Blogs from Antarctica, Antarctica - page 28

Seeing as we’re on a ship for the next 10 days, we thought we’d keep a log of our adventures. It’s not going to be on a par with Scott or Shackleton’s journals, but I’m sure none of you are expecting a masterpiece! Friday 19 December It’s time to finally board the ship! Ours is named MV Discovery and is the biggest one at Ushuaia port, but is still small by cruise ship standards. We’d seen one in port the other day and it was an absolute monster, but those ones don’t get to do any landings, which is surely what people go for. Economies of scale explains our presence aboard. The smaller research vessels cost an absolute fortune and our South America trip would have been very short indeed if we’d plumped for one of ... read more

Wednesday 24th I was waken by the cusomtary wake-up call from the expedition leader. “Good morning. Today is blah blah blah, spectacular lighting, good morning.” You could tell the wake-up call was rehearsed, as Lenny had been giving relatively the same call for over 20 years. But you could also tell that he really loves his job, and that he was meant to be just where he was. Lenny seems to be the kind of guy one might first feel sorry for. He has a dorky enthusiasm for natural lighting and whales that comes across whenever he speaks, which is quite often. But at the same time, there is no reason to think he envies anyone. He is a seal rolling in penguin guano. The water is almost glass. Out the windows, the red British shacks ... read more

Monday 22nd Cuverville Island and Neko Harbour Sitting back in the library, I’m glad I’ve worked into a little routine with journaling. But there is so much that’s been happening each day that it feels like I would need to spend hours writing to capture everything that’s gone on. And with all the memories fresh in my head, I realize now why my writing has been a bit scatter brained and some paragraphs have been underdeveloped. It’s just not enough to write down what i’ve been seeing (currently I’m looking back out the window and I am watching a penguin , oops, two penguins porpoising across the gerlache strait, with tons of icebergs floating our way, formidable size mountains protecting the sidelines, and snow falling into the below freezing waters). And I realize I won’t be ... read more

Saturday 20th Another early wakeup call from the expedition leader (I have figured out his actual title). Baby emperor penguins off the port side. Great, that means I can grab my shades and watch from my bed! But I was up and ready to start another excellent day in the land of penguins and icebergs; and that was what this day was particularly full of. From breakfast, the boat maneuvered its way through iceberg alley, which is just off the coast of Snow Hill and Seymour Island. Apparently, the emperor penguins breed not far from there, and as it is summer time, the groups break up and use the ice to drift out to sea. “BOOM!” The front of our boat smacked into an iceberg. “Whish,” the ice started churning and kelp spit into the air. ... read more

Thursday 18th Making excellent time across the drake passage, the captain decided to drop us in the Shetland Islands, at Half Moon Island. As I was eager to see land, not because of fear of the open sea, rather excitement built up from anticipation that I would be traveling to such a crazy place, I remained up top while all the passengers scurried to the lounge for an expedition procedure briefing. While I looked around, thinking I should practice my self-portrait technique, I noticed the two professional Nat Geo photographers chatting nearby. One of them pointed to an iceberg, which I had “spotted” only moments before, ahem. Apparently, as one of the photographers explained to me, there was a competition, which of course I knew about, where the first person to spot an iceberg would win ... read more