Returning Home

We woke up this morning to the ship's engines running but no movement. We are nearly at the port in Ushuaia.

Yesterday was a relaxing day on board, our final day. The seas were rougher than the first day going through the Drake Passage, but still nothing very difficult. It remained less rough than the South Georgia to Antarctica crossing. Even though we didn't get the "Drake Shake" we were not unhappy.

Around lunchtime, we sailed around the tip of Cape Horn. This is the southernmost point of Chile, and we were contacted by Chile and told we could not approach closer than 3 miles (which we knew, but I guess they wanted to make sure). There wasn't much wildlife, just a few birds flying around, but what was more fun was watching the waves coming up against the ship. At a couple of points, Greg went outside with the GoPro video recorder to record the movement of the ship against the waves. It kept us entertained for a couple of hours.

We've gone a total of 3,525 nautical miles of navigation on this journey – a long way!

Last night we did a group photo at 6pm, followed by a happy hour in the bar, and a very nice dinner – filet mignon, potatoes and tiramisu for dessert. Following dinner, we headed back to the bar / lecture room for the auction to raise money for the South Georgia Heritage Trust rat eradication program. Although we're not sure how much was raised, it was probably a couple thousand dollars, and one passenger offered up to $5,000 in matching funds. So we feel good about that. I bought a signed original heavy postcard of a bottlenose dolphin drawn by Kate Spencer, a naturalist on board. The auction was hilarious – it was supposedly run by Nick, a staff member from Tasmania who leads other Cheeseman's tours as well. But he's a terrible auctioneer, kept missing bids and lowering the auction amount. So a couple of passengers – Mandeep and Lisa particularly – stepped in to keep things moving.

Then we had the final photographic retrospective of our time in Antarctica. It is spectacularly gorgeous and it was a great reminder of where we've been and what we've seen. The final images were of the people on the trip, which was also a great way to end the evening.

We finally retired around midnight, having packed our bags in the afternoon and evening. As of this morning, we are heading home!

Pictures - Jan. 23

Attached are some additional photos from the last few days. Enjoy!

1 - This first image shows an orca whale surfacing, along with a second orca in the background. We experienced these whales right next to the ship and the staff estimated there were 75-100 whales congregating there, feeding and socializing. It was fantastic!!

Drake: Stirred, Not Shaken

We pulled anchor and departed from Livingston Island and Hannah Point last night, and began heading north across the Drake Passage. The Drake Passage, and the Southern Ocean in general, have the reputation as some of the roughest waters in the world. It's not that the seas are always rough, but that they can be pretty variable. So sometimes the seas are relatively calm, hence the name "Drake Lake," and sometimes it's pretty rough – the "Drake Shake." Some people actually hope for rough seas just for the experience of it, but not us. Though the seas today may not technically be considered Drake Lake, we think it's pretty close. In fact, we think the seas were a bit rougher on the transit from South Georgia to Antarctica. So we're still feeling good.

We attended a couple of lectures today. The first was by Doug Cheeseman with some photography and perspective on the trips the Cheeseman's lead in East Africa. Doug and Gail have been there over 60 times in 30 years, so have accumulated quite a lot of great photographs, especially of birds. We'd consider going an Africa trip with them – they say they'll continue to lead trips to Africa until they are no longer physically able to do so – but would want to be sure we'd have some focus on the large animals and not just the birds, as we are not birders.

After lunch, we attended a lecture by Rod Planck. We've really come to appreciate Rod during this expedition – he's a great photographer and seems to be quite a good teacher as well. He lives in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan and does photography seminars and workshops there and around the world. We may be checking out some of the options to travel with Rod and Marlene in the future as well.

Then it was time to select photos to submit for the Antarctica slideshow, plus one for the "people" slideshow. For that, we submitted a photo from yesterday where a penguin had approached a fellow passenger and actually started pecking or "beaking" his pants leg. There is a nice shot of the bird looking up at this person (Doug) while Doug looked right back down at him. Greg and I had some close encounters with the penguins as well, certainly where they were close enough to touch, though we restrained ourselves. I don't think they would like that very much...

Tonight we may watch "Christmas in Yellowstone" which is about what is sounds, but also features Tom Murphy, one of the professional photographers on board. We first saw this show just by pure chance in December 2010, after we had booked this trip. The name Tom Murphy seemed familiar so I checked the Cheeseman's itinerary and we realized Tom was going to be on this expedition with us. We were quite excited then and we've learned so much from Tom during the past month, so that's been fantastic. Of course, after watching the program we also thought he was crazy – I mean, he goes into Yellowstone in the middle of winter with a 60 pound pack, skies through the park, and then camps in a lean-to (not even a tent). I believe there is a shot of him waking up one morning by shaking the snow off of his heavy sleeping bag as it had snowed overnight. But the crazy and patient photographers are typically the ones who get the best shots. We would definitely consider booking a trip with Tom in Yellowstone, particularly in the winter as that is his specialty and a place we'd like to revisit.

