It is so hard to believe that we have already been gone a week. Holy cow! Where does the time go? Although we left home a week ago, we have finally arrived here. And by “here,” I mean Antarctica. Yep, last night around midnight I felt the change as we crossed the convergence and entered Antarctic waters. Yea!!!! Today is when the real excitement of the trip begins. Although I love being on the ship, I can’t wait to begin our excursions to this vast white wonderland.
I have to admit that last night my lack of sleep finally caught up with me. I literally fell asleep typing. I was just a little tired:-). So of course today I am behind the eightball with blogging. Oh, well. At least I woke up this morning feeling much more rested. I needed the sleep so I can’t regret it.
Liz told me at breakfast that she heard a lady ordering oatmeal. She knew I was disappointed that they didn’t have it yesterday. So when our server came to the table, I asked for oatmeal and got it. Yes! At least I’ll have one healthy thing :-). It came really fast, too. The server told me to keep it a secret.
After breakfast we began all of our lovely briefings. They are mandatory so we had to be there. We even had to have our cards scanned. It is taken that seriously. We scanned our cards and sat in our normals spots on the right side of the lounge. Then the torture began. Okay, it wasn’t that bad but it did seem to go on forever, but they have to go through all of the regulations. They can’t help it and there is really no way to make it entertaining.
I always love the part about staying 15 feet away from the penguins. Tell that to the penguins! They are the ones breaking the rules all of the time. We also learned how to get on and off the zodiac. Doug and I have done it many times before but I know others have not. You could tell that by the questions people were asking. One lady seemed shocked that you sat on the side of the zodiac. Ignorance is bliss.
Finally the briefing was finished. We ran up to the room and started gathering up all that we needed for the bio-decontamination party. I only had four pairs of glove/mittens :-). What can I say, I don’t like to have cold hands. I also had two hats as well as my glasses lanyard. I figured that when in doubt, take it.
We were the second group to be called down. While we waited for our turn, Doug and I went out on the deck and watched for critters. We actually spotted some whales spouting off in the distance. One sent out a huge plume that was a brownish color. That was different. Doug called in the sighting but it didn’t get announced until Pablo called our group down for decontamination. By that time the whales were gone. There really wasn’t much to see as they were far away. However, I did see a couple of fins break the surface with my monocular.
Down in the lounge we got fitted with our life vests and got everything vacuumed that needed vacuuming. Although my waterproof pants were new, she vacuumed them anyway because of the dog hair :-). Comes with the territory when you own a basset. Then we had to sign the log that we had completed the decontamination process. Yea! It hadn’t taken quite as long as last time because we didn’t have to pry the rocks out of the tread on the boots. That took forever when we did this trip before. Diego’s god daughter had helped me with my boots. She was lucky enough to be able to come with him on that trip. She is now a mountain guide.
Somebody said they had seen their first penguins so we went out on the deck to watch for them. After looking for a while without seeing anything, I went back to our cabin. I was sitting on our balcony when I caught something out of the corner of my eye. It was a penguin porpoising! In the end I saw several swimming in the water around our ship. It was quite exciting. Doug saw them from out on the deck.
As we were lining up for lunch, Diego came on the intercom and announced that the captain (or master, as they call him) had decreed that we were making our first landing this afternoon as long as the conditions remained favorable. I was thrilled but not surprised. We had done the same thing last time when our Drake crossing had gone faster than expected. We were to meet in the lounge at 2 to hear all of the details. As you can imagine, the dining room was buzzing with excitement.
At lunch I pigged out. Yep, I was bad. Not only did I have soup but I also had half a sandwich (it was ham and cheese and the bread was dipped in egg and cooked). Our server said it was their best sandwich. How could I resist? Then I got roast beef from the carving station. Couldn’t resist that either. I also had a salad so I wasn’t all bad. I did resist the Yorkshire pudding and dessert.
By the time we finished eating, we only had a short time until our 2 o’clock meeting. I got all of my stuff organized. Doug discovered a pocket on our parkas that was perfect for our key card. We had to have that so they could scan us off and back on the ship. We’d had a different system last time. At 2 Diego gave us all of the particulars. We were going to the Aitcho Islands which is where we went last time. I’m not sure if it was the same island or not but it probably was.
Back in the cabin we waited. We were going to be the second group out. The blue group was first. Remembering last time, I went ahead and started getting ready. It always takes longer than you think. I put on my cuddl duds and then fleece leggings. Then I put on my sock liners and then my smartwool socks. Over that went my waterproof pants. I put my cuddl dud top on and then my shirt. I was going to wait for the rest until Pablo called us down. I didn’t want to overheat although the room had felt much colder since lunch. I did pack up my camcorder in my waterproof bag and fixed the strap into a waist belt since nothing was suppose to obstruct the life vest. I gathered up spare batteries and put my point and shoot into a ziplock bag and then into my parka pocket. I was ready.
