and I scratched a long term itch by taking a voyage from Tierra del Fuego at the southern tip of Argentina through the Drake Passage to the mysterious and pristine continent of Antarctica. My descriptive language fails me, and I can only say that what we found exceeded any expectations we had. During the course of the cruise, in addition to setting foot on the seventh continent, we saw and learned about 2000 year old glaciers and the icebergs they spawn, four species of penguins, four species of seals, five species of whales, and fifteen species of birds (many of which are only seen in these parts) and two hundred types of homo sapiens. You’ll be relieved to know that I’m not going to describe herein the innumerable icebergs or the assorted wild critters (even though the penguins are mighty cute). Those of you who aren’t nimble enough to escape will be forced, sooner or later, to view my photos of same. I am, however, going to spend some time describing the homo sapiens and their behavior while cruising. I should say, first of all, that this cruise and it’s inhabitants were not of the normal sort. That is to say that the ship had, in lieu of a casino populated with one armed bandits, an large library with an extraordinary collection of fiction, non-fiction, and materials related to Antarctic exploration, and the flora and fauna of Antarctica. The other cruise ships I’ve been on had libraries as well, but they usually contained a few well thumbed John Grisham novels, a couple of back issues of People magazine, and a Parchesi set with missing pieces. It had no stage show, no bad comedians, and no over sized, matronly cruise directors organizing shuffle board and bridge tournaments. We had only watching each other, lectures, and the nature around us. As one might imagine, this type cruise tends to self select a somewhat different constituency than your average Disney cruise. What we had here was a relatively homogeneous group in terms of age, economics, education and interests……and absolutely no kids. Ok, there was one 15 year old, but that was it. The age, economic level, and educational level were all high and the interest was broad and deep. We had our share of retired CEO’s, diplomats, trust fund types, and that ilk. We also several octogenerians who all insisted on participating in every activity; even if the activity was clearly beyond their physical limits. The national diversity of the group added another pleasant dimension to the character of the group. About half were Americans, 20% Brits, then Canadians, Indians (one very lovely young lady traveling with her charming parents), Aussies, Chinese (who moved only in a pack of eight), French, Italians, Germans, Portuguese, Columbian, Argentinians, South African, and New Zealanders. There were others from Greece, The Netherlands, Denmark, Spain, and Hong Kong. The crew was equally diverse and added to the mix with Russia, Philippines, Uruguay. Costa Rica , Poland, Bulgaria, and Ukraine also being represented. A veritable and enjoyable United Nations of folks all in a relatively small space. English was the lingua franca, but if one listened closely, you could hear a veritable potpourri of other languages as well. We met a British gentleman who, as his wife warned during a conversation about the Royal Family, works for the Royal Family as the head of Prince Phillip’s office. We met a American who not only owned Harley Davidson dealerships, but wore some type of Harley regalia every day to every function. We also met Tom B., who Google characterizes as one of the legendary wildcatters of the Texas oil industry. More about Tom later. We met Thomas C. (I don’t know what Tom does, but he obviously does well at it, but was notable by virtue of the fact that he went to Potomac Elementary School in Potomac, Md. circa the same time as our own children. We enjoyed the recently retired rector of a village parish (or whatever they call it) of the Church of England. We shared dinner and drinks with a doctor from Florida who made his money doing knees, and satisfied his urge for public service by serving as a state senator for ten years. We met a recent widow from Sussex who had determined to see and experience the world she had not seen while married. We became friends with Tom and Trisha S. from Santa Fe whose lives paralleled our own to a great extent. We met Aussies who enjoyed their beer and called everyone mate. We had cocktails with a group from Oxford, Mississippi that traveled the world together. One member of this group entertained us with a feverish “gaiter” at our impromptu dance-a-thon. He later boasted that now he could say he’d done the gaiter on all seven continents. In the spirit of the moment, I let it slide that he was on a boat and not on the 7th continent. We ate too much, drank too much, slept too little, exerted ourselves beyond reason, and socialized non-stop….200 people of disparate but similar backgrounds, thrown together for ten days is an interesting alchemy. One that perhaps should be studied by future cultural anthropologists. This is how it starts. “Hi my name is Louisa, and this is my husband Clarence. We’re from Darien, Connecticut and Esmeralda Island, Florida.” (I wondered at first how one could be from two places, and then I got it). I’d reply, “Hi there, I’m Gary and this is my darling wife S. We’re from Dallas and our ranch in Fannin County.” (No one is going to out do me by being from more than one place.) Louisa (or whoever) would quickly throw in, “have you taken this cruise before? This is our fourth time….we just want to keep checking on global warming. We try to cruise at least three months each year. Have you sailed before?” “Yes,” I’d say. “We just did the east coast of South America last year.” Clarence would quickly add, “we did BA and Iguazo Falls twenty five years ago. Bad case of malaria though; but not as bad as that dysentery in Bora Bora in ’88”. Thinking quickly, I’d throw in something about the architecture of Krakow and they would raise with St. Petersburg. I’d double down with the majesty of the water tower lights in Kuwait City at night, and be trumped by a trek through the Himalayas. I’d try to flank them with the Egyptian Arabians horses we breed, and Louisa would talk about her nephew’s polo ponies in the Hamptons. I’d fire a shot about my son-in-law’s investment bank and that my sons bought and sold shopping centers, and Clarence would counter with his son’s partnership in Goldman Sachs, and his brother who built office buildings in mid-town Manhattan. Sandra would get in the fray with her anecdote of the Indian jewelry merchant who followed her from Delhi to Jaipur reducing his prices as he travelled, and Clarence would guffaw and relate his adventure in buying raw opals on the Zambezi from a very shady character for $.10 on the dollar. And this is all before we even said a word about our grandkids. The great thing was you got to repeat this set piece another thirty or forty times during the course of the ten day voyage. S. said in mid cruise, “this kind of stuff is right up your alley, isn’t it Gary”. I admitted I’d never had a better time, and wished the cruise was a few days longer so I could meet them all. Well, there’s always another cruise.
