Antarctica: El Capitan

Ah, el capitan. So, all of the passengers are invited at any time of day or night to go up to the bridge where the crackerjack crew is hard at work. At first I really felt in the way, especially in the ice. They have radar to show where the ice is, but pretty much the captain stands and stares out the center window calling out numbers in a slow steady voice and the crew sets the equipment and the boat turns. He does it pretty much by vision and he does it quite well. So, for days,I kind of hung back and watched pretty amazed. The crew works so hard. They work back to back trips (with no break in between) from November through March. Then they take the boat up to the Arctic and they do artic tours all summer long. In the icy parts, the captain is often on the bridge for all but 2 or 3 hours a day. I was first impressed by how extremely polite he is with everyone, his crew, the waiters, the passengers. But, he is fairly quiet and serious so I didn´t bug him much...until he started spotting the whales. The eyeglasses in the photo are decidedly NOT his as he does not need them because he evidently has the best eyesight in the world. He was always the first to spot the killer whales and more often than not, it would take the rest of us a long time to spot them even after he pointed us in the exact direction to look. So, after steering us through the ice, and dropping anchor, I figured he´d take a rest while the guides took us out on the zodiac excursions, but no, as the person ultimately responsible for everyone on board, he bundles up, goes outside on the deck and watches all of the excursions with his binoculars. We first got wind of this when some of the crowd was in a zodiac and they heard the captain call Jordi, the guide, on the radio to reprimand him for passing through the center of the iceberg, telling him it was too dangerous. The next day, we were all on the beach at an old whaling station with a bunch of old, decaying buildings. We´d been told by the guides not to go into the buildings so we did not. We were quite far from the ship and walked to the open doors of one of the old buildings and, without entering, peeped our heads in. Young Maxi, guide, came running over at top speed saying, "the captain said he saw people going in the buildings". We assured him that, in fact, nobody had gone in. Then we turned to the boat, waved wildly, tried to gesture that we had not entered the building, and blew kisses in the direction of the Captain. It was then that Maxi told us that they all call him "The Eye" because he sees everything. It was also at that point that we would pretend to all talk like the captain on the walkie talkies calling the guides. We did this a lot. Pablo would even try to coach us, and say, "no, he sounds more like this".
One time I was up on the bridge and was standing near some equipment and the Captain moved over toward the equipment and I jumped out of the way thinking it was important boat stuff. But alas, he was just putting on his music which he enjoyed singing along with. His choices, U2, INXS, Aretha Franklin, etc. were much better than the music that dear, sweet, bartender Hugo played in the bar/lounge area which fluctuated between Musak versions of Madonna and random 70s unloved songs along with PHil Collins marathons. Like nearly everyone else on the ship (except for me), the captain had an expensive camera with a big ass lens attached. When I commented to Sergio (2nd in command)that the scenery was amazing for us newcomers but for them, who see it routinely, could it possibly lose it´s appeal. He said "No, look at the captain taking pictures." And, sure enough, the captain would dash out the side door of the bridge every few minutes to take a picture. I liked the fact that this amazing place has not lost the magic for those who have been there often.
In addition to his skills as a mariner, the Captain is quite the looker. In our crowd I started referring to him as "Capitan Guapo" and my crowd, in turn, referred to him as "Laura´s boyfriend". Fortunately, el capitan remained blissfully unaware of any of this nonsense and just spent the trip steering us around the ice. Additionally amusing is when he would periodically respond to the crew in English by saying things like "okey dokey" which I found pretty funny. In any case, he is a very competant captain and I hope the stress of his schedule and having the responsibility of all of those lives in his hands does not send him to an early grave. It would me.