Day 09 - 15/Jan/24 - Cape Horn and onward to Antarctica

 Scenic cruising today began at 6am at Cape Horn.  Since we were here two months ago, I found the bow camera view from a prone position in bed was perfect.  Eventually I did get up and and out on my warmest Cook Island t-shirt and headed outside on deck three to snag a few pictures with my big camera.  Ed announced that the Captain had received permission to sail north between Isla Deceit and Isla Freycinet towards Isla Nueva so Ed could drop off our Chilean pilot.  This took a few hours. But eventually a small Chilean Navy vessel came alongside and the pilot transferred to the little boat and sped off.  The Oosterdam then did a slow 180° starboard turn to a heading for Antarctica.






With a full ship, Lido dining is quite crowded and today was no exception.  The same goes for seats in the Main Stage.  To get a choice seat, one needs to seated 30-45 minutes.  It is also live streamed to the Rolling Stone Lounge and starting tomorrow the Antarctic lectures will be broadcast into the stateroom TV's.


Dr. Ed Butler lectured on Antarctic ice in the morning and Graeme Ayers gave a Shackleton presentation in the afternoon (I am currently reading Shackelton's book, South).  For the rest of the afternoon we just hung out in the Crow's Nest watching waves and small sea birds on their fishing swoops and dives. The seas were actually quite flat bug the ship did some gentle porpoising.  In general, the Oosterdam has been a much smoother ride than the Zaandam.  


After dinner we were entertained by James Celien, who is probably the best magician we've ever seen.  His card tricks were almost unbelievable.  Afterwards we watched and listened to Adam in Billboard Onboard do two sets of 70's Billboard hits.  Once again he was really good.  We learned from him that he was an original member of the HALCATS who performed on HAL ships years ago.

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