Monthly Archives: April 2013

Disembarking at Half Moon Bay, so named for the crescent shape of the shoreline. Across the shore was an Argentine research station that was out of operation(?), but adds some life to the otherwise majestically frozen landscape. This time, fur sea were added to the mix, and these guys aren’t the cute friendly ones we saw back in the Galapagos, but they seem quite agitated so we walked far away from them.

Climbing upon a hill, a colony of chinstrap penguins stood around, pooing and gawking and being themselves. In the middle of the whole colony stood a single, macaroni penguin with its yellow hairs standing out. Why is he/she here, nobody knows, but its been here for a long time! A true identity crisis…..

As part of the cruise, other passengers are allowed an option to kayak, and another to scuba dive! Yes, scuba dive in the Antarctic ocean, where the waters aren’t frozen but a frigid -2C because of the salinity!!! And it was also the first day for the kayakers/divers to be able to head out for their excursions. Unfortunately, a tragic accident tainted the day as one of the divers suffered a fatality for reasons unknown…. and it really affected us personally as we had a nice dinner with the person the previous evening and even passed along a few words of encouragement before their group disembarked the boat as we ran into each other again in the hallway….. It was an extremely unfortunate accident and we send our condolences to the family.

This event, along with all the historic stories about explorers giving the ultimate sacrifice at their attempt in conquering the continent, serves as a reminder how inhospitable the white continent, and nature, really is. The world has really evolved to the point where we, just some regular tourists, can get a ticket and travel safely to and from Antarctica with three luxurious meals a day, varying lectures of interesting subjects, different afternoon snacks, and warmth in body and in soul.

WE HAVE OUR FIRST SIGHTING OF THE ANTARCTIC PENINSULA. We were at Barrientos Island, and it’s not quite the continent, nor is it close to the South Pole, but we’ve crossed the Antarctic convergence and it’s just good to see something except ocean in the horizon. The lectures really works, and we have learned quite a bit about the continent.

We spent the morning prepping up for landing on Antarctica by learning how to properly get off a Zodiac, what to look out for in terms of danger (slippery poo and over-friendly seals), and most importantly the 5m rule. You are not allowed to approach animals closer than 5m, but if you stand there and the animals come to YOU, then it’s totally okay!

Before we knew it, we were lined up at the gangway, sliding onto a Zodiac and off we went! It’s almost impossible to actually maintain 5m distance from any penguin, since the penguins are scattered ALL over the pathways and are all around. Seeing penguins for the first time, it was a strange feeling. You’re excited to land onto the Antarctic, and at the shore there’s a bunch of penguins standing there looking clueless, and totally indifferent if not curious to your existence. Some, are even curious and come up to you, pecking at your pants, camera straps and wondering if you’re edible. Adorable, fascinating, cute, noisy, smelly and confused is probably the best words we would use to describe these little fellows.

The landscape itself took a backseat to the penguins, and we spent the afternoon frolicking amongst penguins, watching them walk, run, call and generally look silly.

The first day at sea, the Drake Passage was rather nice to us and we barely had any swells rocking the boat back and forth. So lucky, even the Drake was good to us!

We spent the day listening to various talks by the expedition team on all kinds of topics. It was really cool how they had 6 people, and each of them had a different expertise! There was a French bird-ologist (ornithologist?), an Australian geologist, an Irish historian (Antarctic history, of course), a German doctorate in glaciers, and our favorite the super-experienced American field researcher. Each of them has their own specialty, their own set of personality and quirky humours who has worked here for over 25years! Listening to them talk was great because it was like going to class, but actually looking forward to it because your teachers were great, your friends were there, and there was no test at the end of it. Everyone that speaks, seem to have done this for several years and declare themselves to have been bitten by the “polar bug”. The funniest joke we heard was “People work in Antarctica first for the adventure, the second year for the money, and the third year because can no longer fit in normal society.”

The Drake Passage wasn’t that bad, and the on-board doctor gave us a patch which seems to be fending off the sea-sickness rather well, it’s just that the patch is giving us a dry throat and the dilating our pupils, causing us to have near-sightedness! You know when your parents have to see something, but it’s too close and they can’t focus their eyes and have to take off their glasses to see…. WE HAD TO DO THAT!!!! FOR FIVE DAYS!!!

The day went by rather quickly, the meals were absolutely delicious, and we went to bed rather early. Good news was, we caught a bit of tailwind and may be able to do a landing a day earlier at tomorrow afternoon!!!! Excited!