Woo doggie! It was rough last night.  Roll, pitch, big swells.  Really, really crazy.  I woke up around 6 and the curtains were swaying and flowing out from the wall about 2 feet!  We are going for a ride again. 

Ed went down to the cabin around 11 and now the Chinese have gotten into the act.  One guy is down there with the Hunger Strikers holding a sign that says 100% Refund, 100% cruise credit.  Ok – hey – that’s all fine and dandy – but it isn’t going to get you anywhere!!

Javi has a Knots Workshop, that we listen to, but don’t participate in.  It is something to do. And he’s so cute and sweet, it’s fun just to sit and listen.  Plus Carine gets into the act and plays the part of a kayak by rolling around on the floor, while Javi ties a specific knot to her to secure her to the shore.  The rest of the day proceeds as normal – lunch in the dining room, then Scott and Amundsen with Slava at 2 in the lounge.  As the room fills, the Chinese appear, now with their 100% signs pinned to their clothing.  Sigh.

Oh – and we have a mole aboard! Someone – who “asked not to be named” – is interviewed by the UK Times filled with inaccuracies and bluster.  They say it was an engine failure – it is the propeller shaft; they say the Russian and Chinese are on a Hunger Strike – it is only 3 Russians.  They do talk about the compensation, but also say the company is handling this badly and needs to make a better offer.  While we agree the offer should be better, we aren’t of the mind to sensationalize this.  An inflammatory article such as this will only hurt our position.  So now we are all abuzz with figuring out the mole.  This is just nuts.

Ok, on with Scott and Amundsen, which quite good, providing a deep dive into the race to discover the South Pole.  As I think I’ve already written, Amundsen wasn’t even supposed to be going to the S. Pole, his goal was the N. Pole. But as they were leaving, he found out that Cook had already discovered it, so changed his plans to the South.

He was well prepared to be an ice explorer, spending years with the Inuits, learning all about living in frigid temperatures, how to survive and use available resources.  Scott was not so well prepared, and in addition, he had bad luck from the start.  Bad weather, storms, sea ice, lost water and supplies, animals died.  It was chaos.  Amundsen on the other hand sailed into the Bay of Whales easily and set up base camp mostly under the snow.  Scott landed at his old base camp at Cape Evans only to find his cabin wasn’t properly shut and was filled with ice.  Another challenge for Scott was his use of ponies as pack animals.  They were not suited for the environment and slowed the expedition down immensely. Amundsen, on the other hand, used sled dogs bred and trained for this kind of work.

Seems an easy guess then who made it first.  Yep.  Amundsen.  He left earlier (by a month), had better equipment and training and planted the Norwegian flag at the pole on December 14, 1911.  He left a note for Scott telling him he would be the first one to visit the South Pole and to please bring back news if Amundsen didn’t make it back.  Sadly, it was Scott and his party who did not make it. After reaching the Pole and finding he was not first, he turned back only to meet with more bad weather and terrible conditions.  He and all his men perished.  The team waiting for him at Cape Evans finally goes out to search and finds the tent with the bodies.  The only silver lining is that Scott’s goal was not only to reach the S. Pole, but also to focus on science and expeditions to understand the continent.  To that end, the search party found all the rock samples Scott had collected as well as his diaries, giving them a complete accounting of the ordeal.

Carine is doing S. Georgia trivia at 4, which we decide to do from the cabin.  We really don’t want to play as a team, so the live stream works perfectly.   We had a pretty respectable showing, would have come in 3^rd if we actually played. Mark came in first, of course.  I mean the guy is a walking S. Georgia encyclopedia – as he said later, he would have been embarrassed if he didn’t win.

Later, the 6:30 Recap and Briefing is all about Ushuaia.  The Captain tells us that we are shooting for a Sunday arrival (read:  he’s not optimistic!) and Brandon explains all the different excursions they have planned for us.  On Sunday there will be a half day Tierra del Fuego tour, no sign up required, there is space for everyone.  We’ll take a 2k walk along the boardwalk in the National Park.  On Monday they are offering 2 tours to Lago Fagnano and Lago Escondido; one half day tour without lunch, one full day tour with lunch.  Sign up required.  You know which one we’ll be choosing!  Even though we’ve been to Lago Fagnano before, it’s been 13 years, and what the heck, it’s free!

The evening proceeds as normal, dinner, after-dinner drinks with Allan, chats with Frances and Michael, then off the cabin for TV watching.