The voyage starts
It was ‘Drake shake’ all night - and the Ocean Victory was dancing like a drunk teenager at a concert! Up and Down and left and right and Crash! The effect was like being on a roller coaster. A killer balls-in-mouth ‘Six Flags’ one!
Poor Raj and Joby were tingling and had gone a delicate green in the face.
I had convinced them to take a dose of Dramamine well before we cleared the Beagle, and Raj even brought out some anti-sea-sickness patches and shared them with us - and that’s probably why we didn’t have a nasty stinky mess to clean up inside the cabin! I hate the smell of puke - and the thought of being in a puke-smelling cabin for the next 20 days didn’t appeal at all.
I had convinced them to take a dose of Dramamine well before we cleared the Beagle, and Raj even brought out some anti-sea-sickness patches and shared them with us - and that’s probably why we didn’t have a nasty stinky mess to clean up inside the cabin! I hate the smell of puke - and the thought of being in a puke-smelling cabin for the next 20 days didn’t appeal at all.
I had no breakfast as a precautionary measure - just in case things come out, the lesser stuff in tummy the better. Joby went and stared at the plush breakfast buffet and licked his lips but did not dare to eat anything. He came back and raved about breakfast - but Raj only moaned and held his head.
Shelli - the expedition lead- had no sympathy for these Mal de Mer souls though.
‘Good morning everyone, Good morning’ she would croon sensuously into the P A System - and demanded that everyone come down to the large conference room for a number of mandatory briefings. ‘Come with puke bags if you have to, but everyone has to attend the mandatory briefings - that’s why they are called mandatory!’
To reduce the covid risk, they decided to split the passengers into 4 groups - Red, Blue, Green and Yellow - and each group would be called separately for briefings or whatever. Actually it turned out to be two groups, as Red and Blue were always together and Green and Yellow were always together.
We had a number of mandatory briefings - and they had to do the same briefings twice - once for Red and Blue and again for Yellow and Green - and they told us a number of very important things…which I don’t remember. But I suppose that you can sum them all up by saying - Be a nice traveller - don’t litter, don’t pollute, don’t disturb the wildlife, and don’t disturb the ship-life.
‘Good morning everyone, Good morning’ she would croon sensuously into the P A System - and demanded that everyone come down to the large conference room for a number of mandatory briefings. ‘Come with puke bags if you have to, but everyone has to attend the mandatory briefings - that’s why they are called mandatory!’
To reduce the covid risk, they decided to split the passengers into 4 groups - Red, Blue, Green and Yellow - and each group would be called separately for briefings or whatever. Actually it turned out to be two groups, as Red and Blue were always together and Green and Yellow were always together.
We had a number of mandatory briefings - and they had to do the same briefings twice - once for Red and Blue and again for Yellow and Green - and they told us a number of very important things…which I don’t remember. But I suppose that you can sum them all up by saying - Be a nice traveller - don’t litter, don’t pollute, don’t disturb the wildlife, and don’t disturb the ship-life.
The expedition guides were all a bunch of specialists in various fields and they would be sharing some knowledge with us in their daily talks. The first talk was by the ‘Bird brain’ - A handsome French Ornithologist - who told us about the sea birds of Antarctica, and which ones were circling the ship at that moment.
After the briefings, we had the issuance of expedition parkas! Woohoo! Free Parkas! A Parka is a large windproof jacket with a hood, designed to be worn in cold weather. These were adapted from animal skin jackets with hoods used by the snow-dwelling Inuits - and - as all cold weather country people can appreciate - these are absolutely essential equipment for Antarctic cruises.
Now it was time to get the boot!
The waterproof boots I mean. We would be doing a lot of stepping in and out of water and snow and mud and so on, and it was not possible to do it in any other footwear other than a knee-high waterproof boot - what we used to call ‘Gum boots’ as kids.
Again - it was unlikely that any normal person (one who does not live in snow-covered lands) would be owning such a pair of boots, so the Expedition company kindly loaned us a pair of boots for the duration of the trip - we just had to go and choose boots as per our shoe size.
The waterproof boots I mean. We would be doing a lot of stepping in and out of water and snow and mud and so on, and it was not possible to do it in any other footwear other than a knee-high waterproof boot - what we used to call ‘Gum boots’ as kids.
Again - it was unlikely that any normal person (one who does not live in snow-covered lands) would be owning such a pair of boots, so the Expedition company kindly loaned us a pair of boots for the duration of the trip - we just had to go and choose boots as per our shoe size.
After lunch, there was a suck party!
All I meant was that we had to get all our clothes and any gear we would taking to land in Antarctica cleaned up thoroughly with a vacuum cleaner! This was to ensure biosecurity of the continent and prevent any invasive species from getting in. There might be seeds or spores in our clothing or camera bags or backpacks - and that had to be vacuumed out.
