Antartica...

Thursday, January 21st 2010


A quick note: The satilite and so the internet was unavailable frequently when far south... this post covers 3 days...

Up a bit before 5:00… we are in Antarctica… It’s been light for hours… I don’t see anything when I get up, but 10 minutes later, after my shower there are ice bergs on both sides… We go from nothing to lots of bergs, tabular ice bergs, growlers, and burgie bits (these are all technical names for various sizes of ice burgs…)
I claim chairs in the Crow’s nest bar… Tina, Sig and Toby join me… It will be our base of operations all day… At least at first It’s overcast, but not foggy like yesterday… Then the fog closes in… then, it starts to snow… at first it’s a sharp icy snow, almost hail, then it begins to change… to real snow… lots of snow… a blizzard… a summer blizzard in Antarctica… Over the course of the day we get over 6” of snow… the passengers are making snow men… the crew is having a snow ball fight… all as the islands of the Antarctic peninsula pass by… the crew is shoveling snow… we see a few whales, apparently humpback whales… we see penguins on ice burgs… we see a seal on an ice berg… we see penguins swimming in the ocean…

On the pool deck the retractable roof is covered in snow… it is colder than normal there… cold air and the hot tub and warm pool are creating their own weather… it is foggy… as foggy inside as it has been outside.

The naturalists on board say we may see blue whales, then all explain they never had… It seems that blue whales are the unicorn of Antarctica…

I take pictures… but the camera is having issues… It can’t focus in a world of white, light gray and more white… I have to hand focus.

We visit Deception Island… an active volcano, a former whaling station… the old caldera a harbor, Port Foster, but there is a rock in the entrance, so it’s too narrow for us… we can see into the mouth of the harbor but not far inside… too much fog… A Patrick O’Brien novel takes place on a similar island… with a similar name… There are ghosts here, real and imagined…

We continue to watch the scenery as it goes by… One of the naturalists is reading the Antarctic Treaty over the PA… no one thinks it strange… We still haven’t seen any blue whales or unicorns…

Now almost 10:00 pm… still light… I’m tired… I am going to bed…
We have two more days of cruising in Antarctica… They say the best views are yet to come…

Friday January 22nd 2010

They said today would be better, and it was…

Again, I got up early, too d@#% early, showered and went upstairs to establish a base… this time we have enough space for all 6 of us… Sig was up soon after, followed by Tina (bringing a cup of coffee) and Toby…

Today was mostly (but not always) overcast, but not foggy, and the sun shone through with some regularity… we started by crossing Dallmann Bay. It was calm… dead calm… better to see the whales as they spouted and dove… around us were ice bergs and glacier covered islands… It is a land locked in winter in the middle of their summer…
Today, there were other boats and ships about… a small research ship, two different expedition ships, no less than 5 sail boats (editorial comment: I would really like to come here on a expedition boat… but I think the folks on the sailboats are flat crazy), and finally a second research ship… (and still later another expedition boat)
Yesterday was all about icebergs… today we are seeing Antarctica… Mostly it is white… white show fields, white glaciers, white fog surrounding the peaks… but there is rock peaking underneath, dark black rock, and by mid day rock peaks were visible as well… peaks the very reminiscent of the Grand Tetons… But younger Tetons still wrapped in a glacial embrace… strangely one pair of peaks were recently formally named Una’s Peaks… the whalers had named them 50 years or so ago after a young lady from the Falklands… Then they were not Una’s Peaks, they were Una’s T&%#’s (you know). Una later married had children and now lives in Australia…

Today we also saw research stations… An Argentine station, a Chilean Station, (in Andword Bay) a British station, now restored as a historic site and tourist stop?
We saw penguins swimming… We saw penguins on ice bergs… We saw seals on ice bergs… We saw penguin colonies… Penguin colonies can be identified from a distance by the red stain on the ice from the algae growing on the ice fertilized by the penguin poop… Frequently there are paths high onto the face of the snow mount, across snow fields to breeding areas hundreds of feet up. A couple of times we were close enough to smell the penguin colonies… (no, the cold does not prevent the odor…)
We try to pass through the Lemaire Channel, but have to turn back due to ice… in the process we reach 65 degrees 4 minutes south longitude…

Late in the day I saw a glacier calf… it was a small ice fall, but it was a glacier calving…

As I write this it’s about 5:00 pm… T & I are back in our room… I will take a shower soon… Antarctica is going by outside our balcony window… It continues to be spectacular… Nothing about this place is subtle… it is black rock peaking through blindingly white snow… gray blue seas, bright blue skies… sharp edges of glaciers and bergs, soft edges of snow fields and fog… shadows and glaring bright… It doesn’t get old. At times it is difficult to tell what is a snow covered peak, and what is a cloud… thinks here are deceptive… We are back in Dallmann Bay where are day began… there is a chop so it’s harder to see whales… there is still 6 hours before sunset.

So far today I have taken 409 photos… thank God for digital… I have already deleted 50 of them… I will delete more tonight…

We are currently too far south to get a reliable satellite internet connection… so I will keep writing until I can post…

Saturday, January 23, 2010

Up early again… after a night at in the Pacific Ocean off the Antartic Peninsula, we returned to the peninsula near Anvers Island… we picked up a dozen visitors from Palmer Station… We stood off while they came out in zodiac rubber boats… Having picked up our passengers we continued eastward in the Bismarck Straight…
As usual the views were magnificent. There were whales, humpbacks, Orcas and minke whales…

The scientists gave a talk… On the station, on their work, on other work being done in the Antarctic. It was so popular that it was repeated…

The cruise continued, turning about and heading back west… We dropped most of the scientists off at Palmer station, but five stayed aboard as their season was done and they needed to get back to Argentina and flights back to the US…

As we reentered the Pacific the swell increased… The sea is not angry, there are few white caps, but there is a swell, maybe two different swells from different directions. At the bottom of the earth there is little land to get in the way of the sea. The ship’s movement increased… some are suffering from Mal’de maire… So far T and I have escaped… The ship seems deserted… I suspect those not suffering various ailments are taking naps…

About 4:00 the bridge announced that we would be passing the last two big ice bergs we would see… at 5:08 we passed the “last” ice berg… 90 meters tall, 380 meters underwater… We are leaving the land of ice… headed north… We should reach Cape Horn, the tip of South America tomorrow morning early…

The Internet is up again… I will need to hurry down and post this…