Up To Our Chins in Chinstraps

Today is our last day of the expedition before we head north into the Drake Passage for the first part of our return home. It is bittersweet to be sure.

We started by landing at Bailey Head. This is a fantastic spot, one of our favorites (among several favorites). This is a beautiful black sand beach and there are estimated to be at least 100,000 nesting pairs of chinstrap penguins here. It's reputed to be a difficult landing, and one that we skipped earlier on in the trip due to bad weather. But today was pretty good. The landing is a bit rough because you have to gauge the timing of the waves, and it takes up to 8 staff to hold a zodiac in the waves so passengers can unload onto the beach and then load back in to return to the ship. They are very careful, and willing to get pretty much drenched in the process. The beach has a steep rise so the waves break right at the edge of the water, which is what makes this a tough landing. They cautioned us to lighten our packs which some people completely ignored (but not us). The staff has been so great in getting us access to some amazing places; it's just right to put them in danger by ignoring their advice.

Once we landed, we understood why everyone has been raving about this place and working so hard to make our landing here. At most sites, we are instructed not to cross the "penguin highway" and we were here as well. Only here, it's really a penguin "superhighway." The penguin traffic literally never stops. They are constantly streaming into the ocean to feed and clean themselves, as others porpose out of the ocean and onto the black sand beach to return to their colony and chicks.

There are several colonies stretching up a hundred feet or more onto the cliffs of Deception Island. The landing site is on the outside of the island, which is really the caldera of a still active volcano. Though it hasn't erupted recently, there were significant volcanic events in 1967 and 1969 which wiped out the British station on the edge of the (inside of the) caldera. This first landing wa on the outside of the caldera, so no volcanic risk anyway! It was by far the largest site with chinstrap penguins, with lots of chicks which are always cute.

After spending some time photographing the penguins on the beach, and their activity heading into and out of the water, we walked up a bit to where the colonies are. We still have no idea why the penguins persist in climbing so high to make their nests – one theory is that the higher spots are where the snow and ice melt first, or get cleared by the wind, so that's where they nest. The farthest reaches are a heck of a commute to the ocean – we didn't even get up there ourselves! But they say that penguins are the second most efficient walkers (after humans) so I guess it doesn't bother them too much.

Anyway, we spent some time up in the hills a bit, and here again, there are multiple clusters within the colony, and penguins as far as the eye can see. Most of the sites are pretty red from the guano, and none are situated on snow or ice. In fact, we commented again today that there have been surprisingly few landings with snow or ice or penguins on snow or ice this entire trip. We spent some time at the colony, and then headed back to the landing to return to the ship. This was the most organized entry into a zodiac yet. We lined up into two lines of four people to race into the zodiac once it was ready to be boarded. The waves came in a couple of times and got the bow of the zodiac a bit wet. The goal was to get everyone (plus their gear) loaded in about 7-10 seconds, which I think we pretty much accomplished.

The real excitement for our zodiac though, was when the motor died. When it was coming into the landing site, it was swamped in the waves, and they think sand was pushed into the motor. So we changed zodiacs in the middle of the bay by climbing from one to the other, and gear bags were passed over as well. Off we went to the ship for lunch.

Prior to lunch, the ship passed through Neptune's Bellows, which is a narrow "hole" in the donut which makes up Deception Island. The next item on the agenda was one that we decided not to partake of – this was the opportunity to go "swimming." What this meant was, for those "daft" enough to do it, you could put on a bathing suit, plus your various outer layers, and then head to the shore at Whaler's Cove. Then you could strip off your outer layers, plunge into the ocean, and then try to find a "hot spot" where the ocean meets the beach. The sand was indeed hot enough to see steam rising off of it, even from the ship, but whereas we initially thought that this activity entailed heading into a "hot spring" it was a far cry from that. So we didn't even get off the ship – we just watched about 25 people doing it through binoculars. It was cold enough standing out on the deck photographing them; we didn't need to be there jumping into the ocean ourselves!

