As our journey comes to an end, we have one last day at sea sailing down the east coast of Florida towards Ft. Lauderdale. The Viking Octantis expedition ship has served us well…..especially when there are winds at 50 knots and waves at over 15 feet again like we experienced last night.

The sun is out and the temperature is 80 degrees. A delight after the last couple of rainy days.

This morning out on the aft deck, a tiny little bird is sitting. I reported it to the staff. The first one I have seen on the ship since we started even though we have been in Bird Mode. Thankfully it’s alive. The expedition staff says it is a Warbler. They will make sure it isn’t injured and then protect it until it can be released. Little Warbler was pushed south with the northerly winds.

Today we were able to take a tour of the bridge. This ship is truly amazing with the amount of redundancy built in. Since the ship travels in the Arctic and Antarctic, it needs to have many more safety features. The Captain explains the GPS, steering, tracking other ships, and course corrections like last night due to the storm.

The “Tik-Tok Generation” as the Captain refers to them, explain the readings of the various monitors.

The Chief Officer Expedition explains how the security cameras track everything going on inside and outside the ship. He says this is “Big Brother.” LOL

Just to pass the time away, I wandered the ship yesterday morning looking at the art photography around the ship. The pictures are of the various Arctic and Antarctic early explorers. Amazing, rugged men willing to discover the unknown and of course claim to be the first. Names, like Robert Peary, Dr. Frederick Cook, Ronald Amundsen, Robert Falcon Scott, James Hurley, and Richard Byrd (not in order below).

Then, there were also women who explored or traversed the world by air – Amelia Earhart, Nellie Bly, Bessie Coleman, Mary Kingsley, Liv Arneson, Gertrude Bell, Harriet Quimby and Valentina Tereshkova (not in order below).

Finally, the beautiful sled dogs. Amazing animals, bred with wolves some of them, truly incredibly hardy companions during the Arctic and Antarctic expeditions.

And the best is in the Aquavit bar – a more current picture.

Tonight dinner at Manfredi’s and a fond farewell until the next time….I booked a cruise on this ship in 2027, can’t wait! Another great trip with my sis🚢🤩 And did I mention it is my birthday, so the Viking team went all out!😍