We sailed Jan. 10, 2013 on HAL Veendam from Valparaiso, Chile to Buenos Aires, Argentina, via the Antarctic peninsula. Actually WE didn't sail from Valparaiso, we got on in Puerto Montt. And herein lies our tale.
We had three pre-cruise omens that we chose to ignore: Patti's car blew a head gasket for the second time in eight months, Steve backed the pickup into the garage door and demolished it and Steve's dad, 95, had a mild heart attack that nobody told us about until afterward.
We drove the now-repaired car to LAX on Jan. 9 and boarded American Airlines to Santiago, via Miami. As we got to the gate we saw that the flight was delayed about ten minutes. But it wasn't long before a gate agent announced that our flight, originating in Miami, had a mechanical and would be. delayed about 35 minutes. It turned out to be an hour and a half. We were supposed to make an 11:15 p.m. connection to Santiago in Miami, and before we ever left LAX we were busy calling HAL's passenger emergency line as well as our travel insurance company to say that we'd likely miss our connection, and probably the ship's embarkation at 5 p.m. Jan. 10.
A deck is a good one to be on for Drake Passage crossing. Lower decks are much more stable, even though we were in the stern. There is some engine noise here but the aft elevators are close by. It's a long ways to the bow!