Sailing through Ice

After our morning excursion, we continued south towards Petermann Island. We encountered a lot of ice, and seals love floating ice. We saw two crabeater seals and a leopard seal in short order. (I learned that crabeater seals actually eat krill, but Norwegians called krill crab, hence the name.)



They’re easy to spot because they are light-skinned, and leopard seals are easy to spot because of their markings. Up until this point, all the seals I had seen were hanging out on land so they just look blubbery and lazy. Seeing them on floating ice was great because they moved, even slithering like a snake across the ice to the ocean, dipping in, and then popping out on another piece of ice. That was great to watch.



The ice grew thicker and thicker, and at one point I didn’t think we could go any further. (We have a captain and an ice master on board, but still….) The ice master took us further than I could have imagined as he cut through slabs of ice. Unfortunately, we got to the point where Petermann Island was directly in front of us but we couldn’t safely get there, even with Zodiacs. We did make it all the way down to 65 degrees 30 minutes before we had to turn around. This photo gives you an idea of how much ice is there – that dark spot is a large seal:


This video shows us moving through the ice:


We saw a chunk of blue ice floating, check out the interesting texture:


Since we couldn’t land on Petermann Island, we headed over to Port Lockroy. This is the busiest destination in Antarctica, because it is a sheltered bay. Bransfield House on Goudier Island has a small gift shop and post office inside the museum. Four people live there for the season, with no running water or electricity. They arrived a few weeks ago and have been digging 5-6’ of snow each day to allow visitors to a restored British scientific station.

Since there are nearly 120 passengers on board our ship, the crew had to split this afternoon excursion in two. Half the group headed to Goudier Island while the other half of us went over to an adjacent island that we’ve all come to call Siberia (actual name is Jougla Point). This afternoon, we experienced the type of weather that we feared in Antarctica – cold air, heavy winds, and gusts that pierced our skin. We stood on the side of a hill with our arms out, and leaned back (downhill) 30 or so degrees while the wind supported our bodies by pushing us back uphill. That was cool! This particular picture isn't on much of a hill, but you get the idea:


We also saw more penguins, and an additional seal. But it was so cold and windy that none of us stayed for long. We headed back down to the Zodiac to be transported elsewhere. When we finally made it to Bransfield House, we were grateful for the haven.




Evening aboard the ship was full of food, fun, and even karaoke in one of the bars. I started feeling queasy, which reminded me that my magic patch was indeed older than 72 hours. I took a seasickness pill and was knocked out for the night.

Tip of the Iceberg

(I can't recall if these pics are from this iceberg cruise or the next one...)

We woke up at 4am with howling wind. That’s actually one of the most dangerous things about Antarctica – you can get stranded somewhere because the Zodiacs can’t get you back to the ship. All of the girls were cold and tired, and we all had to pee (even though none of us had anything to drink since dinner the night before). We put our boots back on, hiked over to the little portable toilet, and froze our bums while we squatted in the open air over the toilet seat. Then, we took down our tent (much more difficult than pitching it, on account of the wind), packed up, and headed down to wait for the Zodiac. The wind made it colder than any cold we’d so far experienced in Antarctica.

We were thrilled when the two Zodiacs arrived to take us back to the ship.


I took a nap before breakfast, grabbed some quick food, and headed out on our morning excursion. I knew that the previous day would be hard to beat (setting foot on Antarctica for the first time, amazing weather, an outdoor BBQ and deck party, camping…), but the morning expedition competed quite nicely!

The area is called “Iceberg Alley” and it lies at the base of Anvers Island in Pléneau Bay. See how small our ship looks:


Scobie was our driver and Matt joined the 5 of us so it was a small group. Also, having both Scobie and Matt with us ensured that we learned a lot and had every one of our many questions answered.


Boating between the icebergs was incredible. They are massive, and the part that sticks above the water is likely only ~10% of total size. WOW! Scobie pointed out that the large icebergs go all the way to the bottom of the ocean and therefore don’t move. But smaller chunks of ice do float around in the ocean.






It was fun to look at the icebergs. It’s reminiscent of that game where you lie on your back, stare into the sky, and tell each other what animals the clouds look like. In this case, we were out in the sun on a zodiac, describing the icebergs (“Look, a crocodile!”).
The nice thing about this game with icebergs is that the icebergs aren’t constantly changing shapes, so people can actually see what you see.






The views were magnificent! The water here is the prettiest blue I’ve ever seen. Clearer than Lake Tahoe. Bluer than the Mediterranean Sea. A deep blue that I can’t very well describe (and it doesn’t show very well in pictures). The icebergs range from light blue to white, depending on how old the ice is and how much snow has collected. Just under the surface of the water, you can see the skirt of the iceberg, which is old solid ice and has a turquoise color.



All of this against a background of snow-covered mountains, which themselves have blue strips of varying degrees where there are cracks and crevasses. And a warm sun against a blue sky (a different blue than the icebergs and the ocean). Simply amazing, and certainly the most beautiful thing I’ve seen in my life.



At one point, we saw a mini avalanche on one of the islands. We didn’t see the start, but we did see the snow rolling and exploding in the air. It was such a reminder of God’s strength and power, and that it is truly by His grace that we live. We also saw penguins frolicking in the water, which makes it quite obvious that these birds live in the ocean – they are agile, fast, and fun in their element.



Our typical day looks like this: eat breakfast, go on a morning excursion, eat lunch, go on an afternoon excursion, sit together and recap the day, eat dinner, and then free time to watch a movie, sit at the bar, whatever. Though this ship isn’t as large as the cruise ships that are floating cities, we still have many options onboard. Although they have a defined schedule, you can participate in as much or as little as you desire. That fact came in quite handy for our afternoon excursion.