Once the "swimming" was over, we left the inside of Deception Island and cruised to Livingston Island to make our final landing at Hannah Point. This final stop had all of the flowering flora of Antarctica – which consists of two grasses. It also has chinstraps and gentoos, and the chicks are older here because we are further north so they are farther along in their breeding cycle than other penguins we've seen in Antarctica. At this stage of their development, the chicks are starting to be weaned by their parents, so sometimes the only way the chicks will get fed is if they chase their parent until the parent finally relents and gives them some food. It's pretty hilarious to watch as the penguins chase each other around. They are sometimes pretty clumsy, so typically at least one of the penguins in the race falls which ends it. We did see one penguin repeatedly tapping its parent's beak to get food, and the parent obliged at least half a dozen times (we could see the krill in transit, which is kind of gross actually). Then the parent got tired of the chick and started sort of pecking it or trying to get it to stop asking for food. Suddenly, the parent started running up the hill with the chick in hot pursuit – only the chick seemed to be even fatter than the parent, so it couldn't really keep up.

The other attraction at Hannah Point is the concentration of elephant seals. They are big and very stinky! They lay in a big pile – I counted over 60 in one place – and they are molting, so they haven't moved in a while. Thus, they are in a "wallow" which is where they've been living full time, so it's where their waste collects as well, in addition to the dead skin which is being molted off. It's very pungent, and they have mucus coming out of their noses (and no way to blow their noses), which they snort out occasionally. It's so odiferous that we had to move after a bit to get away from the smell!

We walked back through the penguins, occasionally stopping by one. They are sometimes curious, and Greg had one that came pretty close to him and was looking at him seeming sort of puzzled. Then he'd look up at Greg's face while Greg was looking down of course...it's all very cute.

Finally, it was back to the ship on our final zodiac cruise ride of this trip. This was followed by dinner and then we saw a movie about rounding Cape Horn. The footage was shot in 1929 and narrated by the photographer in 1980 or so. It was kind of interesting – but we are hoping that our seas are not quite so big.

The forecast for the Drake is some rough seas, but about the magnitude which we felt when crossing from South Georgia and the South Orkeys to Antarctica. We didn't feel bad during that crossing and are hoping that's as bad as it gets.

We've heard that tomorrow (Monday) is the last day for internet access, so this post, but hopefully tomorrow's, will be our last until we get home. We will try to post more pictures tomorrow. It's been a fantastic adventure, but we are looking forward to sleeping in our own bed, getting a clean (no penguin smell) set of clothes, and taking a really long hot shower!

Zodiac Surfing in Cierva Cove

Today we had a wake-up call at 7am, and after breakfast, headed straight to the zodiacs to cruise Cierva Cove. We had attempted to do zodiac cruising here a few days ago (I've lost track of when), but the seas were too rough. That was not the case this morning – it was glassy out there this morning! We were so excited, because we've been hearing so much about this place since we have been approaching Antarctica.

There are two keys to a good zodiac experience – having a good driver, and having good passengers. Luckily, we had both. Our driver was Hugh Rose, who is so knowledgeable and also a professional photographer, so he can help with photography questions along the way. The other participants this morning were some people we know (like Skip & Gail and James) and others we don't know, but all displayed proper zodiac etiquette. This includes kneeling quickly when there is something to see on your side of the zodiac (the people on the other side then stand up), or kneeling down if you're in the front and the animal or scenery you're looking at is in front of you. It was a cohesive group. We've had other zodiac experiences where some of the participants were unwilling or unable to get down in front. This makes for a far less enjoyable experience.

On the cruising this morning, we saw lots of fantastic ice, plus a couple of leopard seals and some porpoising penguins and a couple of cormorants at the end. But the highlight was the ice – lots of brash ice that we had to sort of power our way through, plus big and small icebergs. We found one that was very old and very, very clear. You could see individual ice crystals it was so clear. It was dimpled kind of like a golf ball but with bigger dimples. It's also interesting to see the submerged portion of the icebergs (or at least part of the submerged parts). The water above the submerged portion is usually a lighter blue – almost aqua in color – that is so pretty.

The weather was perfect for cruising this morning – very calm, so that we also saw reflections of some of the icebergs, and it was pretty warm as well, probably 36 degrees or more. That also makes for a more enjoyable experience. As we were heading into the ship around noon, for lunch at 12:30, we were talking to Hugh about what the plan was for the afternoon. Several of us thought the morning had been so great that we should just stay and go out again that afternoon – and that's exactly what we wound up doing.

