January 5 - more Scotia Sea

Our calm voyage to South Georgia continues (without internet), but today we focused on the landings in South Georgia and how they are going to be executed.  We also had to do another bio-security check. Passengers have had lots of questions about how we are going to operate in South Georgia.

January 4 - Scotia Sea

The seas have been very calm, but this morning we awoke to lines of ice stretching almost as far as you could see to the south of the ship.  This is sea ice spreading out of the Weddell Sea – along with the ice bergs. We were so lucky to have relatively calm waters, but during the time we were going through the edge of the ice the stabilizers were drawn in, and we were doing a lot of zigzagging, so it was a bit of a bumpy ride.

Sea ice as far as the eye could see.

Marie continues to paint and has sold several painting.  She had a small workshop in the observation deck that attracted over 20 people interested in sketching.  They were all keen for more workshops!

Maria leading the workshop with flourish!

Some of the many people who came out to participate.

You can check out what Maria has been painting on her web page.

Exploring the World through Art

www.expeditionaryart.com

January 3 - Esperanza and Hope Bay

We have not had internet since leaving the Antarctic peninsula. The course of the ship and the satellite configurations, left us cut off from the world for about 48 hours.

We left Yankee Harbour in the late afternoon for our sail across the Bransfield strait. During recap and briefing I reminded everyone we were sailing over new oceanic crust - just 4 million years old, with several very large submarine volcanoes, only one of which, Deception Island is emergent.  I think everyone was impressed to think there were volcanoes underneath of them! Anyway, we sailed through Antarctic Sound in the early morning hours and stopped off the Argentina station of Esperanza and Hope Bay. The wind was pretty fierce, but we got protection from a large tabular iceberg and started operations at 6 AM to try to avoid the wind. The highlight here is Adélie penguins as well as the dramatic cliffs and glacier at the head of Hope Bay. I was pared up with Iggy and we made several trips to the bay – each one calmer and warmer than the one before! It was remarkable how sunny and calm it became.  It was still very cold (I had on two layers of down).  

Over 150, 000 Adelie penguins live in the rookery here at Esperanza.

The Adélie penguins are really very hilarious, the walk in long lines, toboggan both up and down hill and stand on the shore line in large groups waiting for someone to make the first move to jump in! We had great views of the adults as well as quite a few chicks. There was even a leopard seal!  We saw a carcass being fed on by giant petrels, which had probably met its end at the mouth of the seal. Given the dead penguin we had seen they have every right to be scared.

Those strange objects in the water are porpoising Adelie penguins!

Note the very regular lines of penguins marching to the sea!

Two penguins contemplating the jump into the sea.

More porpoising penguins!

In addition to the tabular icebergs there was lots of interesting sea ice formations around.

It was very clear so we were able to see the subglacial volcano of Brown Bluff about 20 km away as well as James Ross Island, a very large island in the Weddell sea.  It is about 70 km away so just the top appeared as a rounded hill in the far distance. It is a volcanic island that is at least as old as 6.5 million years, but has had fairly recent eruptions.  In addition to the view of James Ross Island we were treated to the sight of many tabular icebergs. They are from the collapse of ice shelves in the Weddell Sea and carried northward by the Weddell Sea gyre into the Antarctic circum polar current.

We lost internet access today as we headed out of Antarctic Sound, we did not get it back until we were fairly close to South Georgia. 

Zodiacs waiting to "go up on the hook" with James Ross Island volcanic complex in the distance - looks a bit like a cloud.

Brown Bluff is a sub to englacial volcanic complex to the east of Esperanza.

January 2 - Yankee Harbour

Is it possible to be two days into 2015?

We cruised slowly through the night and were off our landing site of Yankee Harbour by 6 AM. It is a lovely bay ringed by glaciers with a dramatic cliff exposing the eroded roots of a large shield volcano above a prominent moraine where the penguins nest.  I gave a presentation on glaciers on glaciers, ice bergs and sea ice this morning, so only spent the afternoon out in the site.  There were chicks only a few days to hours old! There were really very cute.

Note two sets of baby chicks - likely only a day or two old.

More chicks!

The Gentoos were nesting on a long moraine that had a few seals hauled out on it.

Juvenile crab-eater seal.

Molting juvenile elephant seals.

Behind the penguins was a dramatic cliff of lava flows cut with dykes.

Landing area on the large moraine shows cliff, but by dykes.

January 1, 2015 - Water Boat Point

This morning we arrived very close to where we had started yesterday at 5 AM! The Chilean base at Water Boat point!  It was a lovely day of communing with penguins.  Then the afternoon/evening was spent in a stunning cruise up the Gerlach in glorious sunshine!

Gentoo Penguins - eggs, but no chicks yet.

Our guests from the cupola window.

Quest from the cupola.

Me and the gentoos!

December 31 - HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Maria and I send all of you our very best for 2015 - Health, happiness and well being!

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Even the ship's mascot penguin got into the act!

Some of the great food!

Crab cake with caviar.

Grand Piano dessert.

December 31 - New Year's Eve - Base Brown

This morning we were treated to a VERY early landing! Zodiac drivers were up at 3:15 AM and the rest of us at 4:00 AM!  The timing was important because of overlapping usage of the site and the booking of another ship for the afternoon. We had to have our 450 passengers onshore and the visit completed, and the ship gone by 1 PM. Everything went very smoothly, with the first passengers off the ship for an hour zodiac tour at 5 AM. These early birds had the advantage of seeing some humpback whales in close proximity!

The site is very pretty with lots of great views of glaciers all around as well as a nice hill to climb and a sliding slope! No sprained ankles this time around!

This is the Argentinian base "Brown". The top of the hill is 100 m above the base. 

I was on the high point with a great view of the surrounding glaciers. There was one that kept having small failures through the morning. It then had a bit larger avalanche, I raised my camera for a closer look when it failed! Spectacular.

In the afternoon we headed south to the Lemaire Channel. It still had a lot of ice, but we made it through to the other end - 65 degrees 7 minutes would be our farthest point south. The channel is 200 m wide with cliffs close to 900 m on either side, glaciers and we saw several minke whales close to the ship.

View along the channel.

Stranded icebergs in a side channel.

Cape Renard towers over 800 m tall.

We sailed out of the channel through the Neumayer in the evening as everyone began the New Year's Eve festivity.  See the next blog for what Maria and I did!