All I meant was that we had to get all our clothes and any gear we would taking to land in Antarctica cleaned up thoroughly with a vacuum cleaner! This was to ensure biosecurity of the continent and prevent any invasive species from getting in. There might be seeds or spores in our clothing or camera bags or backpacks - and that had to be vacuumed out.
In the evening we had the Captain's introduction of his team - the entire team came up to the stage in their smart official uniforms festooned with gold braid and shoulder tabs and stuff, and drank champagne with us. The ship itself was run by a shipping company, and had been hired by Albatros expeditions. Thus the sailors were employees of the shipping company, the service staff was provided by another company - and the expedition staff had been hired by Albatros, the cruise company. Thus we had many different companies working together to provide us our awesome Antarctica cruise!
Cheers to them all! Salud!
The captain looked like a caricature of a typical Englishman - a model for ‘John bull’! He was tall and plump and fair and apple-cheeked and spoke with a most satisfying upper-class English accent.
And he was the only Englishman on the crew! The rest were a whole bunch of Russians …well, erstwhile USSR types…and a few Filipinos in the Hotel and administration roles. I wondered how they communicated - wouldn’t the differing accents be a problem in case of emergency? Maybe they all ignore him and talk only in Russian!
Cheers to them all! Salud!
The captain looked like a caricature of a typical Englishman - a model for ‘John bull’! He was tall and plump and fair and apple-cheeked and spoke with a most satisfying upper-class English accent.
And he was the only Englishman on the crew! The rest were a whole bunch of Russians …well, erstwhile USSR types…and a few Filipinos in the Hotel and administration roles. I wondered how they communicated - wouldn’t the differing accents be a problem in case of emergency? Maybe they all ignore him and talk only in Russian!
‘Hmmm’ I muttered ‘Did you know that is a ‘Made in China’ ship?’
‘It is?!’ Raj went pale. ‘Really?’
‘Yes indeed. They have proudly put up a plate - It is made by the China Merchants Heavy Industry (Jiangsu) company in April this year.’
‘It is?!’ Raj went pale. ‘Really?’
‘Yes indeed. They have proudly put up a plate - It is made by the China Merchants Heavy Industry (Jiangsu) company in April this year.’
Actually, the Chinese are very big in ship building! The world’s biggest!
I had vaguely thought that the Europeans were the big shots in the ship making game - you know, Greeks and Onassis and so on - but that is very old and outdated news! The Japanese and Koreans kicked butt post WWII and took over from the European and American shipyards. Today Asian shipbuilders make up 8 out of the top 10 worldwide!
The Chinese must have noticed how important shipping is to get the goods they produce from China to the rest of the world - and probably asked themselves why their stuff should be transported in ships built in Japan and Korea. The Chinese were also doing a huge revamp of their navy and were building a huge fleet of warships - and the same companies could build both military and commercial ships.
So they entered the shipbuilding industry with a vengeance - now they control a lion’s share of the world’s shipbuilding! Chinese State-owned shipbuilding conglomerates - the China State Shipbuilding corporation and the China Shipbuilding Industry Co - recently merged in 2019 to form one of the world’s largest …er…shipbuilders…a shipbuilding giant with a combined revenue up to 1 trillion yuan (US$141.5 billion), capable of building vessels ranging from warships, like aircraft carriers - to civilian ships such as container ships and oil tankers.
$141 BILLION ! That would place this one company at #56 in the world countries list by GDP - out of 190 countries!
The value of this company is higher than the entire GDP of countries like Hungary, Kuwait and Ukraine! This single company would be bigger than the combined GDP of a third of the countries on the list!
The Chinese operate at the different scale altogether.
I had vaguely thought that the Europeans were the big shots in the ship making game - you know, Greeks and Onassis and so on - but that is very old and outdated news! The Japanese and Koreans kicked butt post WWII and took over from the European and American shipyards. Today Asian shipbuilders make up 8 out of the top 10 worldwide!
The Chinese must have noticed how important shipping is to get the goods they produce from China to the rest of the world - and probably asked themselves why their stuff should be transported in ships built in Japan and Korea. The Chinese were also doing a huge revamp of their navy and were building a huge fleet of warships - and the same companies could build both military and commercial ships.
So they entered the shipbuilding industry with a vengeance - now they control a lion’s share of the world’s shipbuilding! Chinese State-owned shipbuilding conglomerates - the China State Shipbuilding corporation and the China Shipbuilding Industry Co - recently merged in 2019 to form one of the world’s largest …er…shipbuilders…a shipbuilding giant with a combined revenue up to 1 trillion yuan (US$141.5 billion), capable of building vessels ranging from warships, like aircraft carriers - to civilian ships such as container ships and oil tankers.
$141 BILLION ! That would place this one company at #56 in the world countries list by GDP - out of 190 countries!
The value of this company is higher than the entire GDP of countries like Hungary, Kuwait and Ukraine! This single company would be bigger than the combined GDP of a third of the countries on the list!
The Chinese operate at the different scale altogether.
