PNewL PNewS
Volume 26 Issue 1 “All the pnews that phits.” March
2018
Dreaming in Antarctica
As I heard the first notes of this morning’s wake up song, I thought, It’s 7am already? But it wasn’t.
“Goooood morning…good morning everyone,” said the familiar wake up voice. From the lower bunk, I heard a groan. “Welcome to Antarctica! It’s 5:40 am [another louder groan from below]—it’s a beautiful day and we are surrounded by whales. I know this is a little earlier than scheduled…” The rest of it was lost in the scramble to get out on deck to catch our first view of “The Continent,” to see the beautiful day. And Whales!
Stepping out onto the deck, the exceptionally fresh air was cool but not too cool, and frankly, who cares? It’s yet another exciting moment and I am here for it, no matter how low the temperature or how high the seas. The light is the kind that photographers have a name for that I can’t remember. I love it—all lemony and buttery. I call it the happy hour—everything and everyone looks better. There is an odd odor in the air that I learn is—honest to god—whale breath. I can hear them—and smell them—before I see them. They are surrounding us.
Beyond was our first view of the Antarctic Continent and it was glorious. Bathed in soft light, the snow looked like meringue, the mountains like big frosted lusciousness. I confess to being glad I was wearing sunglasses as they hid the tears better. After waiting 18 months since we booked the trip and for decades planning to come—this was IT. And IT was big. The scale is off the charts.
Beyond the whales but before the Continent was an assortment of icebergs of varying sizes and shapes. They looked like something out of Dr. Seuss or Star Wars—never mind, Mother Nature beats the pants off all those creators. She is the ultimate ice sculptor. I took so many pictures because each one had a more brilliant blue or a fabulous angle or textures, shapes and colors that I wanted with me forever.
Some icebergs have names, like B15T, which we saw, sort of, in the distance, at 3 am the night before. They are measured in hundreds of square meters—massive sheets of ice just cruising around out there. This morning, these were more manageable in size though larger than the average home—I thought one looked like a football stadium. Stunning in their complex designs made them hard to leave behind, but little did I know, there were plenty of different and equally fabulous icebergs ahead. And I haven’t even touched on the stupendous awesomeness of penguins!
This was how just one of many remarkable days in the Southern Ocean began, as we bobbed around among the icebergs, seals and penguins, alongside the Continent. I could describe them all but I need to get a thesaurus, as my vocabulary doesn’t contain enough words to describe them. Welcome to the land of superlatives.
Things I am Learning
& Miscellaneous Observations
• En route to the Southern Hemisphere, I stopped at an outlet mall and bought a couple things including a pair of shoes I left in the car while I was gone. When I got home, I put them on. They are walking shoes and they are VERY BRIGHT. I think the store must have been darker than I realized. They will fade probably pretty quickly, but for now I have Bright New Shoes. Unintentionally.
• I went to Creative Mornings last week. If you don’t know about it and you live in a city of any size, there’s probably one near you—google it. A group in Asheville petitioned to be included because it’s a fraction of the size of most of the cities (I think the minimum is something like a population of 500,000 or more) and was accepted. It’s an early Friday morning lecture and social hour. Each member city gets a chance to pick the topic—there are something like 180 cities. This month the topic was Curiosity (chosen by the Malmo Sweden chapter) and the talk, which was great, was given by a professor at UNC Asheville. For the rest of the day, I thought about Curiosity and I realized that it is one of my motivating factors. It is probably why I haven’t jumped off the bridge (what if I missed something?) – it is why I have been to Antarctica and Namibia and why I do things so you don’t have to. It is why I go to things like Creative Mornings which is really outside of my comfort zone, sitting in a room of people I don’t know at 8:45am. Curiosity is my thing, and I guess I never put a name on it before.
• I need to be more careful in my language because I tend to exaggerate or there is a story behind why I feel some way that most of the world doesn't know. That thinking before you speak advice is something I need to hear. I suspect I have said or at least thought this before.
