World Cruise 2025 Part 4, Easter Island

On day 42, we hit terrible weather enroute to Robinson Crusoe Island. Didn't hold out much hope of actually anchoring there...too windy for tenders, probably. We made it after all, but not much to do unless one wanted to take a very serious hike uphill.

Easter Island. This was the big one, but we couldn't get into the main town, Hanga Roa, to anchor and tender because the swells were too much. Even the "dedicated" customs guys couldn't approach, so we moved to Anakena Beach, a place that does not have a tender pier, but has these:

Getting ashore in Anakena was no mean feat. The story was that the floating platform that was to be used for disembarking the tenders was damaged. We waited for hours while Captain and crew figured an angle, finally using one of our tenders as a landing platform. We will just say that it was a harrowing experience because the swells were fairly heavy at the beach. Pati was actually shaking when we made land, but our tender crew kept us alive. 

 

That said, one goes to Easter Island, or in the native language, Rapa Nui, to see the amazing Moai. We did. This is Akivi:

This is Ahu Tahai, by the water:

This unknown soldier stood alone. Actually, these are thought to be images of ancestors who are protecting the island's ancient tribes. How did these huge carvings get to their final locations? One thought is that they were given "mana", the life force, and they walked there on their own. There are lots of other theories...it's like the pyramids...who knows?

Nearby:

Interesting island life. Dogs roam freely as do horses, the latter either grazing by the road or trotting down the middle of it. Only the cattle are fenced in, and loosely at that. One place had quite a collection of roosters, chickens, dogs, and cats. One kitty jumped right into our bus and made friends. This guy seemed to be the gang's leader.

Later, we saw the aftermath of our landing. Two tenders, the one used as the platform and the other the one that carried us ashore, were both torn to shit. It was mostly cosmetic, skins, scrapes, and bruises, but enough that they'll need repair that can't be done onboard and will have to wait for dry dock. I guess the company isn't going to can the captain, but this is gonna cost some bucks.

 

Big barbecue onboard that night, and you know you're with old people when everyone knows how to participate during "Sweet Caroline".

 

World Cruise 2025 Part 3

 First, let me say this: I don't understand why this font keeps changing, but frankly, my dear...OK, pressing on.

Our closest point to the South Pole came at 63 degrees, 20 minutes south on February 6th.

Goodbye to Antartica and on the way to Ushuaia. Captain Abhi Singh attracts medical emergencies like Captain Stan attracts troubled ships at sea. Another emergency saw us dashing across the Drake Passage in an effort to arrive in Ushuaia early. Like, 8 hours early!

 

Finally Penguins! Magellan type.

Don't let these guys fool you. They're not penguins, they're cormorants.

We cruised the Chilean Fjords on day 36. It was cloudy and rainy in the morning, which didn't help our photography much. Nevertheless, here are Amalia and O'Higgins.

Next stop, Puerto Chacabuco. They have condors there, and beautiful scenery.

On to Puerto Montt, where you can see the volcano in the distance, and there's entertainment in the park on Valentine's Day.

A wine tasting event set especially for the World Cruise folks took place in Valpariso, Chile, before we set off westbound across the Pacific. We have a guest lecturer/troubadour on board. Terry and Gordon were often mistaken for one another.

 Our standard line was that Gordon has more hair and less talent than Terry. The wine venue issued us wine glass holsters and world cruise glasses. Very handy.

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World Cruise 2025 Part 2

Goodbye Rio:

Santos, Brazil (pronounced "Sanch"...leave it to the Portuguese influence). Nice little botanical garden with some native critters:

The Pele museum was well air conditioned. Overall, Brazil is a combination of the old, crumbling as flip-flopped locals stroll by, and the new and shiny, all tied together with clutter and graffitti.

On to Montevideo, Uruguay. The Southern Crested Caracara posed for us.

 

Montevideo and Punta del Este are very livable-looking places, although PdE is expensive. It should be, it looks like Monaco!

