August 26^th, 2026

At Sea

It was foggy and windy when I looked out of the window this morning. I had hoped that maybe I could try out the swimming pool, but that doesn’t look like it is happening today.

When I went to the constellation lounge I could hear the mournful fog horn every 2 minutes. It really is feeling like a Transatlantic crossing.

However, the champagne isn’t Veuve Clicquot. But, it is plentiful and free.

There were lectures all day. The speakers (conversationalists) on this cruise are part of the expedition team, and they work very hard. They are all very accomplished – both academically and in terms of their amazing experiences. Their topics are very varied from polar bears to bird watching to archeology of this region to restoring the ecosystem and naturalists in the age of discovery. A great variety of topics. The officers also give talks. Today Dave, the environmental officer and the engineer discussed the engineering and sustainability of the Venture. It was fascinating, especially the bit where one of the stabilizizers became non functional in the Drake Passage in December 2022.

The highlight of the day for most guests was the cooking competition between the officers and expedition team. The officers won easily.

However the highlight of my day was that we put the finishing touches to our boat for the boat building contest. It looks amazing, and even if it doesn’t ein I think we have created a work of art. I needed black string for it, and only having been able to obtain string colored string I had had to use a black Sharpie to color it. I ended up with black Sharpie everywhere including my fingers. Not to worry I was sure it would wash off. I then needed to use super glue. Now I am very careful about not sticking my fingers together or sticking myself to whatever I am working on so I felt very happy that neither of these issues happened. It was then that I noticed that I had super glue on my finger tips. Not to worry it dried fast and would soon wear off. The issue was that there was black Sharpie under the glue, and there was no way that either the glue or the black Sharpie would wash off. So there I was with semi permanent black fingers, looking like I had a nasty case of frostbite. Oh well, worse things could happen. And it was all in a good cause. But the question remains, will the boat float in a possibly turbulent pool? Time will tell.

The menu on this cruise has been very varied. Although lamb chops. tenderloin, and salmon are usually there, every night there are usually 2 or 3 dishes we haven’t seen before. Tonight it was branzino. My first experience with branzino was on the Sojurn when I had it one night in Solis, the specialty restaurant. It is served for 2 people and they bring the fish to your table and fillet it infront of you. It was very delicious, and I wanted to go back to Solis the next night to have it again. This didn’t work out as you can only go there once a week, and as Brian is allergic to fish I would have had to find someone to come with us. Although the other name for branzino is European sea bass, I have not seen it on the menu anywhere other than Solis. Well, here we are on the Venture and it was on the menu tonight. I had to try it to see if it was a good as I remember in Solis.

Although the presentation did not match that of Solis, it was totally delicious. I was very impressed that the galley which is providing hundreds of dinners can do as well as Solis with about 60 guests per night. I sat enjoying my meal, watching the waves outside. I just love watching the sea go by, and I am so sad that we just have a few days left.

The musicians Wendy and Jim disembarked in Nome and our new entertainer, Mike Mintz joined the ship there.

His first show was tonight. He had been described as a country western singer, and that tonight he would be paying homage to Dolly Parton. This all sounded very fitting.

However as it turned out he only sang one Dolly Parton song, and his show was more like Jimmy Buffet. Not to worry music is music as far as I am concerned. I love it all. Well, except techno music. I just don’t get it.