We had a quick lunch or delicious lasagna bolognese, and then geared up for the afternoon. Zodiacs launched around 2, if not before, and we had the option to be out as late as 7pm as dinner was at 7:30. We tried to hook up with a group of other people, all of whom wanted to see the chinstrap penguins in the water near the colony on a nearby island. But things got a bit messed up in the line waiting for the zodiacs, bud that was okay. We ended up in a boat with Hugh again (yay!) and a group of 7 other people initially. It was another good group, although I had a hard time seeing over some of them initially.

We started the cruising with some whale sightings – there are usually a number of whales in Cierva Cove, including minkes and humpbacks, and we hadn't seen any in the morning. But the afternoon started off with a bang. The humpbacks were playing with us, and very nearby the zodiacs. For perspective, the zodiacs are probably 15 feet long, 6 feet wide, and ride less than 3 feet above the ocean surface. A humpback whale is much, much bigger! But they were swimming nearby, and at various times came up to all of the 8 zodiacs in the area. One of them would surface several times near our zodiac or another one nearby, and at one point it even swam under our zodiac! They are so close, it's hard to get a good photo of them (since our lenses are set up to be taking pictures of smaller things farther away). But it was a fantastic experience, and quite a way to start the afternoon.

After hanging out with the whales for probably an hour or so, we left in search of other animals. We visited the island where the chinstrap colony is, and saw some jumping into and out of the water. Here again, the penguins are nesting on pretty rocky ground, and the waves sometime wash them in or out of the water – they don't necessarily choose their fate! But I'm sure they're all fine, and it sure is funny to watch.

After the penguins, we headed back into the ice in search of seals. Two of the Australians on board, Matt and Laura, hadn't seen any crabeater seals (a misnomer for sure – they only eat krill), and neither had we, so we went off in search of one we had heard was a ways away. Along the way, we hooked up with a couple of other zodiacs, including one driven by Rod. It turned out that Brigitte (of Nico and Brigitte of Switzerland) wanted to return to the ship to use the restroom. But after some discussion, we determined that Rod would leave his zodiac to Nico's control, and everyone but Nico and Brigitte would get onto our zodiac to give them some privacy. So the rest of the zodiacs (by then there were three) motored to the opposite side of the iceberg we were at for a few minutes. We finally returned after the "restroom break." We were careful to be on the side of the iceberg opposite the Argentine station called Primavera, because we knew people were there. It was really pretty hilarious.

By then, it was nearing 4pm, which is typically time for cookies on board the ship. We heard that Ted Cheeseman was out in a zodiac picking up people who wanted to return to the ship, and delivering cookies and hot chocolate (spiked with Tia Maria or virgin). This is a level of customer service which is hard to imagine, let alone duplicate! We waited for Ted so that we could enjoy some cookies, and two of our passengers got into his zodiac to return to the ship. Then we picked up two more from another zodiac where people wanted to return to the ship and went off in search of the seals.

We found two – first, a crabeater seal who was very active. She was moving around quite a lot in an attempt to scratch herself we believe. She also opened her mouth for us, so we got some good footage of that. That we visited another iceberg with a leopard seal, who also obliged us with a few great yawns. Soon enough, it was time to return to the ship for dinner and the conclusion of our zodiac cruising. We headed back along with two other zodiacs driven by Rod and Marlene Planck through waters that had gotten a bit rougher in the afternoon winds. It became our zodiac surfing adventure. Greg got some good footage with the GoPro video camera that we'll definitely post once we get home. It's hard to appreciate even in the video, if not for our repeated screams and laughter as we negotiated the bigger waves. Greg and I were in the front, and by now it had started snowing as well. So we had to kind of shield our faces with our hands as we watched the zodiac rise and fall over the waves on our return to the ship. It was a great ride – kind of like a roller coaster in the ocean.

Dinner was at 7:30 followd by a talk by Joan Booth on Deception Island, our scheduled landing for tomorrow, the last day here in Antarctica before our return across the Drake Passage. Each day seems more incredible than the last so we're hoping for one last day of good weather karma to see us through.

Look! Killer Whales!!

Today began with a wake-up call at 7:00, with breakfast at 7:30. After breakfast, two staff from Port Lockroy visited the ship to give us some history of the site. It was established in 1944 during WWII when the British sent a group of men here to monitor any German activity (there was none) and to conduct various scientific experiments, primarily weather-related data gathering. The station was turned over to scientists exclusively in 1946 after the war, and remained active until 1962. After that, it was abandoned and fell into disrepair until the early 1990s I believe, when Britain surveyed all its Antarctica sites to determine what to do with them. By then, the Antartic Treaty was in effect and each nation was responsbile for cleaning up the sites they had established previously. For Britain, that meant closing some stations, removing everything completely and rendering the sites totally pristine again, but for others, including Port Lockroy, it meant refurbishing the station and turning it into a museum and gift shop. In addition, there has been a post office here since the station was established (I'm not sure about the years during which it was not in use), which gave us an opportunity to mail some more post cards. Here again, stamps were just $1 each to send a postcard anywhere in the world!

