First...I'm okay...the ship is okay...see below for my account of our excitement.

Tuesday, January 30

Still at Punta Arenas for the day, as originally scheduled. It’s a relatively desolate spot with a town of around 100,000. I was feeling lousy today, so I skipped the "usual" bus tour of the town with the usual church, main square and native market. I understand that the 4th item here was the local cemetary...that may sound odd, but I hear it was gorgeous.

As for feeling lousy, it turns out that it’s probably a side-effect of the anti-malarial drug I’ve been taking. So on advice from the ship’s doctor I’m stopping it until we get to Rio.

The ship has been giving us nice gifts every so often. Today’s was a gorgeous light blue parka. A couple of days ago it was a nice pair of binoculars, and before that a top quality tote bag, plus other stuff. Of course we’ve paid for it all in our fares, but it’s still fun to get "free" stuff.

Wednesday, January 31

Morning spent cruising the Beagle Channel looking at a lot of spectacular glaciers. The photo here is of Romanche Glacier. They have two new lecturers on board, a geologist who did the narrationof the glacier viewing, and a man who is a specialist in Antarctic birds who gave a great lecture on penguins today.

Arrived in Ushuaia on time at 1:00 p.m., but couldn’t dock because a container ship was in our spot, so had to wait for it to leave. A number of other ships in port including a Russian expedition ship, the National Geographic Endeavour, the Mare Australis, and The World which I think is the condo/hotel ship that goes where its owners/passengers vote to go.
Took a nice tour on the narrow gauge railroad then by bus to Tierra del Fuego National Park. Went to the very end of the Pan American Highway...the "end of the world" or as far south as one can go by vehicle. Lots of interesting mountains, cirques, open areas that had been logged off by convicts from the Ushuaia prison 1912-1947, areas of trees killed by introduced beavers. Saw a Caracara bird, several Upland Geese, and tons of rabbits...BIG rabbits! Finally got back to the ship a little before 6:00 p.m.

Friday, February 2

Okay, I’ve seen Cape Horn...a tall island through the mist yesterday morning about 6:30 a.m....I was awake to see it because of the 30+ foot swells that started at just about the same time as we got well out of the Beagle Channel. Then we set off across Drake’s Passage for Antarctica. Conditions got rapidly worse...over 70 knots wind and 40+ foot swells (can you say "hurricane"). At one point a really big wave or 3 hit us while I happened to be sitting on the edge of my bed, and I wound up on the floor and stayed there while furniture and glassware and most anything else not nailed down thrashed about the cabin. I wasn’t hurt and did manage to get myself back up off the floor and onto the bed by myself, although it took a good bit of doing.

At that point the Captain changed course to run with the swells to ease their effect some while the injured were helped and damage to the inside of the ship...cabins as well as public rooms...was assessed, and headcounts were taken. Several of the injured need shoreside treatment, so at about 7:40 p.m. last night the Captain turned us back into the teeth of the storm with the eye between us and South America, and set course for Ushuaia again.

I still haven’t been out to see the rest of the ship...early on I decided that the safest place for little ol’ unstable me was right here in Cabin 191 until things calm down. Much of the time we were having swells OVER 45 feet high. I gotta say I’m now really tired of looking UP at whitecaps from my position on Deck 8! God bless my friend, John, who brought me a supply of crackers and a couple of sandwiches during the afternoon. Also thanks to my cabin steward, Gaga, who managed to come in, put things to enough rights that nothing rattles too badly (including corralling all the cans and bottles that fell out of the fridge at one point and rolled around on the floor for a while), and clean up all the broken glass.

I have passed the time sleeping and watching tv. Last night they showed "The Queen" which was very good although I must admit that my attention was not wholly on the movie.

We have now (12:30 p.m. on Friday) gotten back to the Beagle Channel. The swells are down a little and should drop more as we get farther inside, but we still have 80 knot winds. We will be at Ushuaia (probably anchored instead of docked as they may not have space for us) until tomorrow evening. I believe that he intends to try for Antarctica again if the weather allows. Several of us had wished for more time in Ushuaia, as it is an interesting place...looks like they got their wish. Well, the seas are calmer, so I think I’ll try to go get some food and see what’s what.

Later...we’re coming into Ushuaia now. Some 48 people were hurt, most not badly, although there’s at least one badly broken leg, one staff member has a badly sprained or broken ankle, and one staff member has burns from where the coffee machine upstairs in the Lido landed on him. Most of the crockery is gone and they are flying in replacements. Two grand pianos are damaged and one of them is toast. The galley came through okay, but the food storage areas are a mess (according to one of the officers). It’s amazing that it isn’t any worse. The Captain and crew have been fantastic about getting things back to as normal as possible.

Evidently we made the CNN news, so Holland America phoned everyone’s emergency contacts to tell them we are okay. Of course, in my case, that means they called my lawyer who probably didn’t pass the word along, but I’ll send e-mails to various folks and ask them to pass the word around. I heard a rumor that some people are going to disembark here in Ushuaia and skip the rest of the trip, but I’m not one of them. I sort of hope that we skip a return toward Antarctica, but I’m sure the Captain won’t risk that unless conditions are a lot better...also we’d probably only go as far as Elephant Island instead of all the way down to Palmer Station.