All announcements on the ship are in French and I try to follow them,
but it is also not easy because they speak very fast. It is their home
language and talking they use very sophisticated words and phrases to
proof how intelligent they are. Fortunately I have a English-speaking
cabin mate Gerard and he is often explaining what is going on. One of
the guides (we have 2 guides for 15 travelers) speaks English and from
time to time translates for me. I found that the half of their
conversation is polite bla-bla-bla-bla, just the garbage – not worth to
translate.
Captain announced that it will take us four days and four nights to get
to the place of the first landing on Crozet Island. I had a time to
visit all decks and (I am sorry to say that) I see that the ship is
dirty and requires a lot of paint. “Marion Dufresne” is sailing to the
islands of French Subantarctic only 4 times per year with the supply for
the French scientific stations, bringing new shift of the scientists and
taking back the old one. It has 50 people of the crew and space in the
cabins for 110 passengers (officials, people in charge, scientists and
the tourists). Most of this space is occupied by the young scientists
and technicians who repair broken equipment of the stations during these
days when the ship anchors at the island. On this voyage we – the
travelers – are the weak minority – it is only 15 of us and they said
they never take more then 20 – it depends on the number of the free
bunks. They said that the space for the tourists on `Marion` is sold
already for two years ahead. We feel like the chosen ones…
