Cruising Cape Horn

March  11th 2024

 The weather had deteriorated overnight, and the ship was pitching and rolling again. We had been looking forward to our scenic cruising around Cape Horn today. This is our third cruise to this part of the world, but on the previous trips we were not able to cruise around Cape Horn, we had fingers crossed that it would be third time lucky. Maybe by this afternoon things will have calmed down.

One thing we had noticed about the ship was that there were no rubbish bins near to the lifts, and thus on sea sickness inducing  days there were no little white bags strategically placed for those who had the sudden urge to use one. We did see some little white bags in the buffet, I was concerned that these might be related to adverse effects of the cuisine, but hopefully that’s where they keep the sea sickness bags. Still, they are not very convenient if you are nowhere near deck 14. Maybe they stash them in other locations as well.

Luckily Brian and I don’t feel the effect of rough seas, in fact we rather enjoy them.

Forgetting that this was the day we were to be cruising around Cape Horn, and that we may encounter adverse weather conditions, I had booked an appointment to get my hair cut. My hair was way too long, and months of cutting my own fringe/bangs have left me with a rather uneven appearance.

I am fine in rough weather, but are the salon employees? After all, the salon is on deck 15 right at the front of the ship. A lovely position, except in stormy weather conditions. I went up to the spa expressing my concerns that today may not be the best day for a hair cut, but I was reassured that all would be fine, and there would be a penalty for canceling at such short notice any way.

So I decided to go ahead with my hair cut, and settled in to the stylist’s chair,

with a good view of the rough waters below us, and the horizon that was going up and down.

Things started off well, I explained exactly what I wanted to have done. The stylist sprayed my head with a water bottle, and the cutting began. I really was not happy with the way she ended up cutting my hair, especially my fringe was way too short and I was starting to look like Cleopatra on a bad hair day. The ship lurched just as she was working on my fringe, and I was feeling grateful that her scissors avoided impaling my eyes, although they did cut a chunk of hair off in the process.

Finally the cutting ordeal was over, and it was time to get my hair washed. The ship was a bit more stable, and I could close my eyes and relax. However, even with my eyes closed and a more stable ship, somehow shampoo ended up in my left eye. It stung a lot, and we tried to wash it out, but the stinging would not go away and by the time she was finished blow drying my hair, my eye was swollen shut. I hate to think what is in the shampoo – I get shampoo in my eyes all the time at home, but have never had this happen.

So I returned to our cabin to try to see what I could do about my eye, feeling that this had not been a very successful start to the day.

I failed to improve things with my eye, so I decided to go and join Brian in Skywalkers. By this time the weather had become rough again, and we hit a big wave, sending the glasses on the bar flying.

Then the captain made his announcement. Due to the bad weather we had been forced to slow down, and thus we would not reach Cape Horn until well into the night. Therefor the scenic cruising around Cape Horn would not be possible, and we would be sailing directly to Ushuaia.

This was very disappointing, but safety first, and there was nothing we could do about it. I had had an excellent day with the penguins yesterday, so all was well in my world. Except my eye and my hair.

In the bag with our packed lunch yesterday was a little penguin thumb drive. Well we had originally had 2 penguins as we had 2 lunches, but I had managed to lose one. I now had a chance to look at our remaining penguin. It contained all sorts of information on the Falkland Islands and the natural history there, and best of all it has loads of penguin photos. I think that is such a thoughtful gift as a souvenir of our wonderful day in the Falklands.

As much as we would have loved to stay in Skywalkers, it was becoming increasingly difficult to prevent our computers from flying off the table, so reluctantly we went to a bar on a lower deck where things were a bit more stable.

Due to the rough weather several of the talks and activities that were scheduled for the day were cancelled, including tonight’s production show. However, the ever perky Amparo still gave her Spanish class.

We had received an invitation to the Captain’s Circle cocktail party in Club Fusion at 5:15 PM. It seemed a bit early to get all dressed up in formal clothes, but it said the dress code was formal, so there was really no choice. We got dressed and headed to Club Fusion expecting there to be a long queue of people waiting to greet Captain McBain.

Surprisingly, there were only 3 people waiting to go into the room. I was hoping that it wasn’t because so many people were felling sea sick. No, that wasn’t the reason there were only the 5 of us there. We had all misread the invitation, and the party is actually on March 15^th, not the 11^th.

Well seeing as we were all dressed up, we decided to have a drink and were pleasantly surprised to find out that every evening there is a sort of happy hour for Elite Captain’s Circle members in Club Fusion. There were delicious canapes and it was very pleasant to sit and chat for a while, with plans to meet up again at the real cocktail party on March 15^th.

It was hard to notice that it was a formal night as so many passengers were dressed very casually, which I think is a real shame as I love to see everyone all dressed up. Still, the dinner menu didn’t disappoint. There was chateau briande and lobster tails. Difficult choice. I ended up going for the beef, and it was absolutely delicious. Probably the best I have had in a long while. Sometimes Princess really gets it right. And then there was the souffle. Princess got it so wrong again. Very disappointing.

We went to bed hoping that the weather would calm down enough in the morning so that we could dock in Ushuaia. I was not happy about my eye or my new hairstyle, but I knew that both issues would be resolved given time. Meanwhile I was so looking forward to another night of being rocked to sleep.