When Pablo called, I already had donned my parka and life vest as well as boots and was ready to go. Doug put his stuff on and then we were off and running. It was exciting :-). We had to wait for just a little while in the lounge. Then we were scanning our cards and doing last preps before boarding the zodiac. Neil who is the cruise director double-checked our vests. He was out there in shorts. When I mentioned it, he replied “I’m British. We have to be heroic.” I died laughing. He has a great sense of humor. Once we were all checked out, they sent us downstairs where we walked through the vat of disinfectant and then did the zodiac cha cha.
The zodiac shuffle is stepping onto the the fender, down onto the pontoon, onto the box, and down to the deck of the zodiac. Then you plop your fanny down and scoot to where the driver tells you to go. If you are carrying “stuff” with you, you hand it to a helper who holds it until you get onboard. Then he hands it to you. And you are very specific in how you grip people when boarding. You NEVER clasp hands. You do the forearm grip. That is much safer.
We all managed to board without any issues and then we were off. It was smooth sailing to the shore. The water was like glass. It was amazing. Occasionally the surface was broken by a penguin porpoising. In no time we were landing and it was time to do the wet landing disembarkation dance which is different. This time you scoot to the highest portion of the bow of the zodiac, You swing your legs around from the back of the zodiac to the front where you then hop off into the shallow water. Piece of cake. Of course, you have plenty of help accomplishing this.
We successfully managed this maneuver and soon were standing on the pebble-strewn shore surrounded by gentoo penguins. It was heavenly. I was surprised that I hadn’t smelled them. Penguin poop is quite pungent. Surprisingly the island was green! I didn’t see any snow at all. Last time it had been sleeting and windy when we made our first landing. It had been tough. Today was picture perfect. Well, it was perfect except for the mud. I didn’t care. I drank in the vision in front of me of penguins covering the island. There were literally hundreds of penguins dotting the landscape and hopping in and out of the water. Their raucous calls filled the air. All I could think of was the movie “Happy Feet.” They were singing their heart songs 🙂
By now I was starting to sweat. I took off my hat and shoved it into a pocket and then unzipped my parka. I probably shouldn’t have worn my fleece jacket beneath the parka but you just never know. It did cool me down doing these two things. I also dug my camcorder out of my waterproof bag which I had secured around my waist. If the weather had been rainy, I would have left it in and just used my phone. I did have my phone on a lanyard and used it to take photos with as Diego had suggested. I used my point and shoot when I needed to zoom in.
The path we were to stick to was outlined for us by poles and orange chain. The expedition crew had marked the path for us to protect us and the wildlife. Of course nobody told the penguins that they had to stay on the other side of the poles and chain lying on the ground. They were all up in our path way. So much for the 15 ft. rule. That went out the window right off the bat. :-). You could stay on the shore if you wanted or you could climb a short but steep hill. For the first time ever, I was kind of sorry not to have trekking poles. I dislike using them but the hill was literally a mud bog, well mud and penguin guano. I could just see myself slipping and sliding all the way back down on my face. Granted you didn’t HAVE to hike up the hill but that’s where my chinstraps were and I had to see them.
It was worth the climb which I made without incident. While the majority of penguins were gentoos, there were many chinstraps at the hill rookery. Lisa said they were the crankiest of the penguins. They did seem a bit cantankerous today. They were all fussing up a storm. The penguins had all hatched babies and the babies were now molting into their adult feathers. So really none of them were true babies anymore. Only a few still had their baby fluff.
I got a kick out of one penguin. I don’t know whether he was male or female. It’s impossible to tell unless they are in the act of making baby penguins. Anyway, this penguin would pick up a rock and then go place it on a pile. Then he would go and pick up another rock for his pile. Lisa was standing next to me and she laughed. He wasn’t building a nest. She didn’t know what the heck he thought he was doing. He kept it up the whole time I watched. Poor guy! At least he was gainfully occupied. I saw several squabbling with each other. I had seen in South Africa how nasty they can be. I didn’t want to see a repeat here. Others were obvious parent and baby because one was feeding the other, either that or it was the penguin version of French kissing :-). Talk about a beak down the throat!
I stood there and absorbed it all from the stench of the guano to the cacophony of the heartsongs. It was glorious. I loved every second of it. Just watching these cute little guys was endlessly entertaining. I hadn’t realized until today that the gentoo are the third largest penguins. They didn’t seem all that much bigger than the chinstraps.
