The Antarctic Blog

Now that we are at sea and there is not much to do, I thought I would write a bit about some of the general impressions of things.

Weather: We really experienced a wide range, but accouding to the naturalists and leaders on the ship, we have been very luckie. The temperature has never really gone below 32 (f). However, we have had some very fierce winds (35- 45 knots) on a few days and that has made that temperature bone chilling. We have had many sunny days and I did end up with a bit of a sunburn and I believe I will be coming back with a tanned face. Only one day did it snow a little bit, but other than that we have had no rain or snow and it has been cloudy to clear most days.

Smells: I had heard from some folks, my Mom included that the smell of penguin poop (guano) could be overpowering. What I actually noticed was that I smelled it when we first approached a landing on the zodiacs, but then the I would get used to it. Some landings I really didn't smell it at all and on the Kayaks, I don't recall any smells.

Death: I have not written about some of the more brutal things that I have seen, but there has been a lot. The skua is one of the prime offenders as it snatches the eggs and chicks of the penguins. The leapard seal also feeds on the penguins is savage in the way it eats the penguins. I can't even begin to count how many broken eggs, penguin skeltons and chick corpses I have seen. We have asked the naturalists that travel with us about this, and they have explained that the penguins life span is 15-20 years. With the exception of the first 2 years, each pair of penguins can produce up to 2 chicks per season. If there were no penguin preditors, Antarctica would most likely be wall-to-wall penguins.

-Colin

We are now underway and headed towards rough water in Drake passage again. Before we hit the open water though we got some incredible views in Neumayer Channel and the Gerlach Staight as we were saying goodbye to Antarctica. For our farwell celebration the ship brought out hot dogs and beer on the back deck so that everyone could enjoy the view and give a little toast to this beautiful continent!

As we hit the open water of the Drake later, I was completely out and needed to lay down with a sick bag handy. Thankfully, my seasickness patch has kicked in how!

-Colin

For our last stops in Antarctica we stopped at Jougla Point on Wienke Island and Port Lockroy on Goudier Island. At both islands we saw many of the Gentoo penguins. At this time of year there are two interesting things to watch. First there are the chicks that are getting fairly big and are running all around but are still in their young grayish feathers. The second thing that we saw a lot of is molting penguins. Adult penguins will stand completely still in a single spot and over the course of a week will loose their feathers and grow new ones. Because they are using all their energy for molting and are not even eating it is very important that they not be disturbed and use extra energy to walk away from us. We were always on the look-out for these molting birds and would keep well away.

Both of these spots were used extensively for whaling in the early 1900s and there are many bones scattered around randomly. Karen, one of the naturalists on the trip brought us to one very unusual site where their was a full and complete skeleton of a humpback whale. It was fascinating to see the size of the whale up close, but it was puzzling how the complete skeleton would have remained so perfect. Karen solved the mystery for us but explaining that in the mid 1900s explorers that were trapped on the island used the whale bones as a puzzle to keep themselves occupied and it remains there to this day.

The station at Port Lockroy is a now a british historical site that we visited, but was originally set up in 1944 to monitor for German submarines. They have restored the station to how it looked in the mid 40s and it is fascinating to see how they lived. There is also now a post office and a very small gift shop.

We left land in Antarctica for the last time and are starting the journey home!

-Colin