Sorry it has been a few days. The mountains of Antarctica block out the satellite internet, so we have been without.
December 5th
We started out with a zodiac tour that went past the 3433 ton Guvermoren which was a whaling ship. When a fire broke out on the ship in 1911 they ran it aground to save the crew. It still is there, with Antarctic terns perched on the railings. We saw mostly scenery and a few seals. The weather was pristine, the sunshine reflecting off of the icebergs which varied from being snow white, to blue, to crystal clear. Some of the icebergs had flipped over at sometime as the base underneath became smaller, exposing the smoother riveted bottom (now top) surface.
The weather was so perfect that we had lunch out on the deck. Then we went to Orne harbor. It comprises the southwestern part of a double bay on the tip of the Arctowski Peninsula. This is our first step on the actual continent of Antarctica! There was a steep walk towards a saddle when there was a very hardy group of penguins nesting. The walk that they had to do was very impressive and yet there they were, their tiny bodies making their way up and down this cliffside as we watched from far above. The walk to the stop of the saddle was exhilarating and I was so stir-crazy from the ship that I did it twice. I went to go climb it a third time and was met by the guides who made me go back because it was getting late. It felt so good to work up a sweat and the views were spectacular. The day was so warm and clear that we were all stripping down to our lighter clothing. The views form the saddle reaches to the souther Gerlache Strait and Wiencke, Anvers and Brabant islands.
I mused about what actually happens overnight here. I mean, does it get dark at all? I am usually asleep by 11 and it is still quite light out. So last night I sought to answer this question. We saw the sun set over the mountains at about 11:30 or so. It was lovely, still clear blue skies. Then we sat in the bar to celebrate Mikowai’s birthday (one of our expedition team) with double-vodka shots (Mikowai is Polish) and gradually watched as twilight slowly set in. The most we could see is venus and the new moon, no other stars emerged. We were determined to see the sun rise again, which we figured would be at about 3:30. In the end, only Charlie, Kyla and myself stayed for the sunrise, but the sun seemed to be behind a tall mountain and we figured it would be a while before it emerged. I finally went to bed and Charlie took one for the team, gazing until the sun peeked out from behind the mountains. The pinks that spread over the icebergs and the skies in the morning were well worth the long night. We could see penguins swimming in the glassy pink-tinged water and we were dying to see whales but were disappointed. They tell us that this fabulous weather we have been having is unheard of and we should enjoy every last bit of it.
December 6
We explored Danco island. It is a small island in the southern part of the Errera Channel off the West coast of the Antarctic peninsula. It was first charted by Gerlache’s Belgian Antarctic expedition (1897-99) and named for the Belgian geophysicist who died on board the Belgica. The Errera channel is a narrow waterway between Ronge island and the Arctowski Peninsula on the mainland. Franz, the expedition leader, seems to enjoy getting us some exercise, and this morning was no exception. We had about a 1/2 mile hike up to the top of the glacier which afforded at 360 view of the island and the channel. Another pristine early morning in Antarctica, with the usual combination of dark gray mountains, white snow and deep blues of icebergs and ocean. Impossible to really capture with a photograph. On the way back in the zodiac we tooled around and looked more closely at some of the icebergs. Some of them have layers of snow in them which are visible when a chunk of compacted snow/ice breaks off. Each layer represents a year of snowfall, like tree rings. It’s sort of like the Grand Canyon in reverse, with layers slowly being built up rather than worn down. There is really very little snow in Antarctica but what snow there is doesn’t melt much so all the mountains are piled high with several feet of snow. There is evidence of previous avalanches, and where the penguins are you can see little curvy paths “penguin highways” to the ocean.
Cuverville island was a lot like Danco, except no hills to climb. The highlights were towards the end, as we sat on the pebbled beach the penguins would porpoise in, then swim in and get up onto the beach. They would walk up to where we were sitting, very close, then look at us for a long time, as if trying to decide what we were doing there. It was warm; we had taken our parkas off and the penguins were laying on their stomachs in the snow as if they were pretty warm too.
I went out onto the treadmill afterwards, that made me feel so much better but totally missed out on an orca sighting. Pisser.
In the evening we had one more excursion (nice that it’s daylight 24 hours a day…) This was to Neko harbor, which was one of my favorite spots so far. There is a very beautiful active glacier that supposedly frequently calves. It did not do any spectacular calving but a very large chunk fell off, just didn’t generate a tsunami (supposedly it can be enough to flip a zodiac). The penguins in this area were very active and there was a hike (thanks, Franz) to the top of a hill where a spectacular view awaited. We could walk all the way back, or we could take the short route down, a glissade down a near vertical hill. So of course I had to do it (although for those of you who know me well this is one of my major fears). And I screamed - I wish I had an audio of the scream because it was an honest-to-goodness all-out horror-movie scream. The picture of the hill doesn’t really do it justice but I’ll try to upload it.
Is it really Saturday? Wow, time flies. Anyway, today we went to Paradise Harbor at the location of the Argentine based called Almirante Brown. There is a story that the doctor was stationed there for a very long Antarctic winter. Come summer, he was under the impression that he would finally get to go home. But they informed him that he was stuck for another year. So he went a little nuts and burned the place down. It has been rebuilt but today (this year) it is unoccupied. Franz had a nice hill for us to climb again, and a nice little slope to slide down, not nearly as terrifying as the one yesterday. We also went on a little zodiac tour and saw a very beautiful glacier surrounded by brash ice (where there is a sea of little chunks of ice). Mikowai was driving the zodiac and he almost seemed to be deliberately hitting the chunks of ice. And these were huge chunks! Gradually the ice would move aside and we would slowly make our way through, enjoying the frosty beauty. Even though I know it is flirting with death if not at least a severe case of hypothermia, I wanted the glacier to calve in front of us. How cool would that be?
The afternoon was spent in various lectures about ice, seals, fish medicine, and small cetacean medicine. I remained on the lookout for whales at the window. The first time I saw them I interrupted the lecture, alerted the whole room and everyone ran out there to see but by then they were gone and I was accused of seeing “mirages.” The second time I alerted Christina, who verified the sighting and alerted the room - this time everyone got a treat of seeing their tails (every humpback has a unique tail). Lots of “oohs” and “aahs” and of course, brownie points for Noelani.
