WEATHER: Glorious Blue Skies 3C but wind chill makes it down to -4C
HIGHTLIGHT OF THE DAY: Wilhelmina Bay
BUMMER OF THE DAY: Got a little chilled for the first time off a landing
BUYS OF THE DAY: My Expedition ‘fleece’ as the Americans call them. A jumper to the Aussies
WORD OF THE DAY: What a glorious day!!!!!
A journey is a person itself, no two are alike. And all plans, safeguards, policies and coercion are fruitless. We find after years of struggle that we do not take a trip, a trip takes us.
John Steinbeck
Follow our journey at http://www.gadventures.com/marine/triplog-login/ where you can find our Daily Expedition Reports and other documents from our voyage. It also maps our itinerary and stops along the way, so you may find this of interest. You will need the following to get in:
Username: antarctica111107
Password: expedition
Welcome to day 6 of the cruise. We have 3 landing days left and then the dreaded 2 day crossing back over the Drake Passage. I have a feeling it won’t be as smooth as it was coming down, but no use thinking about that just yet. We have 3 more glorious days at the end of the world.
We overnighted in Port Lockroy last night as we had to wait for the campers to get back this morning which must have been damn early as wake-up call was at 6.30am and they were already back on the ship. This is the furthest south that we will travel on our whole cruise with the co-ordinates of 64.49S 63.30W. That means jack shit to me, but may mean something to you readers. This morning we will travel back up the Neumayer Channel back into the open waters of the Gerlache Strait to hopefully land in Whilemena Bay in approximately 2 hours’ time. We all sort of just go with the flow when we hear plans for the day now, as they could change at the drop of a hat and this is all purely based on the weather conditions of the time and it really is hard to stress just how quick the weather can actually change down here. If you didn’t see it with your own eyes, it would be hard to believe.
I was talking to Jules yesterday and it dawned on me that by the time I finish my Galapagos cruise on the 29th November, in the last 35 days I would have been on a cruise ship/boat for 28 of those days. No wonder I am feeling like I have just been eating the whole time, because I bloody well have. If I didn’t have sea legs by the time all this finishes then there is something definitely wrong with me right. I guess it would be safe to say that I do like the format of cruising, the only downside is the ‘eating too much’ business, but only I am in control of that and only have myself to blame. Oh well I am on holidays, the calories don’t count. Jeremy asked if I was a breakfast eater, to which I normally reply no not really. But that was back home 8 months ago. Since leaving home, breakfast has been included or served everywhere I have been, so I guess that no is really a yes since being on my trip.
I was putting my socks on this morning and it just dawned on me that I have just about lost my African tan. It took me 4 months to get it and 4 weeks to lose it and the tan line I miss the most is my thong/flip flop/jandle marks on my feet. I was so proud of that tan. Well I may have lost my brown colour, but my Africa trip and friends have not been forgotten and I think about you guys all the time. I miss you.
Our fist port of call and possible landing was going to be Enterprise Island, which lies at the northeast end of Nansen Island in Wilhelmina Bay. It was truly an amazing morning. The sun was out shining in the fabulous blue sky as we headed into, and down, Wilhelmina Bay to find where we were to exit into a channel, that it was still frozen over and we could not pass. By this time everyone was out on deck enjoying the glorious weather and the snow was white, the mountain peaks clear of clouds and with the sun out in full shine, we finally got some breath taking photos of this region. So we just bobbed here for around an hour, as I am guessing the Bridge and Captain were working out what plan B or are we up to plan C already today, before making a move and letting us know what the plan was to be. This really is TIA, and we truly are at the mercy of the elements. Before moving on we made the most of the sunny day and we got a group shot of all passengers and crew. The Captain came down for the shot and then he appeased us all by posing for photos with passengers, myself included. He seems like a pretty cool guy. Birdman Kevin took the photo from deck 7, so it will be good to see it as the weather was perfect and all my personal photos are postcard perfect.
The announcement came that we were to move on. There was a couple of options to try and get us a zodiac cruise in another bay this morning, but they were unsure of the accessibility there, so if we travelled all the way there to find out that it wasn’t viable, it would be a waste of time and resources and we would then lose the opportunity to get a possible landing in this afternoon. Susan said she would prefer a landing over a zodiac cruise (me too) so we are just going to cruise to Trinity Island and the Harbour just off that called Mikkelsen Harbour and hope the weather holds for a landing. Susan said they may also be able to do a zodiac cruise here as well, but a landing was more important in her books and I would have to agree. So just after 11am we cruised back to the Gerlache Strait and with our afternoon landing site of Mikkelsen Harbour in our sights.
