12-24-2022

 

12-24-2022 An Unexciting Day

Today is Christmas Eve.  We had an early start with a SOB ride at 7:00.  This boat has good visibility, but does not go to the shore.  It was still sunny at that hour, since the sun never set last night.  We rode around looking for penguins , seals and whales.  We saw a lot of Adelie penguins swimming and diving in and out of the water, but I was never fast enough to get a picture.  On one medium size iceberg, we found a crabeater seal, enjoying the sun. 

The sight of the day was the “Statue Gallery”, an area with lots of small icebergs and floating chunks of ice which had broken off from them.  The variety of shapes was unbelievable!  I will let them speak for themselves.

It was cool out on the water in spite of the temperature, 33 degrees F.  We saw people from the Zodiac walking along the top of a low stretch of land.  I was scheduled to go out in the Zodiac later, but I found out that there was just a lot of walking on loose pebbles with no penguins, seals or much of anything else to see, so I cancelled my slot on the Zodiac.

We had dinner in Manfredi’s Restaurant, the food is always good there, and the experience was made better when we shared our table with another couple.

When we finished dinner, it was after 9:00, but I went up to deck 5 to work on the puzzle.  About half a dozen people were working on it at that time.  There was a Christmas Dance going on in The Library, the next area over, so we listened to the music and watched people dance and puzzled and lost track of the time.  Suddenly it was midnight!  I gave up and went to our cabin.  I do not know how long the others worked.

12/23/2022 Brown Bluff

 9:06 PM and the sun is high in the sky.  It is a beautiful ending to a marvelous day.  We woke this morning to bright sunshine.  Some of our friends stayed up last night to see the sunset.  They failed.  It never set.

I went ashore In the Zodiac with a “wet landing.”  This means that the Zodiac pulls up as far as it can onto the pebbly beach, we scoot along the side of the zodiac as far as we can, swing our legs over the side and are helped down into 6 -8 inches of water. It does not sound too bad if you have long legs.  Let’s just say that I need some help getting out.

As we traveled from the ship to the shore, we were accompanied by dozens of penguins bobbing in and out of the water and back in.  They seemed to be having a great time, but the water was a bit too cold for me to try it.

We stepped ashore and immediately saw hundreds of penguins standing, walking and paying no attention to us.  This pebbly beach is home to breeding colonies of Gentoo and Adelie penguins.  The crew marked off areas around the nesting areas so we would not disturb them.  However, they really did not seem to pay attention to us at all.

A penguin “nest”, remember that they are birds, is a                                                                         pile of rocks on a rocky beach. 

 

The female lays 2 eggs, usually, and sits or lies on them until the chicks hatch.  They seem to be about 6 inches long.  In the next few days, they will peek out from under Mom and them scoot back to warmth.  You may see just a head sticking out.  As they grow, they venture out into the open, but stay close to the mother.

The first nesting area we saw was Gentoo penguins.  There were a lot of Adelie penguins near the shore, but they were not welcome in the nesting area. 

These Gentoo penguins are about 42 inches tall.

This cute fellow, an Adelie, is about 36 inches tall.

Further along the shore we come to the Adelie penguin nesting area.  Here the chicks were older, about the size of a mallard duck, but still covered by downy feathers.  Their backs were grey rather than black, and they still stayed close to the nest.  

We did see a couple of “adolescent” penguins, about half the size of the adults.  You could recognize them by their grayer backs and very short tails.

The penguins went about their business as if it were any normal day.  I wonder how humans would react if several dozen creatures five times their size showed up and wandered around staring at us and taking pictures.

It was about 37 degrees Fahrenheit today, so we enjoyed the warmth, the sunshine and the penguins.

 

Darrell & I went on a ride on the Special Operations Boat before dinner.  We saw penguins sitting on icebergs, several kinds of birds and more massive icebergs.

 

 

This iceberg had tipped when a lot of the underwater part had melted.

 

 

One had several deep cracks running through it.  Our guide told us that it would probably soon split into several parts.  You do not want to be near it when that happens since it creates a huge wave, easily capable of capsizing a Zodiac.

The mountain above our landing site is an extinct volcano -a young one, probably only a million years old.

12/22/2022 A Swell Day

 

There are ocean waves, and then, there are ocean swells.  Kayaking has been cancelled several days because the “swell” was too high.  Today was not a kayaking day, and it was rough even in a Zodiac.  We traveled toward the shore where we saw a chinstrap penguin standing still and looking out at us.  There seemed to be another penguin lying down beside him, perhaps on a nest. He just stood there and let us take a picture.

A little further on we saw 2 or 3 penguins near the edge of the cliff.  There were penguin highways leading to the top of the hill, and we watched a penguin come down and join the others.  In the past, when we saw penguins, it was usually in larger groups, with some on rocks or in the water.

Our next sighting was a group of 3 Weddle Seals enjoying a nap on the snow.  There were also some penguins nearby, but they seemed to know that these seals were no danger.  They do not eat penguins.  One of the seals rolled over and waved to us.

The most interesting part of this cruise was the scenery. The coast line was mainly large rocks.  I will try to add some pictures to show them.

