Most amazing day yet; and not nearly over. This morning we anchored in Whihelmina Bay on the Eastern side of the Peninsula. It is famous for whales, and it did not disappoint. We boarded Zodiacs and headed into the end of the bay, which is surrounded by 5000 ft mountains and glaciers and is filled with floating ice. We quickly found a number of families of Humpbacks. We were able to pull right up close them. Many were sleeping, actually, but other put on a little show and showed some interest in us, sometimes literally swimming under the boats (which of course are only a fraction of the size of the whale). Combined with a family of Minke whales and a whole bunch of show-boating Crabeater Seals, it was a fun morning.
We worked on our “program” for much of the day. This is getting increasingly stressful, but essentially I need to come up with a “deliverable” from this trip that will have some positive impact. The original idea was to produce the first “sustainability report” from Antarctica. We are now moving toward more of a “declaration” or “statement” from Antarctica that ties renewable energy, Swan’s upcoming expedition, preserving Antarctica, climate change, leadership, personal commitment etc. Yeah, I’m supposed to figure all that out. We have spent many hours discussing as a group and in break out groups. I have started drafting the statement and will share what I have with the group tomorrow. We are running out of time. We will hit the Drake Thursday around midnight and at that point, all bets are off so we need to have all of our work done before then.
In the afternoon we went ashore on Ronje island to set up our camp for the night. It is a breathtaking sheet of ice about the size of 2-3 football fields, covered with penguins and a few seals and surrounded by mountains and glaciers. The wind is pretty light and we are expecting a pretty good night weather wise (in Antarctica terms anyways). We set up tents, but the guides basically said that if you use a tent you are a wimp. You have to plop your sleeping bag right on the ice and look at the stars all night.
After setting up camp, we Zodiac-ed over to the largest Gentoo Penguin rookery in Antarctica. 300,000 nesting pairs. There were lots of loud fuzzy chicks. There we very cute, but the guides said that all the chicks still there this late in the year will die. They will not be ready to move when the colony heads north. We sat and walked amongst them (and there “guano”) for about an hour before heading back to the ship. There were a few leopard seals around but we did not see a kill. We got really close to one leopard on a flow of ice. This is not your cuddly seal; it is an ugly and mean beast. It has a neck and head like a giant snake, with a huge mouth that wraps all around its head in a grotesque kind of “smile”. Our guide calls them evil creatures. They have attacked and killed people before, but that is very rare. Robert was attacked once, but knocked it on the head and got off ok – not on this trip.
It is almost 7 pm and we leave momentarily to sleep on the ice tonight. See you in the am.
We worked on our “program” for much of the day. This is getting increasingly stressful, but essentially I need to come up with a “deliverable” from this trip that will have some positive impact. The original idea was to produce the first “sustainability report” from Antarctica. We are now moving toward more of a “declaration” or “statement” from Antarctica that ties renewable energy, Swan’s upcoming expedition, preserving Antarctica, climate change, leadership, personal commitment etc. Yeah, I’m supposed to figure all that out. We have spent many hours discussing as a group and in break out groups. I have started drafting the statement and will share what I have with the group tomorrow. We are running out of time. We will hit the Drake Thursday around midnight and at that point, all bets are off so we need to have all of our work done before then.
In the afternoon we went ashore on Ronje island to set up our camp for the night. It is a breathtaking sheet of ice about the size of 2-3 football fields, covered with penguins and a few seals and surrounded by mountains and glaciers. The wind is pretty light and we are expecting a pretty good night weather wise (in Antarctica terms anyways). We set up tents, but the guides basically said that if you use a tent you are a wimp. You have to plop your sleeping bag right on the ice and look at the stars all night.
After setting up camp, we Zodiac-ed over to the largest Gentoo Penguin rookery in Antarctica. 300,000 nesting pairs. There were lots of loud fuzzy chicks. There we very cute, but the guides said that all the chicks still there this late in the year will die. They will not be ready to move when the colony heads north. We sat and walked amongst them (and there “guano”) for about an hour before heading back to the ship. There were a few leopard seals around but we did not see a kill. We got really close to one leopard on a flow of ice. This is not your cuddly seal; it is an ugly and mean beast. It has a neck and head like a giant snake, with a huge mouth that wraps all around its head in a grotesque kind of “smile”. Our guide calls them evil creatures. They have attacked and killed people before, but that is very rare. Robert was attacked once, but knocked it on the head and got off ok – not on this trip.
It is almost 7 pm and we leave momentarily to sleep on the ice tonight. See you in the am.
No comments:
Post a Comment