Cruising Iceberg A23A & Elephant Island

            Thursday, 4 Jan 2024 – Since the ship was scheduled to cruise past the Iceberg A23a at about 7:30 AM, Jesse set our alarm for 7:00 AM.  There was no sign of the iceberg, so he delayed waking Sally.  By 7:50 AM, there was still no sign of the iceberg, but Jesse needed to leave for his 8:00 AM haircut appointment.  Before leaving, he woke Sally and asked her to try to photograph the iceberg when the ship got there.

Jesse’s hair stylist was Arul, from India.  Arul had been a member of the Oceania crew since 2019 but had worked previously for Regent and Royal Caribbean Cruise Lines.  As with other people that Jesse had met from India, Arul had not visited the Taj Mahal!  Arul first colored, then cut Jesse’s hair.  Jesse was very pleased with his haircut.

Jesse could see the iceberg A23a from the window of the Salon, but the sky was so overcast, it was impossible to see anything except the lower outline of the iceberg, where it met the sea.  Sally had been unable to see anything at all, so she did not take any photos; however, Betsy Lee sent us copies of hers.  Also, Jesse found much better photos on the internet.  The iceberg broke off from Antarctic’s Filchner Ice Shelf in August 1986, but after drifting only a few hundred miles, it became grounded for three decades.  It began drifting again in November 2023.  A23a is more than three times the size of New York City and about 100 million times heavier than the Eiffel Tower in Paris.

Upon returning from the Salon, it was 9:50 AM when Jesse exited the elevator on Deck 7.  There, Sally was waiting for him, so we went directly to the Terrace Café for breakfast.  Although, it was wet and windy outside, we walked across the opened deck to the restaurant.  We managed to get our breakfast items before the buffet closed; however, we soon learned that a special Brunch Extravaganza had been scheduled in the Grand Dining Room from 9:30 – 1:00 PM that we could have attended!  When we returned to our cabin, Sally lay down for a nap, while Jesse dozed on the sofa!

At 3:00 PM, we went to the Beauty Salon/Spa for Sally’s manicure and pedicure.  Jesse went next door to the fitness center to wait for her.  Sally argued with the manicurist, Elizabeth, and insisted that she was only there for a manicure.  Apparently, there had been a miscommunication between Jesse & Sally.  Jesse watched an episode of The House of Dragons while he rode a stationary bicycle in the fitness center.  Her fingernails looked stunning!  Elizabeth had also removed some of the dead skin around Sally’s nails, for which Sally was very pleased!  As we were leaving, we heard an announcement that whales had been sighted alongside the ship.  So, we went out on the open deck for a few minutes to see them, but we were not dressed for the cold, so we quickly came back inside.  Anyway, we had seen so many whales on one of our excursions in Alaska, that the prospect of seeing more wasn’t really that exciting.  When we returned to the cabin and Jesse found out that Sally had not gotten her pedicure, he called and rescheduled it for the following day.  It should be mentioned that this was Sally’s first professional manicure and pedicure, and this was all Jesse’s idea.  Sally was very resistance because of the cost and considered it all overly extravagant, but Jesse finally convinced her to do it because we were using complimentary cruise credits, not real money!

It was a little after 4:00 PM when we returned to our cabin, and the ship had just began sailing around Elephant Island, an ice-covered, mountainous island off the coast of Antarctica in the outer reaches of the South Shetland Islands, in the Southern Ocean. The island is huge, and it took quite a while to sail past it.  The Antarctic Expedition Team narrated the tour, and gave the history of the island and told us about one of the most famous stories of survival, when in 1916, the shipwrecked crew of the ship Endurance survived there for 4.5 months!  Soon after Elephant Island was no longer visible for the ship, the Antarctic Expedition Teams said their good byes and thanked the ship’s captain and the Antarctic ice pilot for an unforgettable tour of Antarctica!

Before dinner, we went dancing again to the 4 Corners Band in the Horizons.  The sea was rough, but we tried dancing to a couple of songs, but finally gave up.  Ed and Alicia were there, but Ed had given up on trying to dance before we arrived.  A few of the other dancers, including Alicia, were successful in dancing in groups while holding hands.  There were much more daring than we were!  We sat in Maribeth’s section in the Terrace Café for dinner again.  We both had help from the wait staff bringing our food back from the buffet!  Jesse has been doing well limiting the portion size of his meal, but he still enjoyed two desserts!