At dinner the sun came out for the first time!  That really made it a “swell” day!

12/21/2022 Pancakes with Whipped Cream on Top

We are having a calm day at sea with snow showers all day.  The temperature is above freezing, so any snow that lands on the deck turns to slush.  Since the sea water is colder than the air, the snow flakes float on the surface and congregate in round patches.  They call it “pancake ice.”  Snow has accumulated on top of some of the patches and looks like whipped cream on some of the pancakes.  

It is overcast, so there is not a lot to see looking toward the land, but lots to see on the water.  Icebergs are continuously breaking off the snowpack on shore.  We have not seen the actual “calving” but the water has lots of floating icebergs and smaller chunks of ice.  The shapes give your imagination a real workout.  One berg looked like an Egyptian sarcophagus. The part of the berg that is under the water melts faster than the above water portion.  Eventually the whole thing becomes top-heavy and tips over.  I guess that some may tip over completely. But the one we saw today only went 45 degrees.  You can see the line which were horizontal from accumulations of snow, and they are now are at an angle.

I went out on a Zodiac this noon and got a close look at the floating ice.  The sun was not shining and it was gently snowing.  The driver stopped the boat so we could sit still and listen to the ice bobbing up and down and bumping into other ice.  It is impossible to describe.  Sometimes we see penguins sunning on the ice.  Maybe they can see fish in the water, because after a bit they dive deeper into the water.

The waiting list to go out on the submarine is long, so I will probably not get a chance to go.  They have had to cancel some submarine sailings so those people who got on the sign-up sight within the first 5 minutes it was open will probably get to go.  I did not feel like staying up until midnight to book my tours, so all the submarine slots were taken.  I am on the waiting list, however.

Darrell has gone on the Special Operations Boat (the SOB)  ( I mean the boat, not a remark about my husband.)  I hope to go out on it on Dec. 23.

I have spent some time working on a 4000-piece puzzle.  There is not even enough room for it on the puzzle table!  On the right side, there are 3 rows of pieces on the side edge of the table.

We never did finish it!

12-20-2022 Penguins

There are several types of penguins in Antarctica, but we only saw 3 of them, The Gentoo (the most common), the Adelie, and the Chinstrap.  On the ship there are felted examples of each kind.

Chinstrap penguin

Macaroni penguin

 There is also a felted albatross, actual size, hanging on the ceiling of the lobby of the Aula (the theater and lecture hall).  Notice that there is also a coffee machine, one of many scattered throughout the ship.

 There is also a felted albatross, actual size, hanging on the ceiling of the lobby of the Aula (the theater and lecture hall).  Notice that there is also a coffee machine, one of several scattered throughout the ship. 

The felted version seen from below

The felted Albatross and coffee machine.

The first penguins we saw were the Gentoo, on our first landing.  The rookery was at the top of the trail, so I did not get pictures of it.  The trip through the deep snow was just too much for me, even using trekking poles.  However, there were plenty of Gentoo penguins near the shore, going in and out of the water and marching up the hill on the "Penguin Highway."

The next time we saw penguins, there were a lot more of them, and they were nesting on the rocky beach.  The Gentoo penguins were nearest to where we landed.  Some of the females were sitting on nests.  We could see tiny babies peeking out from under some of the females, but they were really small, seemingly about  8 inches long, but it was hard to tell.

These may be last year's hatch.

There are 2 chicks under her.

Feeding one of the chicks

Farther along the beach we came to the beginning of the Adelie penguin area.  There were thousands of these smaller penguins, with nests stretching almost a quarter of a mile up the hillside.

Gentoos in front, Adelies in back.

Adelie penguin, about 28" tall

Penguin nests go as far as you see the light color.

This fellow has plenty of insulation.

It is interesting to learn how the various types of penguins got their names.  The Emperor and King were named for their size.  The Magellanic was named after the explorer, Magellan.  The Adelie honors the wife of the nobleman who sponsored the expedition when they were first seen.  The Macaroni got its name from the old American drinking song, Yankee Doodle.

12-19-2022 Where do the Researchers Live?

If you are going to do research in Antarctica, you cannot just check into the nearest hotel. It is several thousand miles away.  One researcher told us they lived in a small tent (like you would take backpacking) for the 3 months they were here.  They also had a 3-sided shelter, about 20’ by 20’ for their work station.

 The more permanent stations had buildings.  We   visited one of these that was no longer in use.  It had   3 rooms.  The first room had a table on the left and   the “kitchen” on the right.  Cooking was done on a   one burner camp stove.  Walking into the next room   (no doors), the “office” was on the right with storage   on the left with boxes labeled Man Food and Dog   Foods.  The last room had triple bunks on each side.

The kitchen

 

The bunk room

   At the same site there was an emergency hut with supplies for anyone who was stranded.  We were not allowed into it, since it was for emergencies only.  Huts like this are scattered over Antarctica.

We "landed" a few feet out from shore, rolled over the side of the Zodiac and walked a few feet in shallow water to get to the shore.  The Viking crew cut steeps in the snow so we could get to the top and see the hut.