Antarctica

12/10/2010

It was a relief to wake up with calm seas and no movement. I was still a bit light headed by the last 2 days of rough seas yet I managed to put myself together and went up for breakfast. As I did not see outside (port hole was closed) nor taken any fresh air in the last 48 hours, I first headed for the deck and see what the weather was up too. A beautiful sight awaited me with icebergs and tall snowy mountains close by the ship. In order to avoid a big storm, the Captain had steered the ship toward the Shetland Islands and the Argentinean Scientific base Jubany. The zodiacs were lowered to the water and we all headed ashore. Firm land under our feet. A team of scientists awaited our arrival and a guided tour of the facilities was offered. This base was quite small with only about 20 scientists, 3 penguins and one seal. The sun was shining and it was great for photos. In the afternoon, we headed for the fjords named Almighty Sound. As no landing was possible we did a 75 minutes zodiac cruise around the sound. The light for photography was perfect. At one point, the guide had the brilliant idea to stop the engine and let us enjoy the silence of Antarctica. So wonderful: no noise, no wind, the warmth of the sun over our red cheeked faces. The best 4 minutes of the trip so far.

12/11/2010

In order to avoid heavy ice, we arrived this morning to an unexpected landing: the Argentinean Base Esperanza. Being very sophisticated, the base is one of the very few with children. There is a school, small theatre, entertainment complex in addition to all the normal scientific installations. The location is also shared with a delphia penguins rockery. Hundreds of penguins are just walking around the base. We had a tour guide and visited the facilities. The school was the most impressive with computer rooms and small laptop for the kids. It was large for the size of the Base and offered all the scholar need from kindergarden to high school.

During the afternoon, we sailed through icebergs and ice sheets. The ship being a mini-icebreaker, it helps as we could go through ice easily and go further south. In the afternoon, we landed on Paulet Island; a volcanic island home of over 100 thousands delphia penguins. Nothing else but penguins. As they are all similar, it was fun to walk around them. They were nesting so we had to be careful as where to step. We took a hike on the hills where some penguins where even located. It was a far and long walk for them from the sea to the nest. The photo opportunities were endless.

12/12/2010

This morning, we cruised between tabular icebergs. They are flat top, long rectangular icebergs. Their size varies but they can be up to 10 miles long. The colors are beautiful and being a cloudy day, it helps make the icebergs stand more dramatically. Jordy is our zodiac driver and we cruise around the icebergs  and snap lots of beautiful photos.

In the afternoon, we arrived at Astrolab, an island chain. We do another zodiac cruise and as our luck goes, Jordy is again our zodiac driver. Our group really enjoy him as he loves taking photos with his massive Canon lenses and we have then time to take photos too. And he likes to dare, so we get really close to icebergs and try a very narrow passage between an iceberg and some rocks. It is so narrow and Jordy tries to put the zodiac through. We are all excited until one small rock block our way out. We have to reverse. A leopard seal is resting by a bluish iceberg and we stop to admire him. As we are cruising back to the ship, we saw in the background 2 humpback whales jumping and splashing around. It is far from us but we cannot stop watching. We asked Jordy if we can go but he has to bring us back onboard so the other group can go to. We are so disappointed. But as there is only one group left, we stand by and are able to re-enter the zodiac and go after the whales. A strong drizzle come on us as we are cruising full speed toward the action. As we watch, the whale displayed a beautiful tail. Photos are great.

12/13/2010

We entered a beautiful bay today surrounded by small iceberg and snow capped mountains. The sea is dead calm and the water is flat. As we are on deck enjoying the sun, two humpback whales come right by the ship to greet us. They are massive animal and we can admire their features, the skin texture and the different colors of their skins. I have never seen whales so close. As the whalse went away, we saw many other whales, cruising the area. The zodiacs were lowered and the first group went for the chase. We could follow them for the top deck and we saw how close they got from the whales.  We all waited anxiously for our turn to come. It finally came and we jumped excited in the zodiac. We cruised only about 200 meters from the ship went we encountered the whales again. Wow, their size was impressive. So big. As everybody wished, they showed some amazing tails and we were delighted as they photos were awesome. We chased them for a while and quickly realized that I took 400 shots already. Then we cruised to a penguins rockery. One peculiar thing about penguin’s rockeries is the bad smell. One penguin’s poo-poo is nothing but place 5000 of them together and let the sun warm it up. Wow.  Anyhow, they are still so cute and I walked around them in awe and charmed by the clumsiness. After a short hike to a viewpoint, we were allowed to go down the snowy slope on our bottom, surrounded by penguins. So much fun! And it got some warmed that I ended up in t-shirt for a while.

12/14/2010

Deception Island. We arrived on a beautiful sunny day at Deception Island. I had admired the island from the Symphony’s deck last year yet as the ship is too big, we could not enter the interior lake. This time, we could. We anchored off a former whaling station. The station was first used by whalers then it became home of one of the British Antarctica Survey Base until 1969. Several mega steel tanks still stand rusty, some houses remain and a hanger. The wind was blowing fiercely and I tried to imagine how it was like to live here almost one hundred year ago and chase whales on a small row boat. It must have been quite a challenge.

As we were cruising the afternoon, the sun was warm andthe wind lowso Rob and I went on deck to talk. So nice, sunbathing in Antarctica!

12/15/2010

And now, we entered the Drake passage again... 20-30 foot waves for almost 2 days. Not fun...

Overall, the trip has been amazing and I highly recommend it to anyone.

OK, take care for now