Tuesday 2 March 2010

Where Do the Crew Go To Relax?

We see our friendly crew hard at work every day.  In the dining room.  In the bar.  Prepping and cleaning cabins.  Working at reception and in the gift shop.  Working on deck. And  obviously they are hard at work behind the scenes too: in the galley, the engine room, on the bridge, etc. etc. But where does the crew eat?  Where do they go after hours?  Well, we have a very fine crew mess on board.  Our crew is predominantly from Norway and the Philipines and the food in the crew mess reflects that.  There is always a Philipino selection and a Norwegian selection plus a variety of beverages, salads, cheeses and deserts.  As you can see in the photo there is quite a relaxed and cheery atmosphere.  Right beside the mess is a crew lounge with a couple of computers with internet, a nice flatscreen television with a large library of movies, a foozball game and a karaoke machine.  You also might encounter crew members working out in the gym  on deck seven or having a game of ping-pong.

 Today we continued to follow Shackleton's journey as he went from Elephant Island to South Georgia.  It took the Shack two weeks in a cold, cramped, wet, small sailing boat to get to South Georgia.  It will take us two days in comfy, cushy Fram. 
We had a full program of briefings and lectures today. Once again the lecture halls were full despite the very large seas we found ourselves in.  The winds had dropped considerably from the hurricane force winds we had yesterday but the waves were much larger as we no longer had the South Shetland Island protecting us.   What a hardy bunch of seafarers we are!