18th – Thar she blows!

The plan was to be woken up at 0600 but waking up past that and not having heard anything I assumed I just had slept through it. My cabin mate had left and I showered, when exiting he returned and informed me that the wakeup had been moved to 0700 instead.

What had happened was that after I had gone to bed around midnight the captain had sailed us through 3 hours of ice. Carefully getting us through, hitting ice in an attempt to move it aside (as the ship isn’t an icebreaker moving ice to the side is pretty much the only thing the ship can do unless the ice is weak enough to crumble when we hit it). There was no real option of turning around as the ice was being blown into the strait from the south so that had resulted in a couple of fairly stressful hours. The original plan had been to go to Neko Harbour but there was too much ice to get there so instead they changed course and took us to Cierva Cove instead. From here we did a zodiac cruise among the many ice bergs. As a small bonus we went by the Argentine base Primavera where we did an improvised 5-minute landing before continuing on. Why was that so special? Because by landing there we actually set foot on the actual mainland of Antarctica. This was likely our only chance of not just being on islands but on the actual continent. Other than that it was a landing like all others. When not on a cruise we had a presentation by one of the guides who could show and tell how life is on an Antarctic base when you over winter.

Proof I have set foot on mainland Antarctica.

A beautiful iceberg a fair bit away from the ship. 

After lunch we relocated to Mikkelsen Harbour where we did some cruising and a landing. Some of us got into a zodiac to do some science stuff where water temperatures and wind speed were measured before coming ashore. Here we saw more penguins (surprise!) seals and a large (dead) isopod.

The guide Dr. Annette Bombosch introducing us to science stuff.

The water temperature measuring thingie is put into use.

(yes, "thingie" is the scientific term).

The wind speed is... uuh. It is.. uhm... 0.0 m/s. Whew, science is hard!

The isopod on display.

Leopard seal.

Coming back to the ship we had dinner and we started moving on to the next stop; Deception Island where those who want can do their polar plunge. Deception Island is basically a caldera of a still active volcano. There is one entrance into the bay which is fairly narrow with a large submerged rock, so if the weather isn’t good enough it will not be safe to enter. We’ll see how it goes. From there on we will sail east and aim for the Weddell sea; we have 3 full days still before having to return to the Drake on the 3^rd night so we still have plenty of time to sail around and find more stuff to see.

The waters tonight are not quite as still as the previous couple of nights but relatively to what one should expect the conditions overall have been amazing.

The night ended with the ship’s band Monkey Eating Eagles playing. Moods were high and there was certainly some crazy dancing going on at times. Nothing seemed to be able to end things until somebody yelled “whale!” and everyone ran out to have a look. Minke or fin whales in the surface in the beautiful sunset. Still no breaches but as the captain started circling we did get close enough to hear them breathe. 

The Monkey Eating Eagles.

Sunset.... 

... now with more whales!

17th – It’s not supposed to be like this

We had been informed that we would be woken up around 0515 but when I woke up a bit earlier I heard people already walking around outside and taking down tents. I crawled out of the sleeping bag after a warm but short night’s sleep into the cold tent and quickly got dressed. Quickly being relative as movement was severely limited due to the size of the tent.

The camp was taken down and at 0600 we were back and enjoying showers on the ship. Breakfast at 0630 where we discussed the past night. Apparently, a lot of people were freezing throughout the night – some couldn’t sleep because of it – and funnily enough that exact group was the same group of people who had been using their sleeping bags fully dressed. I am surprised how many people are not aware of how to correctly use a sleeping bag.

The plan of the day was to visit the only post office in Antarctica, Port Lockroy. Coming down through the Errera Channel there was barely a ripple in the water which mirrored the surrounding mountains and land giving us a beautiful view. Port Lockroy is located in the Neumayer Channel but when wanting to enter it from the North there was far too much ice for it to be feasible so the captain brought the ship around and took us down through the Gerlache Strait towards the south entrance of Neumayer Channel. There was a fair bit of ice, the water was almost completely covered by individual pieces but slowly but steady the ship was brought forward until we around 1530 finally arrived at our destination and cast anchor.

Half an hour after arrival people were either being taken to Port Lockroy or Jougla Point – a point not far from the base but necessary due to the limited space in the buildings. A couple of hours later people had both had the chance to see penguins and shags and walked on fast ice at Jougla Point and been at the base and post office and shopped postcards and/or souvenirs if you were into stuff like that.

Jougla Point.

Antarctic (blue-eyed) shag.

Port Lockroy.

Around 1900 we were all back on the ship having a slightly later dinner followed by a briefing. We were informed that we had been the southernmost ship today and the first to go through the northern entrance of the Neumayer Channel.

On the way to tomorrow’s destination we experienced a beautiful sunset while slowly sailing through the channel with water that was like a mirror. The conditions were pretty much everything Antarctica isn’t known for and the guides are very excited as they had not seen anything like this before.

16th – Camping

An early wakeup call at 0630 and breakfast at 0700 started the day. We were heading towards the point where we were supposed to spend the morning but on arrival it turned out that it had become unsafe due to ice conditions.

