The Voyage of M.S. Explorer to Antarctica 22/11/06

See what happens when you let your guard down! The one night I go crazy, we get a call at 3.30 to say we are nearing Cape Horn. There had been talk that we would be visiting the Cape, but I thought this wouldn't be until the next day. Good weather had allowed us yet again to make good time and we got to the Cape far earlier than expected. Needless to say I briefly woke and then went right back to sleep. I was fairly cheesed off at breakfast, even though the general consensus was without the bad weather it was just some cliffs.

We got back to Ushuaia again earlier than expected and, though we ate aboard ship, we all took off at 9 to visit Ushuaia. Leaving the ship we were struck by the homeliness of our M.S. Explorer in contrast to a huge cruise liner and an expensive sailing yacht also moored.

Brian, Marc, Brian and Louise, Keith and Jen, Robert and one or two others stuck together and headed for the Dublin Irish Bar to suffer the local Beagle beer. It was a small wood paneled place with an incongruous R2D2 standing just inside the door. The beer had the slight tang of badly cleaned pipes, so we switched to Austral, only marginally better on draught. Others from the boat drifted by, but some of the others had taken up residence in the Galway. When our drink tab receipt didn't ring true we headed there to join them.

At 1 a.m. there weren't too many left. Bob the hotel manager from the ship, the chef and one or two others were the principal characters. Beside us a group of local girls were drinking champagne and acting very friskily. It turned out they weren't just local girls, but working girls. To the best of my knowledge we all resisted their very in your face charms. It was after two by the time we got back to the ship, although a Russian with no English did offer the invitation to a vodka or two on the Russian vessel immediately in front of our ship. Again temptation was resisted.