FYI: Our WiFi still isn’t up to loading photos so please be patient. Imagine not having fabulous WiFi down at the bottom of the world! 😜As soon as I can, I’ll be editing my posts and adding them in. Thanks!
I slept like a log last night! The motion of the ship does it every time. Of course we DID have a full day yesterday and I didn’t finishing writing until around 1 AM. It was rough when my alarm went off at 7. I was sleeping hard. It took several minutes for me to wake up.
The motion of the ship was about the same as it had been last night after we hit the Drake around midnight. It’s rocking a bit but from what we heard from the crew on the ship, so far this is the nicest crossing they have seen in six or so trips. That’s pretty amazing. Although some people today have been a tad queasy, Doug and I have felt fine. I love the motion although It DOES make staying awake for the lectures a challenge.
And that is basically what today has been, a day filled with lectures and going outside to scour the seas and skies for birds and sea mammals. We couldn’t have had a better day for being outside either. It’s cool but not cold, although when the wind gusts it feels cold. The skies are blue and sunny. It has been fabulous. We’ve spent a good bit of the day out there.
I have to say that I am a bit chuffed though. Last night some time after dinner, a lucky group of people had the first whale sighting of the trip! They think is was Sei whales. They spouted a few times and then vanished. Liz was one of those lucky people. She even got a couple of photos. We had gone outside but we didn’t see anything. And I had checked periodically from our balcony but no joy. Oh, well, you can’t see everything.
We got up around 7 AM so we could be at breakfast at 7:30. I wasn’t fast enough so Doug went down without me. Don’t get between him and his coffee :-). I was just a minute or so behind him. I was disappointed once again. There was no oatmeal. The breakfast buffet wasn’t subpar. It was good. There was an omelet station as well as fruit, pastries, and a variety of breakfast dishes. There just wasn’t any oatmeal. Oh, well, maybe tomorrow. The Corinthian had oatmeal every day. I expected this ship to have it as well. One should never assume 🙂
Today was a learning day as we were on the Drake all day long. We had four lectures during the course of the morning and afternoon. We went to all four. Hey, what else were we going to do? The first lecture came right after breakfast and it was on birds in the Antarctic. Not my favorite subject as I am not a birder but it was fine. Our lecturer was expedition guide Annik who is from Switzerland. She was not a dynamic speaker but I learned a lot. This portion of the Drake had lots of birds so I figured it would be a good lecture to attend. I remembered a bit of the bird lecture from before but I figured a refresher course was due.
Boy, was it difficult staying awake! Unlike our last Antarctic adventure, we weren’t in a dark room. I had just as much trouble staying awake though. This time I was smarter and took notes. That helped keep me focused. Plus it was interesting information.
I learned that any bird that lives near the water and eats from the water is considered to be a seabird. Only 3% of the birds in the world are seabirds. They have a very difficult life because there is a scarcity of fresh water for them to drink. Everything is always wet and salty. They have few places to breed as they require land to nest. And it’s difficult for them to find food. To cope with these issues, they have made certain adaptations. They have grown webbed feet, developed a good sense of smell as well as great insulation to keep them warm. They have also developed the endurance to fly long distances. They have adapted so that they can save oil as food for their chicks. And they have developed a salt gland that assists them in getting rid of the salt from their high salt diet.
Most seabirds in the Antarctic eat small fish, crustaceans, squid, offal and carrion, and even other birds. Skua for example feed on penguins. They are not my favorite bird. Although penguins aren’t saints either. We saw one in South Africa getting pecked to almost death by another penguin. In generally seabirds enjoy long lives.
Anyway, there are two groups of seasbirds. The first is Pelagic. Those are the long distance fliers. Albatross fall into this category. The second group are the coastal birds. You can figure out which one those are :-). I believe sea gulls fit in this category.
Annik also talked more in-depth about the albatross and petrels. These are Pelagic are long-distance birds. They use dynamic soaring. Because of that, they don’t expend a great deal of energy. I was astonished at how far the albatrosses can fly.
