Friday - April 20, 2012

Me and the Plancius

Oceanwide Expeditions’ cruise ship ‘Plancius’ anchored off South Georgia, after repeated propulsion failures, awaits relief ship

Trouble started 12 days into a 31-day journey from Ushuaia, Argentina, one of the southernmost cities in the world, to Ascension Island, an isolated volcanic island near the Equator.

After returning from a small island, the ship suffered a complete power failure. Ship’s engineers were able to fix the problem and course was set for Tristan de Cunha heading north in order to avoid a fierce storm system. En route, the ship suffered another engine failure.

It was thought the ship could complete the cruise around the islands, but the situation took a turn for the worse when the engines could no longer reach full power. The ship then returned to Grytviken in the South Georgia Islands where it currently sits in the harbor.

I guess it’s all part of the adventure when you take one of these exploration cruises out in rough seas to the middle of nowhere. And it truly is the middle of nowhere. The town of Ushuaia is south of the Straits of Magellan, on the south coast of Tierra del Fuego, alongside the Beagle Channel. Land of cold, wet, and windy. But it’s paradise compared to South Georgia Island, which is about 800 miles east south east of the Falklands Islands, smack dab in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean halfway between South America and Africa, and pretty much south of both of them. Not quite utter desolation; South Georgia Island is inhabited, kind of. It’s just so far off the beaten track that it’s nearly invisible, with only a half dozen or so ships visiting per year.

Right now the Plancius is docked at the fisheries research station at King Edward Cove in GrytViken South Georgia, hardly a mile from where the great Antarctic explorer Ernest Shackleton is buried. Eventually a rescue ship will get out there and bring the passengers to Uruguay. Meanwhile everyone is safe, although probably quite bored, and a bit cold. It’s currently a balmy 42°F there with 15mph winds blowing. A lovely fall day.

We managed to win the first game in Greed League, which clinches us for 3rd place. But the 4th place team we bowled didn’t make it easy. Heck, they beat the daylights out of us, their 5 guys rolling a 1250 score in the first game with their anchor guy AJ throwing a 300. And we won that one, by a paper thin 12 pins. Game 2 was just as high scoring, and they got that one by 18. Come game 3 we thought they’d be worn out, but no. They rallied even harder, AJ threw ANOTHER 300 (he had an 835 for the night), and they clobbered us by more than 100. So we went 2-5. Not that it matters; they can’t climb past 4th, we can’t fall past 3rd, and since the 1st place team slammed the 2nd place team 5-2 and locked up the win, the 2nd place guys remain only 2 up on us. So we have to face them next week, and we’ll have to win 5 to steal 2nd from them. Two games and wood. Which is going to be tough, because they’ve slaughtered us all year. At least I bowled well in that league. Nothing special, a 557 series, all games in the mid 180s, 10+ over average. So I’ve got to do what I can to try and get some life back in my old ball.

Things went worse in Cheap League. One of our guys couldn’t make it and didn’t request post bowling, so we had to use his absentee score, 10 off his average. And we played the ringer team and had to give them 24 pins handicap. That’s so wrong. So we’re down 34 to start. Naturally both their guys threw awesome games, 50 or more over their paper averages, and on par with how they can actually bowl when they want to. I threw for crap, not even making a 500 series. My old ball is mostly dead, and the helpful guy who runs the alley was having me use loaner balls. Thanks, that’s nice, but trying out 2 new balls in the play-offs is about the last thing you want to do. So I sucked, and we went down 2-5. OTOH, it would have gone 2-5 even if I’d made my average. They creamed us in the first two games. Since 1st is now locked in this league, as well as 2nd, we’ll play these same guys again next week. Thrills. So we might drop to 6th or something if they flail on us again. Not that it matters in Cheap League; there is only a tiny bit of prize money for 1st. Everyone else gets ice cream. Hey, we rose up from 9th, knocked these guys out of 1st which they’d held for 15 weeks, held onto 1st ourselves for 4 weeks, and we’ll finish in the top half or better. Good enough. Can I have extra fudge sauce with that ice cream?

I’ve got the new ball I want all picked out, almost. It’s either going to be a Storm Frantic or a Storm Fringe, very little difference between them aside from oil conditions, and I can get either one of them at a huge discount when summer league starts up ... 3 weeks after these leagues end. Rats.

Posted by Drew458     on 04/20/2012 at 12:12 PM   
Filed Under: • Bowling Blogging • planes, trains, tanks, ships, machines, automobiles •  
• Comments (1) • Trackbacks(0)  Permalink •  

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