February 13 - Drake Passage and Karaoke

Today is our second day in the Drake. The seas have been relatively calm, however, I have not had much of a chance to enjoy the nice breezes and views from the bridge. Rusty and I have been basically locked in a cabin working on the end of the trip slide show since yesterday morning. We just finished showing the final product and I am very proud of our efforts. It is rewarding to put the show together, although sometimes I feel that people don't realize how much work it actually takes to put something like that on. Luckily Rusty is very organized and we were on the same page with our style, so it made the process go super smoothly.

We took a break last night to go to the crew Valentines Day party with the other expedition staff. They were having a Karaoke contest judged by the Chief Mate and Chief Engineer. In addition, they had a "love note" box available for people to drop messages in. The crew on the ship are so great - they are all from the Philippines and they couldn't be nicer. The Karaoke was perhaps the best thing I've seen in a long time. I've been trying to figure out how to explain a Karaoke night on the Clipper Adventurer but am having a hard time putting words to the event. First of all, the Karaoke machine is old - one of the ones that runs with the video behind it. The videos seem to all be of women in bikini's doing various things..sailing, golfing, taking showers.you get it. They don't go with the song at all. Not the most enticing for the female crew to want to get up and sing. The next is the microphone. They have it set up on echo during the announcement time, so picture this, "now singing singing singing, Drew from the galley galley galley". And the best part of all - they love to sing love songs, and with passion! Picture someone with a heavy accent singing "Against All Odds" in not the best of tune but with feeling, and you've got Karaoke night. American Idol outtakes have nothing on this. But what I love most is that they love it and are having a great time and enjoying every minute of it and supporting each other every step of the way. There is such camaraderie on the ship with the crew and it makes the atmosphere aboard so wonderful. Even the Captain participated with a fine off tune rendition of "Wonderful Tonight". It's rare to see a Captain so involved with the crew - Philipp is great and I love working for him.

The love note reading was even better. The best part was hearing them read the notes in Tagalog first and hearing everyone laugh and hoot and holler. Then the English translations. Some of the notes said things like, "I can't help that I love you, even though I'm married and love my wife too."

Anyway, tonight is our farewell dinner and I thought that I'd have some time this afternoon to catch up on some much needed sleep. However, the slides took longer than expected. The last few days of the trip really wore me out, getting up so early in the morning and going to bed so late. This job is fun, but it can be both mentally and physically exhausting. But in the end, it's exhilarating and I'm looking forward to our next cruise, the last of the season down here in the Antarctic.