The gray-headed albatross can fly up to 1900 miles away from its colony. They go on feeding trips that last anywhere from 14-24 days. Wow! These are trips they make while breeding which they do every two years. On the non-breeding years, these birds fly two circuits around Antarctica. That is 14,000 miles. This can take four to six months. The black-browed albatross which mates mainly in the Malvinas (Falkland Islands) has a wingspan of 7 ft. The wandering albatross has the largest wingspan of all the Antarctic birds. It’s wingspan is between 10 and 11 ft. The Southern Royal albatross breeds around New Zealand. They are almost as large as the wandering. They don’t have any black on their tail.
There is a great deal of variety in the size and shapes of petrels as well. When they are flying over the ocean, it is very difficult to estimate their size. The Wilson’s storm petrels are small, coming in at just 1.3 ft. They have a small wing span. The Cape petrels near Antarctica have a 3 ft. Wingspan whereas the giant petrel clocks in at 6 ft. The southern giant petrel has a green at the tip of its bill while the northern giant petrel has a red tip. To be honest, I’m not sure I’d be able to see it well enough to tell what color the tip of its bill was :-). And not all southern giant petrels in Antarctica are brown. Some are actually white.
Albatross and Petrels aren’t the only birds we could see as we travel to and spend time in the Antarctic region. We could also see sooty shearwaters, prions, and southern fulmars. I remember the prions and sooty shearwaters from last time. They are smaller birds.
The last bird Annik discussed was the ever-popular penguin :-). I had no clue there was actually 18 species of penguins. I knew there were a bunch but never the exact number. There are four species that live in Antarctica: Gentoo, Chinstrap (my favorite), Adélié, and Emperor. The first three are in the brush-tail category.
Penguins are only found in the Southern Hemisphere. They are one of the species of flightless birds. Their wings have evolved into flippers so they can “fly” through the water instead of the air. Their bodies are streamlined and well insulated with a layer of subdermal fat. Their dark plumage helps keep them warm. Their feathers have evolved into stiff, densely packed feathers that are waterproof. During molting season they can’t go out into the water because they are no longer waterproof. They would die if they did.
Most penguins form colonies. They stick together to protect themselves from predators such as skua. However, they are territorial. Woe be it to the penguin who stumbles into another penguin’s nest! It won’t be pretty. As cute as these birds are, they can be vicious as well.
Penguins molt and breed on land. However, they feed and live at sea. They eat krill, squid, and fish. They catch their prey by pursuit diving. They are capable of diving as deep as 1000 ft. but normally don’t. Their predators are giant petrels and skua when they are on the ice and the leopard seal in the water.
That wrapped up lecture session #1. We had three more to go. However, we had basically an hour before our Photography lecture so Doug and I grabbed our cameras and head to the Deck. We have a great outside deck about five steps from our door which is very convenient 🙂 The bow has a clear windbreak that keeps it from getting too windy. However, I can’t see through it all that well so I’m not fond of that spot even though that it is warmer. Once we found out that we could climb the stairs to Deck 7, I claimed that spot. Sure, it’s colder because there is no windbreak but I have an unobstructed view which is great. As of yet, there isn’t a great deal to see.
After checking out the view on 6, we headed down to Deck 5 where the expedition crew were. It’s nice to hang out with them because they can tell you what the birds are that you are seeing in. We spotted a couple of giant petrels drifting on the wind as well as a wandering albatross. That albatross followed us most of the day. To be honest, we didn’t see a whole of of different birds while we were outside. I swear last time we saw a bunch more. At least that is the way I remember it. It was slim pickings today. Of course Annik did say that birds need wind and we were having such a smooth sail that there wasn’t a great deal of wind. Thus few birds. And of course we didn’t see any marine mammals at all which was disappointing but not unexpected.
At 11 we sat in on Diego’s photography class. It was quite interesting and full of practical advice which I liked. He has gone to using his cell phone for a great deal of his photography. I was surprised by that. I think he does use his camera with the big lens though for those zoom situations. I also learned that when he isn’t out guiding, he runs a small publishing company. I thought that was interesting.
We wrapped up with Diego who I found out was on the ship with us last time. He was just an expedition crew member then. Now he is the head honcho of the expedition crew. I need to ask him how Iggy and Claudia are doing. They were the top two expedition people last time.
