Sunrise 8:41. Sunset 00:16. Morning -1°\30.2F. Afternoon 1°\33.8F Clear
Clay's Photos
Debbie's Photos
Avalanche Photos
Clay's Photos
Debbie's Photos
Avalanche Photos
We are in Antarctica!!! It is amazing... It is freezing... You would think that wouldn't be a surprise, but it is. The sun is hot and dazzling. We have seen whales, seals, penguins, birds and crazy ice! It is incredible beyond words and I am sure there is no way that our photos can actually capture the vast expanse of it. It is a world of black and white and all the blues that you can imagine! Prepare yourself for an avalanche of photos! Clay and I both took a whole bunch!
In the bad news category, I caught a cold or flu last Tuesday night. We went to a free preview screening and it was a full house. A sick, feverish, coughing Asian woman sat next to me and there were no other empty seats by that time, so we stayed. I mean that she and her husband were from Asia. They were reading newspapers written in strange characters! He spoke English to us, but I don’t think she spoke English at all. I have no idea why since she spoke no English and she was clearly ill and it was a free screening that she did not just stay home! And you guessed it by now, I have a fever and congestion and a cough and sore throat. I am trying to stay away from others, but it is small ship!
In the good news category, our first view of Antarctica was Smith Island of the South Shetland Islands with a huge and unusual iceberg in front of it. We headed straight past it for the Gerlache Strait and sailed through it overnight. We arrived at the entrance to the Lemaire Channel at sunrise this morning. It was so scenic sailing last night that I hardly got any sleep for looking out the window repeatedly all night before our sunrise wakeup. I find it hard to believe it can get better! But, it does!
This was a beautiful spot and we saw Gentoo penguins mostly. There was a random Adelie, a random crabeater seal, and a skua or 2. Port Charcot is the spot where a Frenchman overwintered in Antarctica.
The 2nd group is ashore now. Lunch should be soon and we are famished after missing breakfast to watch the sunrise entry to the Lemaire Channel and our time outdoors and ashore. Walking on the rough ice is strenuous and tricky. I slipped in guano and landed on my left knee on smooth rock. That is going to leave a mark. This afternoon, the plan is to sail south to Yalour Island and walk ashore to an Adelie penguin rookery as conditions allow.
We sailed south along the Antarctic Peninsula for a few hours. We sailed through eerie ice fields. It made a weird Rice Krispies sound as we sailed through it. The Captain told us that we had gotten south of Petermann Island and it was time to turn around and head back north. We got to 65°17.8' at the southernmost point and then turned around and sailed back. Several people really wanted to get as far as the Antarctic Circle and were disappointed, but looking at the sea ice, there was no way we could have gone much further south.
We did stop at Yalour Island briefly to give everyone an opportunity to go ashore. It was a very small island with only maybe a few hundred Adelies. The landing was extremely precarious and footing was tricky. The rocks were all fragmented and uneven. I got vertigo looking down to find footing on those cracked rocks and asked if I could step aside and let the others pass and then go back. But 2 of Expedition staff grabbed me under the elbows and moved me on forward. I had to go almost halfway to the top of the slope in slippery ice before I could find a place to stand out of the way. I pretty much did it with my hands on the ground. (This and slipping in guano, is when you are happy for waterproof mittens!) Once there was a break in arrivals, I made my way back to the rocks and told the guy I had vertigo and I needed to go off that island. I think he felt bad then about forcing me on before, and he and others were very nice about taking care of me. He parked me sitting with my feet in the water at the zodiac landing point and took my camera off me and made me take off my sunglasses so he could document my presence on Yalour Island for me. That was nice and I hope he didn't feel too bad about it. I understand that the expedition team doesn't want anyone to miss anything, just because they are having some difficulties and they will all do whatever they can to help every person safely do all that they can do. I appreciate that. Meanwhile, the surf kept lapping higher and higher and all I could think about was: The dangeur comes from the sea. I was about to give myself a heart attack. Then a lone Adelie penguin put on a show for me and I filmed him jumping in the water, but then didn't watch him swim over to my rock and when he jumped out next to me I was really surprised. Everyone got a good laugh that I was sitting there so sad that the penguin put on a show for me and I missed half of it.
On the zodiac ride back, Clay & I rode with the 2 Duke Marine biologists and they asked the zodiac driver to take us to photograph the leopard seals that were between Yalour Island and the ship. He did and we all got some good photos, I think. Later in our trip, Nico and some of the other expedition team got underwater photos of a Leopard seal catching and eating a penguin. Actually he has the first of that series of photos posted here, on page 8. According to the biologists we were riding with, Leopard seals are the top of the food chain here. They look it! It looks like their head is hinged like a crocodiles and that they could bite off your torso from the top of your head! Yikes! They were scary to me.