The Gerlache Strait is named after Adrien de Gerlache, leader of the Belgica expedition of 1897-99. The Belgica’s party of 19 men was the first to winter in the peninsular region, surviving for 13 months on board their ship after it became locked in ice in March of 1898. If there’s one body of Antarctic water that nearly every cruise ship uses it is the Gerlache Strait. We have used this passage a few times as we have zig zagged our way around landing sites.
If there seems like there are big gaps in the day, then there generally is as we travel from morning site, whether successful or not to afternoon sites we fill in our time either reading in my cabin, sleeping (this is popular) and writing my blog as things happen, which is a nice luxury to be able to write it this way. We were starting to wonder if there was something in the air-conditioning or the food to make us all sleepy at required times of the day to keep us all under control! It is a general consensus with us all having a nap during the day at some stage. It comes back to we are on holidays and a kip during the day is not only permitted but encouraged.
We hit some rock and rolling waters as we headed back further north. Perfect rocking and rolling for that afternoon kip mentioned above. Rocking us to sleep like babies for an hour before the next announcement came over at 3.30pm that we have arrived at Trinity Island and it will be possible to do a landing this afternoon. The weather in regards to sun and clouds has held up all day. As to the wind conditions I am not sure till we go outside. But we get to land which is great news.
Mikkelsen Harbour lies on the southern coast of Trinity Island at the northern end of the Palmer Archipelago. The site was discovered by Nordenskjold on his Swedish Antarctic Expedition of 1901-4. The Harbour was used by whalers for mooring factory ships and named for Norwegian whaler Captain Klarius Mikkelsen. On the island there is a Gentoo penguin colony, a few unoccupied huts and a radio mast.
Weddell group was on the second call this afternoon, so at 4.30pm we got the final call for the zodiacs, so we made our way down to the mud room to still see a massive line up for boarding. Apparently the landing site had a shallow rocky bottom, so more care had to be taken with the propellers of the zodiacs touching the rocks. The other thing was the Captain had to anchor about 5km from the landing site, so it was a longer journey to get there as well. The winds and current were not in our favor, so the ride across from ship to shore was a little bumpy and we got some air time a few times, but Alex (the Geologist) did a great job in getting us there safely for the 10 minutes it took. We landed on a rocky beach and had to wade through about 25cm of water to get us to the beach.
After getting a quick briefing from Susan, telling us to stick to the left side of the island, departure time for last zodiac and to have fun there were 2 ways that could be taken. One was to stick to the beach and walk around the point to see penguins on the beach and a view of the supplies hut that belongs to the Argentinians from below. The other way was to climb up from the beach to the crest and walk around to the hut via the snow. Well I took the snow path and O think it would have been a lot easier to walk on the rocks and pebbles of the beach than the snow. It was all soft snow and as we had all walked different paths, there wasn’t a main ‘human’ path. So I was sinking in some places up past my knees in deep soft snow. It was a bitch to try and get out of and some of them were so deep that I had to do a ‘roll’ to get out of the hole I had created. I knew those desserts were going to work against me eventually!!! I tried where I could to use footprints that had tread before me, but I tell you it was super hard work and I had to take my beanie off at one point I was getting a workout. It was certainly worth the effort though once around the point the red hut; against the blue sky and then our mates the Gentoo penguins all around in about 15 rookeries was an amazing site to behold. I took a seat at the edge of the rookeries in the hope that one of the penguins would come over, they really are that inquisitive, but they seemed preoccupied in getting mates and making rock nests to be bothered with any of us. I moved onto the hut and on the way back I stopped and lay on my tummy to get a different perspective of the penguins and I got some amazing shots at ground level. I got a, what I would call a ‘money shot’ with 2 penguins making their noisy call, where they throw back their heads and their beaks go in the air, to replay it on the screen to see a human in the background. Dang it. But it was cool to just look at them from their level. They really are cute creatures.
Anyway it was getting time to start making our way back to the landing site and back to ship. It was quite windy here, so adding that wind chill factor has really made a difference to the temperature. I had really cold feet today and my hands were starting to get a little frosty. The good thing being some of the last people to head back was the ‘human highway’ had now been more defined and the snow had hardened up, thank goodness. So what took me 40 minutes to get across going over only took 15 minutes coming back. We had to wait on the wind swept beach for about 15 minutes for the next zodiac and I was glad when I saw it was Jeff. I knew I was in safe hands to get us back. The tide was coming in and they were running out of beach space, so we had to wade in about 40cm to the boat and then step on some conveniently placed stones to get us into the zodiac. It was still a bumpy ride back to the ship, but not as bad as going over, maybe it was Jeff’s driving! The only thing is he placed me on the wet side of the boat, so I got a bit of sea spray on the way back. That my friends is why it is mandatory to have wet weather gear.
It was great to be back to the warmth of the ship. Today was the first day that I have come back and really felt cold from a landing. The sun is still out, but it is just that wind chill factor that is the fun police and makes the temperatures so much colder.
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