We only had a small amount of time before lunch so we trooped back out on the deck to see what we could. There was a whole lot of blue sky which was fabulous. It was a glorious day that made you want to spend as much of it outside as you could. We trooped back in for lunch and I was good and had a salad with a little bit of chicken. I did have a scoop of ice cream. I asked for chocolate but our servers brought me back strawberry as they didn’t have any chocolate. I’m not fond of strawberry but I ate some of it anyway as I didn’t want him to think that I was unappreciative. He thought he was doing a good thing.
Our next talk wasn’t until 2:30 and it was titled Antarctica 101. While we were waiting, we spent a good bit of time outside even though there never was a whole lot to see. You never knew when something interesting would pop up. I wore my fleece jacket everywhere. It has a worthless pocket on the sleeve that was perfect for my name tag so I didn’t have to wear it around my neck. I shoved the lanyard inside the tiny pocket and zipped it up with the tag hanging out. Perfecto! Since my distance vision isn’t the best, I put my sunglasses lanyard on my distance glasses and hung them around my neck along with my camcorder. My point and shoot went in my inside jacket pocket, my monocular in the right outer pocket, and my gloves in my left outer pocket. My face mask (we have to wear it in the lounge when the whole group is together) I kept in my right inside pocket. It took a bit to figure out this arrangement but it worked well. I’ll have to come up with a new one tomorrow when it’s colder and I have to start wearing the parka.
Lori’s talk on Antarctica was interesting. She is the assistant expedition leader. She covered a broad range of topics which was nice. She didn’t delve into the history of the continent too much. I’m sure that will be a topic for another day. She did tell us that people theorized that Antarctica was there well before it was ever seen. In fact, nobody glimpsed the white continent until 1820. By 1840 both coasts had been explored.
We learned some key differences between the Arctic and the Antarctic. Antarctica is a continent that is surrounded by ocean. It has no indigenous people. The Arctic, on the other hand, is water surrounded by land. It DOES have indigenous people. I had never thought about it but this is very true.
Antarctica is much larger than the U.S.. It holds over 70% of the world’s fresh water. What an amazing statistic. A wave of water here can circumnavigate the globe without touching land. Antarctica is also a climate driver because of the Antarctica circumpolar current. It transports 30% more water than people originally believed. In fact, it circulates 5 times more water than what flows on the Amazon River. Pretty incredible. We also learned than 98% percent of the land in Antarctica is covered with ice. Wow!
The continent was once a portion of Gondwanaland. Scientists have actually discovered fossils here. However, at this point in time, it only has two flowering plants. So we have to be very careful not to step on them when we explore the continent.
Antarctica holds several records. It has the highest average elevation. It is the windiest continent. Winds in Commonwealth Bay reach up to 150 mph. It is also the coldest continent (that one was a real shocker—not!). On the eastern side of Antarctica it has been known to reach -128 degrees. That’s cold by anybody’s standards. The east and west sides of the land mass have different climates. The west is the fastest warming region in the world. The Esperanza Station reached 68 degrees in 2020. That’s downright balmy! That temperature broke the record. Antarctica is also the driest continent and the iciest. In the east dome area the snow falls and never melts. Of course, the pressure of the snow over time turns the deep snow into ice. That’s how glaciers are born. Anyway, some of that snow is a few million years old. It just boggles the imagination.
There generally are no sharks in these waters. Unexpectedly they did find a colony of king crab which nobody believed were in these waters either. It was thought that the water was too cold for them. Because of the warming temperatures, the environment and creatures populating it are changing. The warming is also laying the ground for larger storms in the region.
We also got into a discussion about ice. There are two types: sea ice and glacier ice. Both are self-explanatory. Antarctica has both. In fact, when the sea water freezes during the winter, the sea ice that is created actually doubles the size of the continent.
Antarctica does have glaciers. They form as the snow creates the ice and then begins flowing down towards the sea in response to gravity. As it slides out into the water, it creates an ice shelf. The shelf can create ice bergs as well as glaciers when they calve. The largest is the Thwaites Glacier which is roughly the size of Great Britain. That’s pretty darn large!
The continent has 88+ scientific stations. Forty-six of these stations are permanent. The rest are temporary and used during the summer. The U.S. alone has three. The largest American station is McMurdo. Unlike last time, we won’t be able to visit a station or have any of their people come talk to us. They don’t want to risk being exposed to COVID. I don’t blame them.
