Jan. 12

It was quite the day yesterday and we all fell into a deep sleep. Well some of us got to continue in the sleeping mode. About 1:00 am I hear Voy waking Don and telling him that he is needed on deck for ice watch. I just sink deep into my sleeping bag and quickly head back to sleep hoping that Don can push the ice chunks away from our boat. Turns out Don had a great watch, in fact as he was about ready to turn over his responsibilities to the next person, a pod of whales were sighted. Needless to say he didn’t bother to return to his berth. Another activity that occurred last night was a camping experience for Ryan and Beth. They returned with stories of calving glaciers and a cold wet night.

Yesterday had been a blue bird day, but today we are greeted by blowing snow and lots of ice to make our way thru the channels. There is no wind, but sailing thru this obstacle course of ice would be challenging. We will be motoring the whole way.

We take turns sitting up front to watch out for icebergs, some of which are mostly underwater.

It is a 45 nautical mile journey to our destination. With all the dodging of ice and no wind we don’t arrive till 5:00. Then the fun begins as we anchor up to an old whaling ship that has an interesting history.

Jamie climbs up on the wreckage and begins the process of tying off the boat. He moves slowly and cautiously as a misstep would be of dire consequences.

Once the boat is secured, Eva takes off in the dinghy to put out lines to keep the ice from ramming the boat.

This proves to be quite successful and hopefully will eliminate the need to do ice watches.

Tonight there is a rumor of a cribbage challenge. Voy has been watching Julia and Jamie play cribbage as an inside activity.

They may be hard to beat. Tonight’s tournament may be the first 7 way cribbage game ever played in the Antarctica or as far as that goes anywhere. After numerous games of elimination we have a winner and it is one who was a novice cribbage player.’

We have been curious about the ship wreck and learn the details. The whaling ship Gouvernoren was run aground in 1915 by the Norwegian captain. It was an intentional move as the ship had caught on fire and this was the only way to save the crew and the whale oil. It seems that the crew was saved, but not so sure about the whale oil. Apparently after a successful hunt a celebration had ensued that resulted in the fire. It makes for a great anchorage and should be a quiet night as we plan for an active day tomorrow.

Jan. 13

The plan for today is to explore the area. Don, Jim and I head out in the kayaks to circumnavigate the island. Jim has spent many hours in a canoe and is quite comfortable on the water, kayaking is a new experience. After several pointers he has an efficient stroke. The morning is quite foggy and we head out and then look back to see our boat nestled next to the shipwreck.

We truly are in the Antarctica as the surrounding area is of rock and ice.

While the 3 of us are on the water the younger part of the expedition go off to explore the snow covered land.

They soon were lost to us as the fog hid them from view.

This is the view that we saw as we checked out the horizon.

It feels good to take a day off from traveling to just enjoy the environment. We often have to do a reality check to say that we are really here and immersed!

Happy to report that our voyage was successful and we made it back to the boat. We did see a rather large iceberg calve and then flip over. Glad that we had given it a wide berth, and note to self that icebergs deserve our respect. We know from past knowledge that often only a third of the iceberg is exposed above the surface of the ocean. Some of these icebergs are huge!

We return to the boat for some nourishment before Voy takes Don and I to an area that we can go hiking. The early hikers take over the kayaks and head out to go around the island.

Don and I enjoy our hike and the snow falling down around us.

On the way down to meet Voy we pass a relic of the past.

Don gets his turn at iceberg standing.

I have a feeling we are in the minority of Antartica iceberg standers!

When we return to our boat we see another sailboat approaching our anchorage. They are not familiar with the area and are headed to a shallow section. Voy reaches them on the radio and has prevented an accident from happening. They ask to tie off to our boat which Voy gives permission.

The boat, Life Explorer is slightly shorter than our boat, has greater free board, less lines on deck and the quietest engine that any one of us has heard. The boat is owned by 4 gentlemen from Italy and Switzerland that get together every year and sail for a month or two. This is the first time they have been in Antarctica and they seem to be on a big learning curve, I have a feeling that we will be seeing more of them. We move tomorrow!

Jan 14

Today we are heading to Cuverville Island which is about 24 nautical miles away. Our challenge today will be finding our way thru all of the ice. first though we have to unmoor from the ship wreck. Beth gets the honors of climbing aboard to untie the lines.

We also separate from the Life Explorer. They asked us when we plan to head out and we have a feeling that they are going to follow us which turned out to be accurate.

Words can’t describe the beauty of todays voyage. Every direction that we looked we were awed by the scenery.

There was a lot of ice in the passage that we were taking to day. Often a person was at the bow helping the person steering ,by telling them which way they should go to avoid the ice bergs. At one point Voy requested Ewa to climb the mast to get even a better view. She put on a climbing harness and with a spinnaker halyard attached she made it way to the top of the mast where she had a bird’s eye view of the route. This looked like fun so we all took turns going up top.

From the top one got a great view of the surroundings. We were all excited when a shout from above said look over there on that iceberg, I see a Leopard Seal! we stopped the boat and were able to get closer to this mammal that has the most frightening demeanor of any Antarctica animal. There has only been one documented attack of a human and we were happy to not add to the story.

The Leopard seal’s favorite meal is a penguin. When a penguin is captured it flays its catch from side to side bashing it against the water to remove the skin from its flesh. Today the seal was quite docile just basking in the sun.

Today some of the icebergs were the largest that we have seen. They had different hues of blue and we never tired of observing them

It was definitely a great day to take photos.

and just keep looking!

We finally arrived to our destination about 4pm and set the anchor plus a stern line to help us from swinging. Now it was time to have lunch. We are all seated around the table enjoying our meal when we hear a large bang on the side of the hull. We look out the window and see an iceberg about 3/4 the length of the boat crashing into the side. We quickly make our way up to the deck and with poles in hand try to maneuver it from the boat.

We are successful only after Ewa hops into the dinghy and nudges the berg full throttle. Looks like we might have ice watch tonight.

Back to the cabin to finish our lunch and decide what the next activities are going to be. Don, Ryan, Beth and I decide to take the kayaks out and check out the enormous icebergs. They seem to be grounded but there is a bit of breath holding as we paddle past them.

Our plan is to go check out Orne Island and if possible land and check out a rookery. Once we get past the icebergs, the wind picks up and with some tidal current happening we forgo the landing and just paddle around the island. Meanwhile Jamie and Julie head off to a closer penguin rookery with the dinghy. When we return to the boat we switch places and Beth, Ryan and I go check out the rookery.

We are impressed with the penguin highways. Some places are so deep that one can only see the penguin’s head as it makes its way to the water.

We see a lot of penguins sitting on rock nests, but no babies.

There is continued traffic on the pathways as they head to the water for food.

Finally about 10pm we are ready to retire to our bed.

And soon hope to be asleep like this seal.

First though we have to do some organization in order to find our berth!