We left and instead went to Cuverville Island with a lot of gentoo penguins. They were returning in large numbers to their nesting areas trying to find last year’s mate to start the mating all over again. There were a constant stream of penguins coming up from the water and waddling up to find a spot and we were told that we were quite lucky seeing it as the mass return only lasts a couple of days a year. We ended up spending a couple of hours on the island before returning to the ship and having lunch.

"Who are you and how did you get in to my back yard?"

A constant stream of penguins arriving at Cuverville.

No penguins without penguin porn.

With the nests being close conflicts are unavoidable.

Crabeater seal. 

The passengers who have purchased the kayaking add-on seem to be going out whenever we go out on the zodiacs. I’m glad that I didn’t chose that even if I did consider it (ignoring that I have barely any experience with them at all) as it doesn’t let you sit down somewhere and just look at the penguins while being surprised how close they actually get. I fully understand why somebody would want to go kayaking – the nature is beautiful after all – but I can see myself being frustrated if I was stuck in one of those instead of being close on land.

After lunch there was a 1½ hour rest before we went out again, this time on George’s Point on Ronge Island where we once again were facing multiple penguins. Primarily gentoos but also a few chinstraps could be seen. I can’t get over how funny-looking they are when the wobble/waddle their way around.

I love the colors.

To infinity and.... Well, at least to that iceberg over there!

We were all back on the ship around 1715 where 60 of us started mentally preparing ourselves for the night out in tents. The camping group were served before the other half of the passengers and at 2000 we were on our way to Orne Island where we were to spend the night. The tents were quickly set up – they were only just wide and long enough for two sleeping matts. Toilets were two chemical toilets mounted in holes in the snow so that you could use them while staying more or less hidden from view.

The tents were set up close to the penguins.

The chemical toilet is being installed in a hole 

and the guide Gerard Baker is telling us how to utilize it.

We had a small walk around to get a feeling of the island and see the penguins and enjoying the view. A few stars could be spotted but it was quite bright still, but Venus was very clear on the sky. At around midnight people had returned into their tents.

Big thanks to Emily Bullington for letting me borrow her poster.

15th – Whale, whale, whale… What do we have here?

We had our wakeup call at 0730 and breakfast half an hour later. We quickly realized that the conditions had improved significantly during the night and we were down to only a few people not feeling well, improving the general mood on the ship.

Soft-plumaged petrel.

The morning was relatively uneventful with a presentation on zodiac regulations and the one on environmental safety. We also had to have anything we were planning on bringing off the ship (bags and outer layers) cleaned/vacuumed for anything potential harmful for the local environment. Apart from that we spent most our time standing outside trying to spot anything interesting, having the open seas behind us and now with land on both sides of the ship when going through the Nelson Strait.

First sighting of land.

Lunch was had and shortly after we had a lecture on penguins followed by anchoring near two islands; Cecilia and Barrientos island. Those who hadn’t signed up for kayaking on the trip were split into 2 groups to ease the amount of pressure on each island. I started on Cecilia where we saw a handful of penguins but quite a few nesting giant petrels, but otherwise a climb up to the highest point on the island giving a good view of the surrounding area. 

Brown skua.

Having come down again we took the zodiacs to Barrientos where there were a lot of nesting penguins, and some of them had already eggs in their nests. We were also very lucky to see a leopard seal, crabeater seals, weddell seal and a female elephant seal (and as it was female it didn’t have the characteristic snout).

Leopard seal.

Gentoo penguin.

Chinstrap penguin (with gentoos in the background).

Egg!

A gentoo bringing a pebble to its nest.

I had never expected the problem I was suddenly facing when standing among the many penguins; my 200-500mm lens I was using for wildlife was turning into being too much. The penguins were very close so you didn’t need any kind of large zoom lens to have a chance of getting some good shots. They generally ignored us and otherwise just walked around us, some eyeing us suspiciously. The realization that they were not the least afraid of us was quite amazing and very unexpected.

We returned to the ship and around 1800 we had started relocating to the next place to be, further south to another island where they expect us to arrive around 0300. At around the same time we had our daily evening briefing where we had the official welcome by the ship’s captain, dinner at 1900 and afterwards the camping people were asked to show up for a presentation and talk on the hows and whats when going camping. The plan is, if the forecast holds, that we will be going camping already tomorrow evening.

It is to be said, though, that staff pointed out the weather we have had today is very non-Antarctic. It has only been slightly clouded and temps reaching close to 10°C before lunch (but with winds making it feel colder). We are crossing our fingers that it will stay like this, at least until after we have been camping. But Antarctica being Antarctica the weather can change violently with very or no notice.

Around 2200 we were notified that whales had been spotted. The spray had been seen but the whales did not make themselves particularly visible, despite being only a couple of hundred meters from the ship. The educated guess from staff and crew was that it had been fin whales. (later reports concluded that one of them might actually have been a blue whale).

(Potentially a) blue whale.