The South Pole Station gets to hold a unique ceremony each year. There is a marker in the ice denoting the South Pole. However, the ice moves and the old marker is in the wrong location. To remedy this each year they make a new marker and ceremoniously put it in place. Each marker is different every year.
Stations aren’t the only places where research is conducted. The region also sees research ships as well as field camps. Frankly, I would prefer a ship to a field camp. These days they are even doing research from space using satellites. It’s amazing what they can do now. Using satellites, scientists found a new colony of emperor penguins located in an inaccessible location. They found it when they spotted a huge circle of penguins guano. Strange but true.
Even tourists can help do research these days.. They expect over 100,000 tourist to Antarctica who can help with the various efforts. Our ship is participating in the Happy Whale program as well as the eBird program. Lori didn’t really talk much about either one so other than sending in photos of whale flukes, I’m not sure what all our contributions are. I’m sure we will find out more as the days go by.
There are actually two Antarcticas. The first is the biological Antarctica. It’s the physical one. Once you cross the Antarctic Convergence, you are in Antarctica. You can only really tell when you’ve crossed the convergence when you chart it and see that you have crossed the 60 degree latitude mark.
The political Antarctica is more complicated. The continent is owned by absolute nobody. During the Cold War research on the continent was threatened by the hostilities between east and west. Finally in 1957-8 twelve governments stepped up and hammered out the Antarctic Treaty which was an unprecedented act of human cooperation. The treaty was created for the protection of the continent. It has 14 articles that try to guarantee that Antarctica will always be used for peaceful purposes. No military operations here. And there will be no territorial claims either. In fact, many countries had already laid claim to sections of the continent. All of those claims were frozen. Chile, Argentina, and Great Britain are three just to name a few that were on the peninsula. Since then they had added additional related agreements such as those dealing with flora and fauna, seals, tourism, etc. Currently concerned scientists are trying to establish marine protected areas. So far only two have been formed as all 12 of the treaty countries must agree. Never an easy proposition. But they are trying.
By the time Lori finished her lecture, my head was bursting with information. I wasn’t sure I’d be able to fit in any more but at 4 we gave it a whirl with Lisa’s baleen whale talk. We had just learned that there were 89 species of cetaceans and that rorquals are whales with throat pleats, when there was a commotion on the far side of the lounge. Some people had spotted dolphins out of the window. Lisa looked out and reported that it was a very rare sighting of Southern Right Whale dolphins. Of course we all made a mad dash outside to see this rare sighting for ourselves. I saw squat all nothing. I was so bummed. Doug saw them though. His far vision is much better than mine even though I had my glasses on so my distance vision would be better. Liz didn’t see them either. I don’t know about Chris. He isn’t much into wildlife. Most people didn’t see them so I had a lot of company. What is interesting about these dolphins is that they don’t have a dorsal fin.
We all gave it the college try but eventually even I had to give up. We all made our way back inside to finish the lecture. Rorqual is Norwegian for pleat and the whales with baleen have huge pleats on their throats so they can expand it to accommodate the massive amounts of krill-laced water they gulp down when feeding. They can expand up to double their normal throat size. It’s incredible. They also have elastic nerve nets in their throat so when it expands, it doesn’t damage the nerves there.
These whales don’t have teeth but rather baleen which is made from keratin and hangs down from the roof of the whales mouth. Some whales have baleen that is only a few feet long while others have massively long baleen. An example would be the right whale which we saw in South Africa. Some of the largest whales known are baleen whales such as the blue whale. It’s heart is the size of a VW Bug. That is on the large side. They can get up to 100 ft. long. Lisa had two people take some rope and measured out 100 ft. The one person was way out of the room and almost out of reception. That’s how big the blue whale is. Of course the blue whale is rare these days. They have been hunted almost to extinction. Although many of the rorquals are huge, these whales cannot get any larger because their respiratory systems won’t support it. The blue whale is probably the maximum size that the lungs can support.
We even learned about whale poop in this lecture. I had no clue that krill were filled with iron. When the whales eat the krill, all of the excess iron is excreted out in their poop which is great for the environment. Basically they fertilize the area they poop in. Who knew?