The "island" where Port Lockroy museum sits is named Goudier Island and it is incredibly small – essentially just the size of the small building and adjacent living quarters, plus two gentoo penguin colonies. In one of the colonies, the penguins live right next to the structures, so they are very used to having human activity nearby (though the typical rules about remaining 15 feet away apply at least theoretically). There is a second colony which is left undisturbed. Three times per year, the staff counts the penguins and notes the breeding success to determine if there are significant differences in the success of chicks in the two colonies; so far there's not much difference. If there were, they might have to rethink the access of people to the penguins.

The second landing site here was Jougla Point, on adjacent Wiencke Island. This is the place where Jacques Cousteau found a variety of whale bones and essentially reconstructed a whale skeleton. They say it's probably a blue whale, and Kate, one of our naturalists on board, thinks it's either a blue or a fin whale – in either case, it's one of the largest whales from here. She gave us some great information on the structure of the whale's jaw and baleen and how that all works.   

There were also nesting gentoo penguins and Antarctic shags (Cormorants) there as well. Some of the chicks are pretty large, so we are hoping that they all survive this first harsh winter. But Jougla Point, where we landed first, was probably the dirtiest, "muddiest" place we've been so far. In fact, it's amazing how little walking we've done on snow or ice on this trip – last night was one of the few times, but mostly we are walking on rocks and guano. Greg said it lent a whole new meaning to the phrase "Up Shit Creek without a paddle." Boot washes (at Jougla Point, the boot wash was the ocean!) have become very important, especially since you keep your boots in your room!

We returned to the ship for lunch and an expedition afternoon – meaning we had no idea what was planned next. We headed back north through the Peltier Channel and the Neumeyer Channel, which are two more beautiful channels with the snow and glacier covered mountains lining both sides. It's beautiful again today, but the skies are cloudier, lending more of a mysterious air to the landscape versus yesterday's mostly clear skies. It just goes to show that you can be in the same or very similar place repeatedly and keep seeing different things.

After a while, we went to the room to relax a bit, and then heard that there was a pod of orcas off the ship. We raced to the 6^th deck and saw tons of them – we heard estimates of 45-50 whales nearby. They were just a few hundred yards off the ship at first, but then several were literally right next to it – at one point we saw two adults and one calf literally right next to the ship. We could see them underwater which made it easy to see when they were coming up to breathe. It was simply fantastic!!

We then anchored off of Useful Island – but we really have no idea where we are at right now, not that it matters. They started landing groups of 10 around 5:25pm, and the last zodiac was going to be at 7pm for dinner at 7:30. But then we learned that the chinstrap colony was on the top of the hill and we wouldn't have time to go up there, so we'd only be seeing the gentoos, and we've already seen several gentoo colonies, including those at Port Lockroy today. So we considered not going, and some people bailed then. We waited in line another 15 minutes or so, and then Gail Cheeseman said they had decided to scrap the landing. The wind on the landing side of the island had really picked up, and it was windier on the gangway. We hung around for a few minutes but then concluded that with the bad weather, we didn't want to zodiac cruise, even if it was available. We saw a zodiac loaded with people coming back and zipping around between the icebergs off the ship, but it didn't look that interesting, and zodiac cruising can be cold if it's windy. So in the end, we decided to scratch the landing and we returned to our room and changed into jeans for the rest of the evening.

We don't really know what the plan is for tomorrow, but likely we will make a second attempt at zodiac cruising in Cierva Cove, where the whales and seals are often quite abundant. But who knows? And as evidenced by the giant pod of orca whales today, sometimes the best days are the ones not planned at all.

Photos - Thursday, Jan 19

Attached are a few of our favorite photos from the last few days:

1 - A photo of the two of us all "geared up" as we made landing on the Continent!
2 - A leopard seal yawning. This was taken during a zodiac ride so we were about 6 feet away from him. They say they don't ever leap off the iceberg and into the zodiacs to attack the humans...
3 - A gentoo penguin on Cuverville Island trying to eat an old whale bone?
4 - Most of the cathedral of ice we've been raving about - this doesn't even capture the entire iceberg!
5 - A photo of the pack ice we were steering through this afternoon with mountains on either side of the channel we were navigating. Taken with a fish-eye lens which curves the scene versus a "regular" photo.