Remarkably, another woman on the ship and I both had some of our mother's ashes along to sprinkle during the trip. Realizing we could not leave anything on the actual ground of Antarctica, we asked the captain about putting the ashes over the side of the ship and into the water, and he said officially he couldn't say yes, but unofficially he said spreading them in the ocean at Cape Horn would be good, since that is a big point for many travellers.
Unfortunately due to the crazy weather we did not go near Cape Horn, so when we realized that we picked a time and told a few people about it and had a small ceremony on the back of the deck. We each said a few words about our mothers. My mother died two years ago at almost 97 years old, and I said what a traveller my mother had been- she went to every state, Japan, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Europe, Mexico, Cuba, and many other places, and how excited she was about my trip to Antarctica since she knew how long I had waited. She famously said, when I was going to China, that if she had a chance to go to China she would go to Japan!
It was a very touching ceremony and I was glad to share it with Sally and some of our shipmates. Here are two photos of my part
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