Sailing the South Ocean on Feb 20 and 21, 2022 led to some really rough waves, and really, really rough nights without much sleep. We both slept fitfully in 5 minute segments between the rolling, knocking of waves, and noises from our cabin due to the movement. Thankfully though, and I’d say due to the new cabin, we were both able to at least stay in the room the whole night.
Unsurprisingly, we skipped breakfast of course after a night like that on the rolling waves of the South Ocean. For lunch, since CJ was feeling a bit better, she started with the roasted tomato soup. We then both had Bami Goreng, which is an Indonesian pasta dish. It was very tasty! We both really like it, and was able to get the recipe to take home and make later.
I got a lot of reading in today while sailing the South Ocean, and CJ tried to read as much as she could depending on the seasickness. We both attended a couple sessions on seals and maps of South Georgia and also finished the “Shackleton” mini series. It was actually not too bad for the limited budget of a TV mini series and limited time they had to tell the story. However, now that we were intimately aware of the subject, we did notice all the things they left out, and that the connecting thread of the plot wasn’t always very clear if you didn’t already know the story. I’d love to see a modern retelling at an HBO level limited series budget and given 7-8 hours to work with.
For dinner, we both started with a quite yummy popped quinoa and avocado salad. CJ then had a very strange beetroot consommé. The main course was a vegetable biryani pie. We weren’t quite sure what the “pie” aspect would be, but when it came out we knew. It was in a bowl and had a naan type crust over the top. It was a bit strange and lacking some of the ethnic spices. All in all it was a bit dry and bland. Biryani is one of my favorite dishes, so I was disappointed that this didn’t turn out better. Dessert was caramel and pistachio ice cream, which was okay, but continued the underlying hint of graininess or chalkiness that all of the ice cream had had. So far our first day sailing the South Ocean was lackluster and we were both settling in to that “at sea day” malaise again.
The next night on the South Ocean was slightly better, and we got a reasonably good night of sleep as the seas had calmed after dinner. We woke up in time for a spot of breakfast with the usual breakfast fare.
For lunch, we weren’t too hungry after doing a whole lot of nothing between breakfast and lunch, but we still went, as meals were how we measured time on the South Ocean. CJ started with a Minestrone that was surprisingly green, but was okay, and nice that it was broth based. Then we both had Penne a la Norma, which was a simple pasta with egg plant and red sauce that we appreciated in this moment. It wasn’t too heavy!
We watched a few sessions on the history of the Falkland Islands and the bird species that we would find there while cruising through the South Ocean. We also had the chance to make origami penguins, if you can even call them that, our results were not successful. CJ also had a follow up session to her photography session on South Georgia where Yuri showed them how to post process their photos.
While we were attempting the origami penguins we had a nice chat with a British women named Charlie who appeared to be younger than us, and her father Peter. It was interesting to learn about her sustainable home products company (Life Before Plastik) that she had recently started with her sister back home, Peter’s experience as a chemical engineer, and hearing about their distain for Brexit. It was an interesting conversation.
For dinner, we both started first with vegetable tempura, which was a nice change of the medium with the veggies, and came with wasabi and soy sauce to dip in – it was the highlight of the dinner. Next we had pumpkin miso soup, that wasn’t really miso soup in anyway that we knew it, but that was good for a pumpkin soup. For our mains we both got a disappointing vegetable au gratin. It was too soupy and as usual, very rich. For dessert CJ had strawberry and caramel ice cream. The strawberry did the best job of hiding the chalkiness. I had a lackluster chocolate soufflé that I didn’t even deign to finish.
We turned in for the night and watched a little “Amazing Hotels” through the on demand feature on our TV. We had discovered this series on the ship, and were binging through the season they had available.