My first cruise

Ok, so I took a 3 day cruise on the Mare Austalis. The cruise ended several days back, but I am just now getting some time on the computer to type this up.

So my first cruise...well, first of all, this was a very nice boat. The cruise cost me $1300 for 3 days so no comfort issue existed. That price did include everything, including drinks which was a pleasant surprise. There were probably about 110 passengers from 21 different countries with the States having the most of any one country with 19. Everything on board was done in English and Spanish. The first day I decided to eat my meals at an English speaking table. Since these turned out to be the people I spent the most time with, this was an important decision. Wound not say I regret the decision, but the group I was with was not the most interesting group...4 other Americans, a British girl, and an older South African couple. Could not really hear a word of what the South African couple said in 3 days so that nullified much of what would have been interesting about them. At one point I ended up alone at the table with the S Africans and got to talk about S Africa and the Marines and all that. They ended up wondering why I do not go back into the Marines as they said the last thing I should want would be to end up like the others at my table whose lives are essentially meaningless in the sense that their lives have no effect on anything or anyone than themselves...these words coming from a mild mannered man who looked like a leprechaun. Needless to say, I was pretty surprised to hear such a frank opinion, but glad for it as people with forceful opinions are certainly more interesting than people who do nothing but agree with you all the time. I´m sure living in S Africa is pretty interesting these days and that older couple has certainly seen many changes in their lives.

So the ship was decent size, about 70 meters long...but it certainly rocked and rolled quite a bit when we rounded Cape Horn. The vast majority of the trip we were in the Straits around Tierra del Fuego, but since we had good weather the capitan decided to take her out into the ocean to round the Cape. The Cape is actually just the southernmost island considered a part of the continente. We disembarked on the island before sailing around it. The island is pretty small...you could probably walk the perimeter in an hour or so...and the only inhabitants are a Chilean sailor and his family who do a year long tour in a lighthouse. Now that is what I would call hardship duty.

Anyway, I suffered a little bit of seasickness at times but nothing serious at all. There were people on the trip that had a bit more of a problem though.