A Party at Sea

Before entering the Drake Passage and beginning our long journey home, we experienced an unlikely convergence. The National Geographic Endeavor, the sister ship to ours, was passing by on its way to the Antarctic Peninsula. The many marriages spanning the two ships, and the newly launched Explorer, were cause for assembly. We would meet in the Channel and have a party, the zodiacs ferrying crew and guests between the two ships.

After this season the Explorer will take over as the Antarctic voyager, and the Endeavor will retire to the tropics. I keep thinking of The Yellow Submarine, the passengers waving across the water at themselves as they pass by through time. The symmetry of two ships meeting at sea: the old and the new, one at the beginning of its journey, the other at its end.