Sunday, February 16, 2020 – At Sea en route to Puerto Madryn, Argentina
A quiet day, attending the ecumenical church service handled by the Deputy Captain who just got on Board in Argentina, and the head of Housekeeping with 900+ employees working for him, played the piano very well.
We caught up on work and “siestas”, a walk around the ship in perfect weather and a terrific show in the evening – The Power of Two – Ilia (Russian Triathlete) and Oksana (Ukrainian gymnast)
We did attend the Cultural Historian Richard Crowley on the battle of the River Plate.
Monday, February 17, 2020 – At Sea en route to Puerto Madryn, Argentina
A big electrical storm lit up the Night sky but we remained asleep. Most of the day there was heavy rain so decks were unusable.
The first lecture by Ruth was a Port lecture on Punta Arenas, Chile which is in the Magellan straights at the bottom of South America. It was Ferdinand Magellan, the Portuguese seafarer working for the Spanish government that was at sea for three years looking for the connection between the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. He found this Cape Horn area which had many islands and a narrow channel that ships could go through which is now called the Magellan straights. There is a statute to him in the main square of Punta Arenas.
Dr. Robert Wilder was a professor of marine science in San Diego and became interested in the economics of climate change. He is Co-founder and CEO of WilderHill Clean Energy Index. He spoke eloquently about climate change and the oceans and specifically spoke about the glaciers of South America and Antarctica. How does carbon dioxide, oxygen, nitrogen and various other gases affect the climate and will continue to do so for years to come unless a radical change is to take place. Coal was one of the main elements that causes a great deal of damage, but the USA is greatly reducing it’s use of coal, however China continues to use it so irrespective of what country pollutes the atmosphere it affects the ozone layer for all people living on the planet. He went into some detail with graphs and the chemistry thereof which I found particularly interesting. He is now working with London and mainly USA companies to try and reduce the use of petroleum derived products and other pollutants. He finished by saying that if no change is made by all the nations, according to projections, in 100 years the Thames River flowing through London will be so high that the London City Airport will be underwater. He spoke particularly about the Totten Glacier Catchment in Antarctica which has enough frozen water to raise global sea level by at least 11 feet (3.3 meters). Also the Thwaites glacier in Western Antarctica which is larger than Western Europe and is melting. A similar story is happening in the North Pole.
An interesting talk by one of the shop managers on the history of Time which was very interesting. From day Vs night and seasons to a “Cleopatra Needle” monument and area in the sand marked off from morning to night. This led to a sundial and eventually to a “water clock” amount of water to go out through a hole in a bucket between morning and night or night to morning when there was no sun. The number 12 (hours) was basically because it was a lucky number at the time. This lead to a float in the water bucket moved a rod that drove a wheel with hands. The hour glass was another key element in the evolution as well as candles or oil lamps that lasted a day with spike marks per hour. Eventually mechanical clocks in church towers led to the time pieces we use today. Watch movements are either Mechanical (Automatic or manual winding) and Quartz (battery) which are Regular Quartz, Kinetic Energy, or Eco-drive. The Swatch Group of companies consists of many different well known types. In the basic range – Swatch and Flik Flak; Mid range – Tissot, Balmain, Cortona, Mido, Hamilton and Calvin Klein; High Range – Longines, Rado, Union Glashütte snd the Prestige / Luxury Range – Breuer, Harry Winston, Blancpain, Glashütte Originsl, Jacques Droz, Léon Hatot and Omega. Wrist Watches at first were considered jewelry and only worn by women. Eventually during the war, men’s pocket watches were strapped to their arms and so began wristwatches for men.
Richard Cowley spoke on Darwin’s vista to Patagonia, and the evening show “Be our Guest” with the Cunard singers and dancers was fun, with good dancing but the singers were weak.
Roger & Anne Travels 