Blown out window is Jo Ann’s cabin. Photos provided.
(Editor’s note: A 77 year old Gwinnettian finally visited her seventh continent recently, but boy, does she have a story! The author is a Florida native, a graduate of Florida State, and worked in capital markets for C&S Bank for 25 years. She was married to the late Robert Kennerly of Lawrenceville for 35 years).–eeb
By Jo Ann Nelson
Part one of two articles
LAWRENCEVILLE, Ga. | It hit me when in Australia that I only had two more continents to go: South America and Antarctica. This was in 2019. So, I signed up to fly to Argentina, and boarded a Viking ship to Antarctica.
Nelson
But then Covid hit. It was 2022 before I could go, though I could not find a roommate. The day before I was to leave, when getting off the stationary bike, the pedal caught my foot, and cut a pretty long gash in my right leg. Off I went to the hospital emergency room. It took eleven stitches to close it up.
That night the plane took off for Buenos Aires. On November 25, we flew to Ushuaia and boarded the Viking Polaris to head to the Drake Passage. This is where the Atlantic meets the Pacific and some of the roughest seas in the world take place. The stabilizers on the Polaris kept the ship from reacting to the waves so it was a smooth ride, blue skies with a touch of cloud cover on the first day at sea. That would not last long. By November 27, the weather had changed to cold with sleet and snow.
Ready for adventure
The next morning we boarded the small Zodiac boats. My right leg was swollen from my accident, so I had a size 14 boot on the right and a size 9 boot on my left leg.
We made it to Damoy Hut, a summer cabin established by the British. There were many different birds and also penguins. It is the only continent that I didn’t get to take pictures of wild flowers.
We made it back to the Zodiac only to discover that the boat was frozen in place. I lost my footing and slid down part of the way to the boat. It took about 45 minutes to chip us out of the dock and then we were on our way back to the ship. We were the last group that got to visit Antarctica as the weather had turned.
It was while we were returning to Ushuaia that a rogue wave hit the Polaris about 11 p.m. on November 29. I was in bed in my nightgown reading a book on my phone when I saw shards of glass and water flying across my room. I remember thinking “I sure hope I don’t get sucked out to sea.” The window was shattered, and the walls and ceilings buckled. Everything came off of the walls while me and my mattress were slung against the hall entrance.
With black eye. ((Jo Ann is with a couple from Texas who were in the adjacent cabin.)
Soon someone told me to open the door. “I can’t, no shoes, glass all over the place including me.” They broke down the door, put me in a wheelchair and wrapped me in about six blankets and took me to the infirmary.
The doctor stitched my head and foot. Spent the night in the infirmary until they could find me another room. There were four rooms that the windows were broken out, maybe 25 and 30 people affected. My room had its windows entirely blown out.
I had no clothes, but they found me clothes, for men, and much too large. They gave me intimate apparel but for a smaller woman.
After the ship’s doctors stitched my head and food, the next day we docked at Ushuaia. They gave us money and took us to a shopping mall to replace what we would need for the short term.
(Follow Jo Ann Nelson’s adventure in Part Two on February 3.)
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