ottahand7

Roy @rafim

Good Sunday morning and continued prayers for Roy! The Volendam will be in Ushuaia today. The captain moved us forward a day so we would be passing through Glacier Alley and the Beagle Channel in daylight. Another thank you captain. We are anchoring at 2 and we.go ashore for our private tour at 3. We are getting little bits of sun peeking through. It is simply breathtaking! Prayers for all on our Care list, Jacqui, Kathi, Sarah and Tana. Have a lovely day. Nancy

Roy @rafinmd thank you for the update. I hope they get you on the right treatment and just think low sodium you don't have to have the bland cardio diet. Low sodium can cause weakness because it is what causes our muscles to work properly. I am so happy no fractures. Nancy

@smitty34877 thank you for the new photo of Camilla. Right now I am glad I didn't get off the wait-list for Torres del Paine. We have steady 25 mph winds with gusts to 60. And I am glad I didn't book the excursion to Magdalena Island to see penguins instead. I will keep checking to see if there is any update on Roy. 🙏

Thank you for starting us off today Sandi! Prayers for Roy. 🙏 We are in windy Punta Arenas Chile. John said we had a rough night though I slept right through it. We overheard a Dutch couple this morning saying their cabin filled with water last night. Yikes! We have no excursions today so will take the HA shuttle into downtown when it gets a bit warmer. Winter jackets are out on passengers. I am glad we didn't book the open boat ride to the penguin island. Last night we passed an unannounced ship wreck and passed our first ship I noted in 48 hours. Tonight we enter the Beagle Channel en route to Ushuaia. We have an afternoon arrival so that we are getting beautiful scenery during daylight. Sandi thanks for the photos of Buenos Aires, it will be a new port for us arriving on February 12. Have a wonderful day! Nancy

@TiogaCruiserwe asked what that was and it was some decorative feature made out of flour. It was good for me because it hid salmon that I don't care for especially on a Gorgonzola cream. DF enjoyed mine.

Prayers for all on our list and the people of Ukraine. Praying for healing for Jacqui, Sarah, Tana and Kathi. @marshhawk I hope feral Fawn gets feeling better. It is beginning to feel like winter outside with the brisk wind. The boat had another "cradle rocking" night last night. We have been sleeping like babies. We enter the Straights of Magellan this evening around dusk. Nancy

Good Friday morning from the land of waterfalls. We are still moving through the Fjords. We had a great Chilean wine dinner and finally got to the shipwreck Leonidas last evening, rather a yawn. Have a wonderful day! Nancy

@luvteachingwhen my father was alive he would get fairly frequent UTIs and the first signs were confusion or simply being out of it. He battled them until age 96 and that one took him. He had resistant bacteria for 6 years. I am happy they said get your DH to the hospital. @grapau27 thank you for the update on Sarah's procedure today. I hope she feels better soon. @kazuI am glad they got to the bottom of your pain and fixed it but I am sorry you had to cancel your May cruise. We are sailing in the Messier Channel in the Chilean Fjords. We saw the gorgeous blue glacier and then we will see the shipwreck in about a half hour. The variation from the pure glacial water with the fjord water was really noticable. Beauty beyond expression. The ship is a mile away from the glacier, it is simply massive and still growing. Nancy

@rafinmdglad to hear you are feeling somewhat better this morning and thank @Copper10-8for getting us started off today. We are cruising the Chilean Fjords today with the Fjordo Glacier at 2 and the Leonidas shipwreck at 4:30. Last night at dinner we were warned by our waiter to prepare for rough seas and it was bumpy and a bit creaky last night. We slept very well but Esther Assistant Maitre d complained this morning about getting no sleep. A friend stopped by at breakfast and complained about no sleep we said she should commiserate with Esther and she said she is right across the hall from us. I guess it is where ones' cabin is located. Yesterday I went horseback riding a ways inland. It was gray and rainy at the coast but we had a partly sunny, partly rainy day where we rode. A rainy tender ride back to the ship. Again the country in Chile is so beautiful and it was worth the trip. The farm we rode at was a long a beautiful river but my horse was naughty and kept trying to grab a mouthful of grass so I couldn't take a single photo from horseback. I'd either lose the reins or my phone. Tonight is the Chilean Cellar master dinner. Prayers for all on our Care list, Sarah, Tana, Jacqui and Kathi. So glad Ukraine is getting the tanks they need to defend themselves. Have a wonderful Thursday. Nancy

