Antarctica 2023

ANTARCTICA

Feb 5

GPS Position: 64°30.1’S / 061°44.3’W
Wind: N-2 • Sea State: Calm • Weather: Partly Cloudy
Air temp: 0° C • Sea temp: 2°C

We woke up to Icebergs outside our windows!

John guessed the closest to the actual time and location, and gets a free drink from Saskia.

We have come down the Gerlache Strait into Neko Harbour, and the landscape is what we always envisioned of Antarctica but it wasn't snowing. Antarctica is the highest, driest, coldest and windiest continent on Earth, except today it was 0°, way warmer than expected. We brought clothing rated for -30°, including a heated vest we wouldn't be using.

Portal Point

Our first excursion is to Portal Point in Charlotte Bay. First a zodiac tour, then a wet landing. IAATO regulations limit the maximum number of passengers allowed on shore at any time and location to less than 100. Since we had almost 160 passengers, we were divided into 2 groups, the King Penguins and the Fur Seals... The Fur Seals were way cooler!

This morning the King Penguins got first landing, and the Fur Seals got the Zodiac Cruise around Charlotte Bay.

After cruising around the bay, we are finally doing our landing at Portal Point. We do a swap on the landing site, which means the King Penguin group that was on shore is now going on the zodiac cruise and the Fur Seals get the land excursion. In this way everybody sees and experiences everything. Portal point is a continental landing, which means for some of us, we have officially reached our 7th continent. As we arrive at the rocky landing site, we are welcomed by our Expedition Leader Pippa who gives us a short briefing about the landing site at Portal Point, the wildlife we will find, and the route we can follow.

Immediately we are seeing a Weddell seal, and a group of Crabeater Seals.

Weddell Seal

This Crabeater Seal had a ton of personality... literally.

From the beach area, the expedition crew has set up a series of red poles to mark a trail that leads up to a rise overlooking the bay.

We've truly arrived on Antarctica, and we have the photo to prove it.

The first of our true penguin encounters, this little guy is a Gentoo penguin.

Pretty sure that's some old superheroes frozen jet in the background

In what seems like no time at all, we are back on the beach waiting for our zodiac to arrive. We need to take every precaution that we don't introduce anything bad to the ecology, and the curious little penguins may come right over to someone on the ground. The risk that a human introduced Avian flu could wipe out a penguin colony is absolutely unacceptable. But there's Drunky, sitting on a rock, and when Pippa tells him he can't sit, he's all up in arms... "What if I'm going to %#$ pass out?". This guy's all class.

We returned to the boat and watching from the back of ship, so many whales are surfacing. First we are seeing them at a distance, and then they are getting much closer, a couple coming out of the water and splashing.

Penguins are swimming past the boat, and even more are sitting on small icebergs floating by.

During our short lunch break we are heading up Errera channel towards our second stop of the day. The scenery as we sail is equally as spectacular and the grey clouds are lifting away.

Danco Island

It's early afternoon when we pull up to Danco Island in the Errera Channel, there is a faint scent of penguin poo in the air, even at this distance. I have a feeling our muck boots will be put to the test here.

From the boat we can see the large number of penguins along the shoreline.

Since we got the zodiac tour first in the morning, this afternoon we get the first landing at Danco Island, home of a Gentoo rookery.

We arrive on the pebbly shore and are immediately greeted by a whole bunch of Gentoo penguins (A group of penguins in the water is called a raft, but on land they're called a waddle!) .

After a brief time to see the beach waddle, we are tossed to the wolves and told to put on snowshoes for a hike past the rookery up the hill. These snowshoes are nothing like the ones we wore the last time... in the early 80's.

Most of us are standing around, tripping over each other trying to figure out how to put them on. Eventually we got some assistance and were ready for our monumental hike up a steep snowy hill. We are watching the little penguins wander up their steep penguin highways no problem at all, it can't be that hard, right?

Drunky is up to his usual charming self, "I'm not walking all the #$%@ way up there!"...OK, don't?

Both of us weren't sure we would make it, but we just put one snowshoe in front of the other and soon enough we were standing right beside the penguin rookery and looking out over the Antarctic Peninsula and Ronge Island. Some of the passengers didn't have it quite so easy, Colonel Sanders must have tripped over his own snowshoes 3 or 4 times, each time we were all treated with an increasing view of his butt cheeks. Norine stopped calling him Colonel Sanders and started calling him Bare-Ass.

We were told about the penguin highways, and that not only do we need to keep 5 meters from the penguins, but when they are traveling in their highways, they have the right of way. So on the way back down, not only do you need to worry about falling over, but making numerous delays as you wait for the little tuxedoed fellas to make their way past.

We all made it back down to the beach after our treacherous snowshoe adventure, and we are reminded that we can't kneel or sit down when we are on the land.

And just like that, it's time to leave Danco Island. It's our turn for the Zodiac tour past swimming penguins.

The hill area we just snowshoed up... can you see the penguin highways?

As we are touring around the channel, we spot a leopard seal resting on an ice flow. Along with the Orca, this is the Apex predator of the region. He's pretty darn cute... until he opens his mouth.

Thanks for the open mouth photo Sasha, I'll have nightmares now

As we are cruising, our boat comes to a sudden stop. Hidden amongst the floating ice was a rock, and we got stuck on it. I had to grab an oar and push the boat off... to a big round of applause.

We had a nice surprise when one of the other zodiacs pulls up along side, they have brought us Hot Cocoa and Rum.

Now that we are warmed up, it's back to Danco island for a polar plunge, technically it's a penguin plunge because there are penguins swimming around us.

You just drop trou right on the beach and walk in, within seconds I couldn't feel my legs anymore. Some people went in much more exuberantly, they didn't come out with quite the same enthusiasm. There is nothing quite like trying to put your clothes on while standing on a rocky beach and you can't feel your limbs.

Finally dressed and our life jackets back on, we are taken by zodiac back to the boat for a long hot shower. A little longer than usual so I could get the feeling back in my legs.

Tonight we had dinner with an interesting couple from Germany, they are followers of eclipses. They travel around the world to experience Solar eclipses, and they have been everywhere, but they didn't do the plunge.