15/12/16 I woke up to penguins swimming next to the boat. We watched them through the portal out of the window. This happened yesterday and already I had to confirm it with Jes. Did that really happen? Was it a dream? It seems like something that couldn't have happened not really.
Today is iceberg day, it's written right on the daily program. And so true to form I saw six penguins riding an ice berg.
But yesterday, Drake's passage was really calm, so we got to the Shetland islands early enough to get off the boat for a while, like four hours. It was my first time really testing the cold weather gear and well the cold. I was trepedatious but it was a huge success!
So two islands. The first one had great petrals nesting on it and a hike up to a view point. Where my heart cried, on the way up there was a nesting pair. One of them was sitting the nest and the other one swooped and coasted in, so near to me 2-5 meters away at closest swoop. It came in to the nest and fed her, they communed for a bit. And the viewpoint at the top, black crags and snow but nothing compared to what we're seeing from the boat today on iceberg day. But you know these crags and the snow and the circling birds and it was our first day in Antarctica. We'd passed the convergence the night before.
Second island was the real penguin rookery and it was off the hook. Hundreds of penguins of two types, the chin strap penguins and the gentu penguins. They are about the same size, a little bigger than the fairy penguins maybe a foot and a half tall. And all nesting. So on the beach they were all hanging out and getting in and out of the water. So remember the swimming ones I woke up to? These were swimming just off shore and they would do this horizontal leap out of the water. So swimming horizontally, and then kind of bounce off the shore still half under water and with a double bounce make it up to a waddle on their feet. Same in reverse getting in, they would waddle in looking at the water, then a hop, then kind of a belly flop to swimming. But once swimming they would twirl and twirl like ballerinas. They said they were bathing, close to shore like that. And then deeper they dive and fish for krill.
Ok so rookery right? So they all have these rock nests they have made. And they are still building them, at least stealing rocks off each other for them. So someone's mate will show up with a new rock in its mouth.
Most all of them were sitting eggs and sometimes they would stand up and readjust the egg in their feathers and you could see it. It was early, but there were a few chicks as well. I saw about six chicks under about four parents. And I got to watch two of the parents feed the chicks from their mouths. Bending down and the tiny head reaching into its beak.
There was one penguin who had lost his egg so was nudging the shell and calling out, trying to fix it.
Right before we left a gentu penguin came right up to me, like a foot away, and just stood there.
Ok warm clothes, I'm doing really well, layering and they told me once I was on the boat that waterproof pants were mandatory. Ulp. But then they found me a great pair someone had donated. So they are awesome and of course cut the wind as well. They are like overalls and have the cool inner close fitting pants leg and outer over boot pants leg. Plus the big galoshes plus the big parka which is a really high quality item I might keep. It has a fluffy zip out lining as well as the waterproof windbreaker layer and a million handy zips and attachments that make it fit really well.
So back on the boat, we take these inflatable rafts (zodiacs) in and out and they cruise fine through the water, hold about eight people and are how we get ship to shore. But to get in you have to step from the boat ladder onto them and to get off you scoot and then splash into the water. Hence all the waterproof stuff.
The day ended with special magic. We were invited down to have champagne and meet the captain and crew. The expedition leader or whatever was in the middle of a speech about tomorrow's itinerary when someone shouted whale! And there was a humpback just out the window. It breached and showed its fluke and fin. Rolled over a couple of times like that and then went on its way, swimming the opposite way of the ship. The excitement was just dying down again when someone else shouted whale! And there were two, a mated pair probably, cresting and diving you know like dolphins do. They swam in synchronicity and then dove and we saw them no more.
16/12/16 Palmer Research Station, iceberg day
We woke in the fog today and there was ice floating by through the portal. We spent like three hours out on deck today just watching it go by. The research station we were going to was through a narrow channel half locked in the ice. So we spent all this morning steaming through ice bergs with big craggy snow covered mountains on each side.
So apparently it's a thing for seals and penguins to hang out on the bigger ice bergs, sunning themselves and playing. So I saw maybe 5-10 seals and similar numbers of penguins on different icebergs. One ice berg had like six penguins on it. At one point we saw two jump out of the water onto the iceberg, and then, because the boat was coming too close, jump back off again. Another time we saw two tabogganing around the iceberg on their stomachs.
The seals were mostly sleeping and sunning themselves lying out on the icebergs like little warm rocks. A couple of them were awake so lifting their heads and flippers around.
Then the scenery was just spectacular, indescribable really. Totally covered in snow unlike the Shetlands, with massive ice bergs all around, the ice blue to pure white down to dark gray. And the mountains, sometimes the black rocks would show through and sometimes pure white snow, and the ice cliffs sheerly falling down to the sea.
As we got closer to the station, the ice got thicker, until it was a floating sheet of broken ice, from little broken up stuff to huge icebergs the size of a house. We cruised through this and you could watch the prow of the ship cut through the ice. The icier blocks it would shove out of the way or sometimes tip over spectacularly, showing the under ice. The snowier blocks the ship could cut right through and you could watch the blocks get sliced and break up into smaller chunks like an explosion.
The station itself was doing phytoplankton research and atmosphere research. It was made of shipping containers.
12/12/16 - 12/13/16 #CruiseLife
The first two days were at sea and I spent them largely in a medically induced coma. We took antinausea meds which were actually needed, Drake's passage is rough, but they made me sleepy, and I'm a sleep so hard took on a new meaning.
The average age of this cruise is totally under 50, which is cool but also the older people here are amazing adventurers, bikers and world travelers and everyone has super cool stories to tell.
The food is also strangely better than the average cruise, more of an ethnic and spice palate which appeals to my taste a lot more. There's been a daal and a west African satay stew already.
And best of all we have a portal! I think I mentioned this before but it's been fantastic. We saw ice bergs floating by this morning and you could watch the mountains of Ushuaia recede the first day. We can both lean out and look out and we've kept it open the whole trip so far.
It's only dark 3 hours a night and shrinking, like midnight to 2:30 tonight.
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