• I am taking a memoir writing class. So far it has been very helpful. Tomorrow night I am making my presentation and in sending out the piece I will read from (OMG – this is so far beyond my comfort zone, I can’t even tell you…), I said I realized that the PNewS is not true memoir which I kinda knew before I signed up, but the class was the closest to what I wanted so I thought I could fudge it. Based on two responses to my submission, I am thinking they agree with me but are not totally on board with the fudge factor. Fingers crossed. (Later: This was another example of the downside of email. The emails I felt were critical were not, after all. I am allowed to stay in the class. Most of the responses were positive though they wanted each of the PNewS pieces expanded. Looks like I have some work to do.)
• When did “No problem” become a response to “Thank you?” I don’t get it.
• I have so much more to say about the Argentina/Antarctica trip that I didn’t say above. We were gone about a month so you can imagine, a lot happened. Sara and I started with a stop in Buenos Aires and Iguazu Falls, which were both very good places to go and are very different from each other. Betsy joined us before we
headed even further south, to the end of the world—we were a good team. Adding Falkland Islands and South Georgia to the Antarctica trip was beyond brilliant. South Georgia is up there on my top five. Bouncing around in a ship for 21 days with 132 paying guests, 18 expedition members and ~60 crew and “hotel staff” is an interesting sociological study, but not one that made me a total convert to the lifestyle.
There were a lot of things to think about while we were aboard: we were still eating fresh lettuce after 20 days in the middle of icebergs—how’d they do that? We could order just about anything and Edwardo, our man in the dining room, would find it—where does he find all those things? We got chocolate on our pillows every single night. How many chocolates do they have on every sailing? How do they not run out of things because there are no stores anywhere once we left the Falklands! And where did they put it all??? The Upstairs/Downstairs aspect to traveling like this made me think a lot. I want to know where and how they live, or maybe I don’t.
One of the expedition team had worked at Palmer Station in Antarctica and showed a documentary about that experience. In it, someone said it takes longer to get to Palmer than it does to fly to the moon. Think of that! (I just googled it and apparently it takes three days to get to the moon.) I am not sure we were three days from an airport or hospital but we may have been at some point. I know that Dr. Christy was relieved once we crossed the Antarctic Circle and turned back because then if there were an accident that turned the ship around, at least we were already heading in the right direction. We were encouraged regularly to stay safe as one wrong move would mean we would all be headed back to the nearest hospital.
With as many people on the ship as we had, there were several we never talked to and some of them were the more …well, flamboyant may be overstating it but the more noticeable. And so of course, we named them. There was Frenchy the Vomit Man (who was French and threw up twice on the first day at sea…in the main lounge during a Briefing with everyone in attendance). Then there were:
Double Pom Pom Girl—almost always wearing that hat and her yellow coat…indoors and out.
Stone Face—this woman sat with us for one of the last meals. I was horrified—why now? Why us? She was very stern, and, we believe, a Trump supporter.
Smiling Man—always. Great smile
Whack-a-Doodle—we nailed this one on Day 1. She was yelling at the woman who cleaned the rooms, telling her to keep her hands off her stuff. Dodged her at every opportunity.
Tripod Guy—always with tripod, usually in the way
There were others but you get the picture. Sara wrote the list down thankfully because I had forgotten some of them
And then there were plenty of people we did meet and chat with and they were, as you might imagine, like-minded and interesting.
• I did a small study of hair goop usage before I left to make sure I had enough. A month is longer for some products than the travel-sized contains. I determined that my small hair goop container would cover the trip. Shortly after boarding the ship, I looked at my bag of bathroom stuff and the entire bottle was empty and now my other items were swimming in it. So much for the best-laid plans.
• I just found dad's king penguin pin. For now, I carry it in my pocket. It is fun to think we might have seen some of the same mountains of ice and snow 27 years apart.
• I use almond oil on my skin and have developed a habit of changing the essential oils seasonally. Clove for winter and usually lemon eucalyptus or lavender in the warmer months. March makes things complicated. One bathtime it’s 70 degrees outside and the next it’s 27. Keeping all scents on hand.
• The PNewS is now 26, including over 130 issues, proving I can stick with at least one thing for a while.
No person who has not spent a period of his life in those 'stark and sullen solitudes that sentinel the Pole' will understand fully what trees and flowers, sun-flecked turf and running streams mean to the soul of a man. Ernest Shackleton
