En Route To Ushuaia, Argentina

Last night continued to be quite windy until around 2:30 AM, but we are thankful that we were sailing in the inside passage as this minimized the rolling of the ship. We are very fortunate to be sailing on a ship in the 21st century and we are reminded of what it must have been like when these seas were sailed by sailors many years ago in boats significantly smaller than those of our century with no amenities to speak of and none of the technological advancements that we come to expect today.

This morning we saw wonderful fjords and other spectacular scenery. It is so beautiful sailing around the beautiful continent of South America.

This morning began as it normally does for us with breakfast in the Lido Café. Following breakfast, we worked out in the Fitness Center before we went to forward on the ship called the Palm Court so we could view the beautiful scenery.

At 10:00, we attended a lecture by Ambassador Peck who we had the pleasure of dining with on Wednesday evening with his lovely wife Ann. Ambassador Peck’s first presentation of this segment was titled “Thinking About Our World. An Effort to Provoke Thoughts, Not People – That’s What it Looks Like from Her.” His lecture reminded that there are different views in which to view the world and sometimes how we first see the world is not how it really is. This lecture sets the stage for two other lectures that the Ambassador will give during this segment of the World Cruise.

Ambassador Peck was a diplomat for 32 years. He has served as a White House Deputy Director, Cabinet Task Force on Terrorism; at the Pentagon, Liaison Officer to the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and Fellow, Institute of Higher Defense Studies; at the State Department, Deputy Coordinator, Convert Intelligence Programs, and Special Assistant Secretary for Political Affairs. He has also served as Chief of Mission in Iraq and Mauritania, Embassy officer in Sweden, Morocco, Tunisia, Algeria, and Egypt.

We thoroughly enjoyed Ambassador Peck’s presentation and look forward to his other presentations.

We also attended trivia in the early afternoon. Our results today were not very good but as usual we had a lot of fun. Following trivia we went to lunch in the dining room with some of the couples from our trivia team and we also met another couple at lunch who we have not had the pleasure of talking with before today.

This afternoon Anne Marie saw the movie Confetti that was shown in the Hollywood Theatre while Keith helped another passenger with their photo application on their computer.

Early this evening, we sailed around Cape Horn. The first recorded landing at Cape Horn occurred in January of 1616. Over the years, there have been many successful sailings around the cape, but many others have failed. It is easy to understand the complexity of sailing around the cape when one considers that, on average, there are 200 day each year of gale winds, 130 days of cloudy skies, and during the other times of the year the winds are quite strong and the seas are quite rough. This is our second sailing around the cape in the past two years. Even without the winds, it is normally choppy because the cape marks the exact point in which the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans join.

We were fortunate to have better than average weather as we sailed around Cape Horn. We would like to commend our captain and the rest of the Crystal Serenity Crew for successfully sailing the ship around the horn.

For dinner we went with another couple to Tastes, which is another restaurant venue that serves dinner in a casual atmosphere on selected evenings by the pool area. While we have dined there a few times for lunch the last time we cruised on this ship, this is the first time we have had dinner there.

Tomorrow morning we arrive in Ushuaia, Argentina.


Keith & Anne Marie