Tour of the Ocean Diamond

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WELL good afternoon, it's just after lunch time. We are in the middle of crossing the Drake Passage at the moment. It is surprisingly calm as we have travelled very fast to avoid the storm now happening down south. There is really not a lot going on today apart from numerous lectures, absolutely facinating.

Anyway lunch has just been called, so I'm going to hurry up to the top deck and I'm going to give you a quick tour around the Ocean Diamond. This is the ship that has been my home for the past two weeks. You'll probably remember quite a few days ago now that I promised you a tour around the ship when I get to know my way around it a little bit better and on some day when not much is going on. As you can imagine in past days there has been a huge amount of stuff going on with all these landings and sightings around Antarctica, and these diaries have really only captured a small fraction of the amazing adventures I've had through Antarctica. A lot more information is going to be released when I eventually get around to publishing all the photos.

But anyway, let's head on up to the top deck and I'll take you for a little tour around the ship.

Up here we're just on what's called the sun deck, though there isn't any sun or anyone else up here. I'l now head down to level seven and I'll lead the way.

It's a little more sheltered here and I'll just head inside to get out of the wind. Here is the main stairwell which goes right down to level 2 - I'm on level 7 at the moment. I'm now going through the top cabins. These are the large cabins. These cabins have balconies with views and everything. The ship is rocking from side to side which is why I can't walk very straight. Lucky there isn't a very big swell here. This is the front lounge with a grand piano which I've yet to try at some stage. It has the best globe I've ever seen. It's massive. So we've come all the way down here (Antarctic Peninsula) and up through (the Drake Passage) and up around here now. This is a nice little quiet deck. Most people have just gone to lunch so this is quieter than usual. Then if I come out here, you can see the lifeboats attached here on the side. It's very windy here but here is the bow and the Antarctic flag. Looking back here, the ship is the Ocean Diamond, and you can see all the radars up there. We don't have any more icebergs at this latitude but it's still pretty cold up here.

I'm now going to head to the bridge they don't like video so I'll just do a few still shots in there. I just need to head down here. In here in the bridge on this side is some navigation displays. We are very lucky we are allowed to go onto the bridge. Most ships won't allow it. Here's some navigation things we are allowed to see. Just over on the other side here you can see the captain and some of the crew and also some of our guides. They have a meeting with the captain each day and whenever needed to determine safe landing spots and courses and everything. So it's quite a happening little place up here. So I'll continue along here out behind the bridge. I'm passing the cabins on level 6. It looks like room service is going on here. I can see a bunch of boots that we were given for our landings back in Antarctica. It's pretty dark in here. Then I come out into the main foyer. We've got some lifts for people who can't use the stairs. On the other side here is where they put some of the kayaking gear. Then we come out to the back of the ship. This is the outside bar with clear plastic windows around here. They have a gym for those who don't think climbing up and down stairs is good enough for them. There is a swimming pool here which hasn't been used very much on this trip obviously. This is where we store the kayaks, which I've been out on about five times, and the zodiacs, which I'm been in numerous times and a few of the paddle boats. Let's get out of this wind. OK a few more paddles. Now I'll head down the stairs going the whole way up and down the boat.

We come onto level five. This is a TV screen saying what we are doing each day and obviously that changes as needed. Here's a few noticeboards. This is the main lounge. Before I go in there, some more cabins. I'm staying in a cabin about half way along this section which you would have seen earlier this video. There's our captain and all our crew. Most of the sailors here are actually Ukrainian and they are very very good. Some of the manouevres they have done around the icebergs is pretty amazing. OK this is the main lecture hall. So when we're not doing excursions we're just sitting in here. We have photography experts and ornithologists, marine biologists, Antarctic historians, you name it. Any expert on Antarctica we've brought on this ship to deliver very informative sessions. Coming into here, this is the research library. There is noone in here at the moment because they are all on lunch. There's a whole lot of books you can do a lot of research on if you have time. I actually don't have much time. Obviously this is storage area out here for the zodiacs and they've just collected all our life jackets. So that's level five.

Now I'm going to level 4 down this spiral staircase. This is the club bar. Another grand piano. There was another one in the lecture hall as well so there's at least three grand pianos here. I think this is where people go drinking at night. I usually go to bed straight after dinner as part of my travel strategy. Coming out of the club we've got a shop for those who care to buy souvenirs and stuff. It's shut at the moment but often open. A few more boats, quite nice. A little dinner sort of meeting room. Some noticeboards for the kayaking, paddling and zodiac excursions. We've obviously finished with all those now. We've got the main reception and expedition counters for signing up for things. This is the path that we've taken, going down from South America all along different parts of the Antarctic Peninsula and back out, so we're probably up around here now, or even here, heading back towards South America. So we've been able to track our progress each day. There's weather forecasting, and as of what time we've travelled 1842 nautical miles. We've got newspapers for those who care about the outside world. We've got a whole bunch more cabins for staying in.

Now we continue down the stairs down to level three. That leads down to level 2 where all the staff sleeps so we don't go down there. There's more passenger cabins down here and obviously lifts. There's a lot of accommodation here. This is where the kayaking gear (drysuits, etc.) get stored. Now into here where everyone is having lunch. Out the back is the big galley where all the food is made. So I'm going to get some lunch and settle down in the buffet as these cruises work up an enormous appetite so I'll catch you later.