Our forty-five minutes was about up so we started down the mud pit. Thank goodness Pablo offered me his arm. I had no pride. I took it. I didn’t want to slide down that muck. Plus it would have taken me half an hour to do it on my own. I am not fast going downhill, especially under these conditions. Once down, I enjoyed the gentoos for a bit longer and then began the process of cleaning off my boots which had gained about five pounds. They got pretty clean just standing in the water at the shore and scraping them on the rocks.
We repeated the process to get back on the zodiac, sitting on the side and swinging your feet over the side. The ride back was totally uneventful. We disembarked and then began the real cleaning process. There was a gentleman who was in charge of hosing us down. First he did your pants and the front of your boots. Then you turned around and raised one foot at a time so he could squirt down the bottoms. Then you walked through the disinfectant again. On the Corinthian we left our boots in a locker close to where we got on the zodiacs. Here you wear your boots to your room where you keep them. You definitely wanted to make sure to get all of the guano off so your room didn’t reek.
Once up the stairs you walked back into the lounge where they scanned your card. The trick was being able to get to it from that little pocket. I managed. I figure that will get easier the more we do it. Anyway, as we came in, they gave us a little bit of hot chocolate. Really, it was only a few swallows. It wasn’t even a half of a cup. But it was warm and tasty.
Since we had wet boots covered in disinfectant, we didn’t want walk around our room in them and get the carpet all nasty. As a result, Doug disrobed in the hallway. I went outside on the deck as I could sit down there and get my boots and wet waterproof pants off. It worked like a charm. Of course it was beautiful and mild today. That won’t be an option on nasty days. I’m sure after a few outings we will have our routine all ironed out, probably about the time we have our last trip to the white wilderness 🙂
Everybody on the ship was on an Antarctic “high” celebrating our first outing. Of course, the last group out didn’t get back until six or so. The expedition members pushed the time for our debriefing back to 7 PM. However, at 6:15 we still had Cocktail Hour. Doug and I didn’t go down until 6:30. Everybody in the bar area was bubbling over with excitement with what they had seen and experienced. I found out one lady in our group had “tapped” a penguin with her trekking pole because she thought it was going to bite her son. I think she was very firmly told by several people NOT to do that. Oy vey! Can you believe it! We did have one of the trip leaders get a little nip from one. He calmly told us we were stressing the birds and we needed to move out of the area. When they start nipping like that, he is right. It is time to go. I don’t think the penguin got him too badly, probably just his pants.
At the debriefing we were told how lucky we were that we got this landing in. I was just glad the weather had cooperated with us. Diego informed us that we would try to do two outings a day. Our first one tomorrow to Danko Island is a place we haven’t been to before so that should be exciting. In the afternoon we are shooting for Neko Harbour. We were suppose to go there last time but there was too much ice in the water and we didn’t make it on our first try. Later in the trip we did. It had an awesome view.
Dinner was very good. I went for the tilapia cooked with teriyaki and soba noodles. It was excellent. I also tried the truffle cheesecake. That was tasty as well. For dessert I went for the clotted cream ice cream with cocoa. I expected chocolate ice cream. Nope. The ice cream was clotted cream. The cocoa was in the form of a sliver of chocolate. I should have gotten the brownie like Doug did.
After dinner the festivities continued. We all met in the lounge for the Ice Breaker party. We had all been told to bring a small gift from home to share with somebody. You didn’t have to participate if you didn’t want to. I had found two perfect coffee mugs in Target before we left home. They said “Let the adventure begin.” It seemed appropriate. Maria who is one of the trip leaders, had us all chose a bag. Then we had to find somebody we didn’t know and hadn’t talked to and exchange our gift for the one they had chosen. Then you were suppose to chat with them and get to know them. Then you opened your gift. I ended up with a collapsible water bottle which is great. If I’d kept my original gift, I would have had maple syrup from New Hampshire. I prefer the water bottle :-). Doug got a leather bookmark with a penguin on it. He talked to a lady who got one of our mugs and she was very happy with it. All in all, it was a fun activity. It helped that there was an open bar as well :-). I enjoyed my Irish coffee. I even had two of them!
After most of the festivities were done, we visited with Sue from our Australia trip for a while. Her husband and daughter had already turned in for the night. We had a great time getting caught up with her. It was well after ten before we decided to call it a night. We still had showers to take, pictures to import and sort through, and journals to write. And tomorrow was going to be another Antarctic day.
Tales from the Trail 