A very nice modern art museum:

Also, the Casapueblo compound, the realized dream of a (crazy) artist named Carlos Paez Vilaro.

 

The Expedition team joined us in Punta del Este, our experts on Antartica, on our way to Stanley. But will we make it to Stanley? Nope. How did the Argentinians find a good enough day to ever invade the place? We couldn't. There went seeing the penguins, again. We headed south and as the day went on, the weather went to shit. Okay, sun is out but we were doing some rocking and rolling!

 

Came the Captain on the blower to say that we were detouring to Elephant Island, and ice-covered place east of Antarctica.

 

The island was the desolate refuge of the British explorer Ernest Shackleton and his crew in 1916 following the loss of their ship Endurance in the pack ice of the Weddell Sea. The crew of 28 reached Cape Valentine on Elephant Island after months spent drifting on ice floes and a harrowing crossing of the open ocean in small lifeboats. After camping at Cape Valentine for two nights, Shackleton and his crew moved 7 miles west to a small, rocky spit at the terminus of a glacier, which offered better protection from rockfalls and from the sea, and which they called Point Wild.

Realizing that there was no chance of passive rescue, Shackleton decided to sail to South Georgia, where he knew there were several whaling stations. Shackleton sailed with Tom Crean, Frank Worsley, Harry "Chippy" McNish, Tim McCarthy, and John Vincent (all of whom were kown troublemakers) on an 800 mile voyage in the lifeboat James Caird beginning on Easter Monday, April 24, 1916, and arriving at South Georgia 16 days later. His second-in-command, Frank Wild, was left in charge of the remaining party on Elephant Island, waiting for Shackleton's return with a rescue ship. There was much work for the stranded men. Because the island had no natural shelter, they constructed a shack and wind blocks from their remaining two lifeboats and pieces of canvas tents. Blubber lamps were used for lighting. They hunted for penguins and seals, neither of which were plentiful in autumn or winter. Shackleton had instructed Wild to depart with the remaining crew for Deception Island if he did not return to rescue them by the beginning of summer. After four and a half months, on August 30, 1916, a ship, the tug Yelcho, from Punta Arenas, Chile, with Shackleton on board and commanded by Luis Pardo, arrived and rescued the men.

Imagine.

The Elephant Island story is actually typical of the hardships presented to the earliest explorers in Antarctica. We never saw the island, by the way, because we passed by it at well past midnight.

We went on to visit Maxwell Bay, Half Moon Island with Camara Base, and Deception Island, then forward through Wilhelmina Bay, Paradise Harbour, and the Neumayer Channel, then Dallmann Bay, with lots of humpback and penguins around.

Some of these pictures will look like they were taken in monochrome. No. That's how it looked.

But the sun did finally come out and brave Captain Abhi took us through the narrow passage between Lambda and Omega Islands, home of the Melchoir Base.

 

World Cruise 2025 Part 1

We sailed from Miami on Tuesday afternoon after a gala evening that we were too tired to really enjoy. After a couple of days at sea we arrived in Roseau, Dominica on January 11. There, we went whale watching and actually saw several female Sperm Whales and a couple of calves.

There she blows! Whale up! Drink rum punch!

Next stop was Bridgetown, Barbados and a highlights tour to an old signal tower with a helluva view. 

A visit to a tropical garden.

After our stroll, this little guy posed for photos while we drank more rum punch.

Next, a day at sea, then Devils Island. At anchor off the island, one of the guest lecturers had taken very ill and was evacuated by helicopter from the bow. Almost everyone turned out to watch.

We crossed the Equator on September 15, making us six-time shellbacks.

Action ground to a halt as Gordon nursed a cold. We took no tours in a couple of Brazilian cities and it looked as though we didn't miss much. Pati assured herself that she wouldn't get sick. Wrong.

The sun was out in Rio, and so were the crowds. Half of the world was on the beaches of Ipanema and Copacabana and the other half was on top of the hill viewing Christ the Redeemer. This time, we saw more than just his feet.

Brazil!