We have dinner at 7:30pm tonight and the briefing for tomorrow at 9:15pm, so right now we have no idea what tomorrow holds. Today was just glorious weather, blue skies, no breeze, calm seas and cold crystalline air. It would be nice if that lasts. They asked in a newsletter to drop any postcards we want posted from Port Lockroy, Antarctica at the reception desk. We did and they told us it costs 2€ each to mail them. Yikes! We hope everyone gets their cards. (As I edit and post this from home over a week later, we have not received the card we mailed to ourselves! I know it is Antarctica, but 2€? I guess I was expecting extreme air mail!)
They had a signup sheet for stargazing. They would have your cabin number and permission to wake you when it was good opportunity. I signed us up, of course! When the phone rang at 1:30 this morning with news it was clear and get on a parka and come on up, I did answer the phone, but then we just went back to sleep. Again, glad we have done Southern hemisphere shipboard stargazing before.
Shipboard comments. Our cabin, 327, stinks! I mean stinks like a penguin rookery! Stinks like it was wet and mildewed and then someone sprayed Pine-Sol over it. We complained and we got more stinking spray and our balcony door left standing open, all to no avail. It still reeks in here.
The food has been disappointing, though I am happy for the so far daily chocolate croissants. The selection is very limited, the food is just not very appealing or tasty somehow and service is perfunctory. We have not eaten in the upstairs buffet restaurant yet because it has been closed off nightly for various alumni groups’ private functions. Oh well, it is disappointing that a French ship can't knock our culinary socks off, but then we didn't come for the food.
In our cruising past, ships have been quick to hand out sea sick remedies and leave barf bags out when the outer decks are closed due to high seas. We haven’t noticed anything like that on Le Boreal. The reception desk always has a bowl of apples out, but that is all we’ve seen. Clay did ask for crackers and a green apple for me when I was in bed the first day. He got some kind of inedible Styrofoam slabs and an apple, not green. Perhaps if you called room service for food suitable for a sea sick person to nibble on, or asked at the front desk for meclizine, you might have gotten what you needed, but since we had everything with us that we actually needed for sea sickness, we didn’t pursue it.
Today is Mardi Gas, but you'd never know it by us. I am still running a fever and feel just generally awful. Clay says he is not sick but he is coughing a lot with a raspy voice. We were wondering if we'd be able to stay up for the 9:15pm briefing when the Captain announced that Nico had canceled it. Then he got on the intercom about 6 more times over the next half hour raving about the beauty of the sunset as we reentered the Lemaire Channel heading back north.
It was beautiful and we were taking pictures from the balcony. The he started going on about a cloud of snow drifting down on the port side. We had heard the booms of glacier calving all morning but never saw one. Clay really wanted to see one and when the Captain announced that everyone should get to an outside deck to witness this, Clay got his parka, hat, and camera and went. I was undressing for bed and stayed in the cabin. Clay had not been gone long when the ship sharply tipped to the starboard and we moved very close to the cliff face. I could hear people screaming and then the ship listed back sharply to port and then back to starboard. I was being propelled back and forth across the cabin when I grabbed the balcony door handle and held on.
That was when the snow cloud descended from above in a vortex onto our balcony and it was all I could do to hold the door closed. Visibility went down to nothing! When the cloud cleared there was about an inch of snow on our balcony. Clay came back in shortly after covered in snow.
There had been about 30 people on the outside deck of 3 just off the lobby taking pictures when the avalanche happened. Clay said they stampeded the door and 2 got left behind. He said he was not at the rail, but tucked up against the bulkhead, so he just stayed put. The lobby got pretty well trashed and their crystal sculpture has some broken bits. It was some real excitement, but it seemed like maybe there were injuries. I was still going to bed. In fact, I was sound asleep when the Captain came on the intercom and ordered everyone to present themselves to the Main Lounge with key card to take roll. I was not the only one there in the cabin's bathrobe and slippers! We haven't heard what exactly the toll was of the Lemaire avalanche but we went straight back to bed. We are in the 2nd landing tomorrow morning. So we're looking forward to a good long sleep that is much needed.
Clay's Photos
Debbie's Photos
Avalanche Photos
Clay's Photos
Debbie's Photos
Avalanche Photos