Camping in Antarctica

[Most of these pics are from my awesome roommate Jen, because she volunteered to be the official photographer for that outing. Thanks, Jen!]

When the expedition team told us that we were camping tonight, we were quite confused. Happy, because of the nice weather. But we looked in every direction from our ship and there was nowhere that we could camp. There were huge ice ledges and steep slopes: places we couldn’t land and places where we couldn’t sleep. John came back from scouting and told us it would be difficult but manageable, so we packed up and headed out on a Zodiac with Scobie.

He took us to a secluded place, and the entire time all of us (10 on-board) were looking for a place where camping would make sense. Finally, we saw it: a tiny place to land and a trek up to a relatively flat area. Turns out that it’s called Dorian Bay on Wiencke Island.

We landed, hiked up to a flat area, and started stamping the snow to a surface that wouldn’t sink as much when we pitched our tent.


Five of us girls were in the 6-person tent, while everyone else had double tents. We were the first ones to ever use the brand new tent, and we were quite pleased that we were able to do everything ourselves.


We enjoyed the view of Mt. Francais, the highest peak in the Antarctic Peninsular region, with stripes of sun rays across the top.


Some of our friends from the ship gave us a bottle of champagne for the evening, so we placed that in a snow bank right outside our tent. Given the 24-hour daylight here, camping is easy because you’re never working against a time constraint. We probably landed just before 10pm and it took us an hour to get settled (stamp the ground, pitch the tent, lay down mats and sleeping bags), but we weren’t in any rush because we knew we had light all night.




After camp was set up, we had two pieces of excitement: a naked man and a tour boat. Kate joked “Someone must have posted out location on Facebook because we have party crashers.” I thought she meant the penguins, but then I realized there was another tour boat putting down anchor in the bay. Here is that boat:


I imagine they were surprised to see tents dotted along the hill, because we were the first people to camp there. (And, frankly, not many people camp in Antarctica anyway!) Even more surprising, I am sure, was seeing Andy from our group (heretofore called Naked Man Andy) pop out of his tent completely nude – no boots, no hat, no clothes. He was neither drunk nor high, he just figured “Hey, it’s Antarctica.” His mates took some pictures, including a pose with a chunk of ice covering his private parts. It was quite funny, and we were all laughing.

Within a few hours of arrival, we were getting cold so we crawled into our sleeping bags to warm up. After singing (Ice Ice Baby) and chatting a bit, we tried to fall asleep. Over the next few hours, I probably got 30 minutes of sleep: my face was cold, it was light outside and inside our tent, and there were birds pecking at our tent with intrigue. Nonetheless, it was a great experience and I am glad I did it.

Once in a lifetime!

The phrase for today is BEAUTIFUL WEATHER!

We awoke at 4am (there is 24 hour daylight here right now). We're at the 64 degree point, nearly to the Antarctic Circle, and the views are simply breathtaking. Snow covered ice masses on both sides of the ship, with blue ice nearly everywhere you look. (I learned that ice is blue if it’s very old, where the compression squeezes out all the air and the think ice only reflect the blue spectrum. It’s amazing to see, and pictures don’t do it justice.)





Last night, the sun was shining brightly at 8pm for dinner. And today the sun was shining brightly again. Our morning landing was on Cuverville Island, and we hiked to the top. It was only 850 feet elevation change, but the snow was up to our knees in many places. After reaching the top, we took fun pictures – jumping in the air, cartwheels, headstands, and even a 6-woman pyramid. Then, we slid down on our butts in many places for fun. Most of the time, I was sans gloves, hat, and even jacket. It was warm, bright, and fantastic.









We also saw an emperor penguin, which means so far we’ve seen 4 of the 17 species of penguins. In the 30 years that one of our leaders has been coming on this route, he’s seen only two dozen emperor penguins on this route. This one was ~2 years old, so he didn’t yet have the mauve beak and orange ears. But he really stood out, because he’s much bigger than the gentoos, chinstraps, and adelies we’ve been seeing.


Here's Lauren's picture, which is much better than mine:


The weather is so beautiful that we had lunch outside today on the deck, complete with a BBQ and picnic tables. There wasn’t a trace of wind at that point. The music was blasting so we were dancing, singing, and doing a conga line. Even the leaders were commenting that the weather today was an 11 on a scale from 1 to 10. They told us that this is the type of weather they see less than once a year, so even THEY were excited about it. But the sun here is no joke. I had chemical and physical sunblock on, and I still ended up with hyperpigmentation :( It took me nearly a year to get it under control after I got home from Africa, and in a single day it’s back with a vengeance. My lips are also sunburned – a beautiful color but I wish they weren’t hurting so much. It was totally worth it, though, because the views were simply spectacular.

Here is a view of the deck after the BBQ:


While we were on the ship, a Minke whale starting swimming near us so we were able to watch it for a while. Later in the evening, we saw a family of orcas (killer whales) swimming around our ship and playing with one another. There were at least 8 of them (these are Frank Todd's photos because mine aren't near as nice).




Our afternoon landing was on the continent at Neko Harbor and climbed high so we could slide down – yippee! This slide was much steeper than the one earlier today, and even more fun. You can see how high we hiked in this first photo because the boat provides some perspective.





We could also see chunks of ice crack and fall into the ocean. It is loud, like thunder, and then sheets of ice and snow slide into the water. It’s beautiful to see, but you can imagine how dangerous it would be if our Zodiac was anywhere nearby.




We've seen a lot of gentoo penguins so far:




We saw another Widdell seal, and I even saw mating penguins. I wasn’t sure at first what they were doing, but then I figured it out and took some video:


After dinner, we headed out to our campsite, where we’d spend the evening.