Good morning from near Puerto Chacabaco Chile. We are beginning to enter fjord country. We had a nice shore excursion into lake county about a half hour out of town but first had a stop at the city market for provisions for our lunch. Chef Richard Knobloch led us through the market explaining what to choose and why. With help from our group he prepared marinated smoked mussels, clam ceviche, mussel soup and a wonderful Hake preparation. Plus unlimited wines from his vineyards. Today is horse back riding in Rio Simpson for me. Prayers for all on our Care list, Sarah, Jacqui, Kathi and Tana and for the people of Ukraine. Have a wonderful day! Nancy

Good morning from Puerto Montt Chile. We are waiting for our turn to tender ashore for our shore excursion which is Food and Wine Taste of Chile. We are in port with a Viking ship so we were warned tendering may be delayed. Thanks for the Daily Reports each day! Our Gala dinner from last evening. Seafood fettuccine, filet and lobster, ceviche and seafood gratin along with a Carmenere we bought on our last shore excursion. Have a wonderful day. Nancy

@smitty34877 happy birthday! 🎂 @aliaschief happy birthday to your DW! 🎂 I was wrong on our itinerary. Tomorrow we are in Puerto Montt. We have seen a few more whales today. Dressy night tonight. 🍷🦞🥩

Good Monday morning! We are at sea for 2 days heading toward Puerto Montt, Chile on Wednesday. Our walk and lunch on Robinson Crusoe Island was thwarted yesterday by a complication with the tendering. Instead of staggering the tender tickets throughout the morning at 10:00 it was declared no tickets required. We waited about 30 minutes to board our tender and then waited about 15 minutes off the pier waiting to unload. When we saw the line to board our tender about 6 of us just decided to keep our precious seats on the tender and head back to the Volendam. Instead of a lobster lunch on RCI I had lobster for dinner last night. Many photos were posted by people on our GSA FB page and it is simply beautiful to admire from afar also. We left late last evening because the Type A blood receiver from the day before was evacuated after the last tender. The medical staff escorted the passenger ashore and then reboarded. The passenger will be airlifted off from the island. Hard to spot any flat place on the island. Prayers that they can get their needed treatment ashore. Thanks for the Daily Reports @rafinmd! Today's pie has me thinking about pie. Not much pie aboard the Volendam other than the Key Lime in the PG. It is probably a good thing because I love fruit pie. I have had to decide I cannot eat those beautiful pastries that greet us every morning in the Lido. I am afraid that the blood sugar issues that I had 15 years ago are returning due to me gaining weight and not sticking to the Atkins Diet. Today I walked the straight and narrow and had 2 fried eggs and crispy bacon. The sugar free desserts are ok for after dinner but I usually never have room for them. Prayers for all on our care list, Jacqui, Kathi, Tana and Sarah and for the families of the victims of the mass shooting near LA. Prayers for the people of Ukraine. Have a wonderful day! Nancy

Good Sunday morning from Robinson Crusoe Island. We are waiting a bit to tender ashore because of rain and we may eat lunch ashore. It is beautiful with the rocks and trees reminding me of Pictured Rocks Lakeshore in Michigan but with very high volcanic peaks soaring into the clouds. Prayers for all on our Care list and for the people of Ukraine. Nancy

@Sharon in AZ. I am glad you got some other feedback on today's Rijstaffel lunch. We woke up late and had late breakfast before we looked at today's lunch offering. I don't think it was announced in the program for today's activities because we probably would have tried it. I had to explain what it was to John. We have been so fortunate on this cruise. The food and service has been magical. We held off on lunch because of the hour long Chilean wine tasting, as much as we wanted. First time in the MDR for dinner we didn't order wine we were so "well wined". @XBGuy I have attached the menu from last night's Pinnacle Gala. I requested no truffles so that part was missing. We had a beautiful sunset yesterday. We passed our Covid tests today but had a scare just at the 30 minute wait mark when the phone rang. Thankfully it was the Pinnacle Grill calling that they will be closed when I have a pre booked dinner. Today the captain put out a call for an emergency need for blood donors of A + or O blood please show up at Wajang theater immediately with their donor cards. I understand that they secured three pints but we have no other information. We are enjoying football in our cabin tonight on this lazy day. Nancy

