As I write, I’m sitting at the desk in my cabin on the SH Diana crossing the Southern Atlantic Ocean. Our ultimate destination, Antarctica, is not my primary reason for taking this expedition cruise although it probably is for most of my shipmates. The reason I flew all the way to Cape Town, where we embarked, a mere thirteen days after seeing the voyage advertised, is that we will visit the islands of Tristan de Cunha and South Georgia which I have wanted to go to for what feels like forever. More on the islands later in our voyage.
We said goodbye to Cape Town pretty much on time in the late afternoon on Saturday (right). Here’s our first sunrise over the rather choppy plunge pool (below).
The ship belongs to a newish company called Swan Hellenic. The SH Diana was built in Finland with cabins capable of holding up to 192 passengers. We, however, are only a bit over one hundred which is good since even with that number the yoga class this morning was overflowing. The staff to passenger ratio for our trip is reputed to be one and a bit (which bit?) crew member per single passenger. But the ratio is good even when the ship is full.
The ship has a good gym with a view and a range of new equipment.
The ship has only been sailing since 2023 and is in fine fettle, with a wide central staircase and two shiny elevators. Someone with good taste chose the artwork that decorates the communal areas. The lounge where the lectures are held has state of art tech and no fewer than six screens so everyone can see the so far excellent PowerPoint presentations.
There’s also a spa & beauty salon, medical clinic, library, laboratory and an open deck Jacuzzi. The main restaurant serves a huge buffet, upstairs in the club lounge is a smaller version of the buffet. Then there’s the Pool Grill, serving burgers, fish and pizza. It is open when the ocean is calm enough. It would, no doubt, be open more often when the ship is sailing the Caribbean rather than the Atlantic. The second largest of the world’s five oceans can get angry. As it was when we embarked two days ago.
Breakfast, lunch and afternoon tea are served as buffets. Dinner is a la carte. There’s no chance any of us will be losing weight on this journey. A limited room service menu is available 24/7 and, while the restaurant is open, I can order anything they have to be delivered to my cabin where I can eat it on the balcony or the sofa, at the desk, or in bed. Lucky there’s a gym where you can run, walk, cycle or row whilst watching for whales. I tried to walk around the deck — promenade, if you will, like passengers used to do when ships were the only form of over-sea travel. But alas, there’s no single deck on which you can circumnavigate the ship. The pic is of the ‘light’ lunch buffet. Geesh, at least there’s fruit.
The cabins are spacious, at least if you’re on your own like me. They’d probably be fine to share too. There are certainly enough coast hangers for two. (Now there’s a sentence I never thought I’d write. Usually there’s nowhere near enough, even if you live out of your carry-on).
The cabin has pillows of duck down: scrumptious. There’s a bowl of smarties, a jar of dried fruit and a container of peanuts to accompany the soft drinks, beer and champagne thoughtfully left in my fridge. I immediately turned off the cabin’s fake wood fire. It’s not cold. Not yet. But it’s a bit too breezy to sit on my balcony for long. And yes, that’s a copy of my book In Brazil that I hope to give to the library on Tristan de Cunha (even though the Brazilian guest aboard has offered a small fortune to purchase it).
Oops, must run. It’s time for the first expert lecture of the day. It’s on how the wildlife that live in Antarctica have adapted to live in the continent’s extreme conditions. Yesterday’s three talks were informative: about seabirds, how to best use our cameras, and on ‘Cetaceans of the Southern Hemisphere’. Which is the family that dolphins and whales belong to. Why, do you think, didn’t they just say that?
The ship’s bow is shown here via the ‘bow channel’. You can watch the ocean on the TV in your cabin (especially handy if you don’t have a balcony window). This bow is an homage to the movie Titanic, surely.
To read the next post on this voyage click here.