Day 22 - 10/28/23 - At Sea to Isla Robinson Crusoe, Chile

 Overnight there was a lot of motion to ocean onboard.  We were warned that the seas would get progressively rougher as we headed due west to to Isla Robinson Crusoe. We were scheduled to arrive tomorrow morning but we ended up arriving around 6pm in the daylight and dropped anchor.  But I'm getting ahead of my account.

It was a very short night as I stayed up until 1am watching the World Series Game 1 in which Texas beat Arizona 6-5 in 11 innings. After breakfast and our morning interdenominational devotional in the Hudson Room (it's been really good), we went to Jeremy's coffee chat with Frank, Executive Chef, and Ron, Director of Food & Beverage.  It was an interesting interview some of which had previously been covered in Jeremy's prior interview with Ron.  We did learn that Ron is the Penguin Herder and has the inflatable Penguins in protective custody while the pool is drained.  Afterwards, Tom Goltz presented a talk on the real "Robinson Crusoe, Alexander Selkirk, who elected to be marooned on this island after abandoning his ship command in a dispute with his fleet captain.  Selkirk ended up stranded on the island for 4 years and his time here was the basis of Daniel Defoe's book Robinson Crusoe. Later the Chileans would rename the island Isla Robinson Crusoe.

Captain Smit's noon briefing in his words, "This is the Captain from the bridge with my favorite two topics: Our noon position and the weather."  He indicated that we were traveling faster than planned in order to reach the island today.  He also joked about calling the Port Agent for the Island but who is located in San Antonio.  The Port Agent had a friend on the island who knew a fisherman there who might give a report.  When the Captain reached the fisherman, the fisherman's advice was to take a close look once you get here.  That wasn't much help.  He also commented that our seas would continue to deteriorate after we leave the Island later tomorrow.  Later I saw Captain Smit and joked with him that I knew a friend who knew a friend who knew a friend who knew a friend and perhaps that person could help with the weather.  He laughed at the suggestion.

At lunch we had a nice discussion with a couple from Manitoba about cruising on the Vasco de Gama (former HAL Statendam) and diving and snorkeling in Roatan.  Caroline gave her short presentation on Isla Robinson Crusoe which allowed me to take my second nap of the cruise before I held my 4pm Cruise Critic session in the 3rd Floor Atrium.  There I was able to introduce a couple of ladies to what Cruise Critic was all about and catch up with another couple who's been under the weather (they're much better now).

We had a light dinner and spotted the island coming into view about 12 hours early.  We went up to the Crow's Nest to watch the sail in.  As we got closer a pod of whales made an appearance and they were fun to watch.  When we reached our anchorage point, the clank, clank, clank of the deployed anchor chain was heard.  The waters here are considerably calm in the protection of the island.   Elio Rojas and the piano returned to the World Stage for our evening entertainment.  He was once again very good.  




Given our projected early morning tender process and short island stay and two sporting events on the TV, we returned to our stateroom to watch the Washington Huskies play Stanford and Game 2 of the World Series. Our Huskies won as did Arizona.

Tomorrow morning we'll tender into Isla Robinson Crusoe and have some new adventures.


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