Good Saturday morning. We are well on our way to Robinson Crusoe Island/San Juan Batista so we have Covid testing for all who wish to go ashore tomorrow. We will go ashore though depending on the weather. We went inland yesterday to the organic Matetic winery and saw a nice bit of different Chilean countryside again. It was great other than poor staggering of the buses so we had three buses at once stop at the hotel to buy wine. That was an hour wasted in close quarters to boot. They had beautiful gardens so I took advantage of that photo opportunity. We had the Pinnacle Gala last night and it was excellent. We ate with a friend we made aboard from Montreal. Today is one of the "free for all" wine tastings with Chilean wine and cheese featured in the Crow's Nest. We are two hours ahead so we will probably get to see a little of the Kansas City game before falling asleep. @rafinmdthank you for doing the reports for us. Prayers for Kathi, Tana, Sarah and Jacqui and the others on our list. Prayers for the people of Ukraine. Have a nice day! Nancy

Good Friday morning from San Antonio Chile. We had a fairly smooth departure yesterday and are in smoothly today. For us to disembark yesterday the captain had to drop both anchors and hire 2 sea tugs to push us in position for the entire day. Thank you captain! We got off and shared an Uber with a lovely couple from Utah to the light house in La Serena then hoofed the mile to the Japanese Gardens. My phone doesn't like the Chilean roaming so we couldn't call an Uber back. It must have been some holiday because every cab that went by was full. I asked a fellow running the parking lot where to get a taxi. Language barrier so for a while it didn't work out. After a while seeing us standing there he came up and we figured out where we needed to go by our map in hand. He got on his phone and called someone for us. No need for him to do that but so kind. We ended eating our lunch in the Lido because the nice seafood restaurants were at the lighthouse all near the ship were the packed public market. Today is a HA excursion to a winery past Santiago. Prayers for Jacqui, Kathi, Tana, Sarah and the people on our Care list and the people of Ukraine. Photos from Coquimbo/ La Serena. Have a lovely weekend! Nancy

@Mr. BostonCongratulations on your upcoming retirement!! Nancy

Good Thursday morning. We lost another hour of sleep last night so kind of a slow start. We are heading out in a couple for La Serena. We are definitely south of the Equator. The layers are on me already! A few photos from the Balllestas Islands 2 days ago. Have a great day! Nancy

We are off the coast of Chile in the Humboldt Current. Just some up and down and an escort of Peruvian Boobies. We had our visit in Lima just in time. Someone in our GSA FB group posted an article that the protests are moving into Lima. So grateful we got to see Peru. Next stop is Coquimbo/La Serena tomorrow. We will take an Uber into La Serena to see the Japanese Gardens and walk around the town. Our internet problems have been solved with a lot of $$. We are now unlimited on 4 devices no needing to sign in and out. We burned through our 4000 minutes due to our continued ignorance of the HA wifi. Now I can forward my good photos to my email so I can post them on FB. When I got kicked off I got back on but only dare to do so on my phone only. Thanks for doing the reports Roy! Prayers for Sarah, Tana, Kathi, Jacqui and for all others on our Care List and for the people of Ukraine. Pinnacle Grill food porn from last night. Halibut, steak tartare and crab cakes. We are truly lucky all food is top notch! Nancy

Thank you for doing all the reports for us Roy! I will be running off ship internet because we will be at sea for 2 days. No word on our evacuated passenger and the jellyfish parade alongside the ship continues. We went to the Ballestas Islands by open boat yesterday and the Candelabra glyph which was nice that last evening the captain took the ship off route to show all aboard this notable site. We saw many seals, waterbirds and dolphins. My good photos are on my non Facebook camera. We are loving this ship, food and service have been superb and all are thrilled with the 50% off all cocktails in 4 different bars throughout the pm. Ballestas, Candelabra and our Canaletto osso bucco last evening. Have a wonderful day. Check in tomorrow. Nancy

We are now on day 21 of 81 days on the Volendam. This is a charming older ship that is one of the last the HA has to easily enter small ports. Carpet may be faded in halls but furniture and seating is excellent. We sailed the New Statendam our last cruise. It is all about expectations. This ship was built in the 90s. We love this small ship. One of the old complaints was about the TVs which are now large flat screens. Only ding is ocean view has only one outlet for charging but our Vista Suite has three. Food and beverage on this ship is at the top of a any we have had in HA.

Good Monday morning. We had to have an evacuation last night. Once we cleared the port out Captain came on the mic and said we needed to evacuate someone and it would be attempted by boat. It was finally completed at around 8:30 just as the Ravens game was kicking off. I have no details other than what we could see port side aft. There was cooperation by nearby ships, a fishing trawler anchored near us lit up the side of the ship and other tugs assisted on the other side. Prayers for this person and for all on our Care List and the people of Dnipro Ukraine. Some photos of last evening and the masses of jellyfish drawn by the ship's lighting. Nancy

Another wonderful thing is they served a wonderful lunch with Pisco sours and nice Peruvian vino. The red was very nice.