Another head shaker is the whale uterus. It has two chambers. Nobody is really sure why. Twin births are rare so that isn’t it. If one chamber of the uterus is damaged, they cannot reproduce using the other chamber. So it is a mystery. The gestation period varies among species but in general it runs from 10-12 months. Whale fetuses, however, mature rapidly and gain weight quickly. They gain weight 20 times faster than chimps who apparently are fast developers as well. Whales are born tail first so they aren’t trying to gulp for air while waiting for the rest of them to pop out. Although they can swim from birth, the mother does help them up to the surface to take their first breath. The baby whales nurse for 6-12 months, also depending on the species.
Whales face many threats unfortunately. There is still whaling going on. Japan is one of the main culprits in this. Whales also get entangled in fishing lines which can end in their death. Ship strikes are another source of danger for the whales. Sometimes they are wounded while other ship strikes kill them. Somebody asked about the whales beaching themselves but I don’t believe they really know why they do that.
After this discussion, Lisa talked for a few minutes about some specific whale species. The fin whale is the largest we might actually see in the Antarctic waters. They are plentiful and are known as the “greyhound” of the sea. they are sleek and fast. They can swim from 23 mph up to 29 mph. They can dive down to 1500-1600 ft. Fin whales live to be around 90-100 years old which is incredible. They also have asymmetrical coloring. The right side of their jaw is white while the left side is darker. Interestingly enough, scientists can use their earwax to age them. Now I have heard of everything!
There are actually fin whale hybrids. A select few have mated with blue whales. Usually the mother is a blue whale and the father a fin whale. Right now they know of 8 hybrids for sure.
Humpback whales which most people are familiar with are half the size of a blue whale. They are the most common whale in Antarctica. The females are larger than the males. They average 45-50 ft. In length. When they dive, they stay down an average of 15 minutes although they are capable of staying down much longer. Their pectoral fin is the largest appendage of any know creature. It has tuberals with a hair in each tube. Their fluke is the same size as their pectoral fin. Scientists use the markings on their flukes to identify the whales. Humpbacks can dive down to the same depth as a blue whale. However, they can gulp down more water and krill than the blues because it takes less energy for them to do so. It takes a bucket load of energy for the blue whales to move their bulk around.
The Minke whales are the smallest of the rorquals. The female is larger than the male. They can hit speeds of 25 mph. They love ice so you generally find them around ice. They also have asymmetrical pigmentation like the fin whale. The one curious fact about them is their breath. They have the worst breath of all the roquals. They’ve even earned the nickname “Stinky Minke.” They can vocalize and make several different sounds. The best one is the one that sounds like a light saber.
This lecture was running late because of our interruption with the dolphins. When people started asking a myriad of questions, Doug lost patience and wanted to leave. I don’t think he had wanted to attend this lecture anyway. He only went because I told him I was going. Anyway, we headed back up to the room for a half hour before adjourning to the lounge for Cocktail Hour.
We had a nice time visiting with various people and sharing our experiences. There is an eclectic group of people on this trip. There are some characters :-). We had a pleasant time until we had to make our way down to the lounge for our daily debriefing. Diego kept it short and sweet. He summarized what we had done today which wasn’t much and then outlined the schedule for tomorrow.
From the debriefing we headed straight down to dinner. I went simple tonight and got steak. None of the other choices appealed to me. I think sometimes the chefs try to make the meals too fancy. I’m more of a plain food type of person. I did enjoy dinner though. My steak was perfect and it wasn’t too much. Dessert didn’t appeal either so I had cheese and crackers. That definitely filled me up.
It was after 9 PM before we headed back to the cabin. These late nights are a killer. I am so tired from not getting a full night’s sleep since we’ve been gone. I sleep really well, I just don’t get enough of it :-). Maybe tonight will be different.
Tomorrow we keep steaming through the Drake. So far it has been smooth sailing. The crew are all thrilled. Tonight around midnight we should cross the Antarctic Convergence and be officially in Antarctic waters. That will be exciting. In the morning we have our Antarctica briefing detailing what we can and cannot do in the region. That should be fun. Then we have our bio-decontamination party. This is where the crew makes sure all of our outer wear is free from any contaminates. They will vacuum your hats, gloves, etc. and pick the fibers out of your velcro. It’s fun😜. After that we are scheduled for lectures the rest of the day. However, having prior experience, I have a sneaking suspicion that tomorrow afternoon we will make our first landing. Fingers crossed!!!!!
Tales from the Trail 