WELCOME TO ANTARCTICA

WEATHER: Cold, overcast and 3C

HIGHTLIGHT OF THE DAY: Seeing Penguins

WORD OF THE DAY: Iceberg!!!!!

SWELL THIS MORNING: 3-5m

The first view of Antarctica is always an iceberg.  It may be a monolith hovering on the horizon, a barely discernible specter looming out of the mist, or perhaps a sun spangled, dazzling icon marking the gateway to this new world.  It will undoubtedly be icebergs that leave the most lasting impressions on the imaginations of visitors.

Mark Jones – Wild Ice

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

Good morning and welcome to Antarctica.  Well we are now in Antarctic waters after crossing the Antarctic Convergence (a meeting of polar water flowing north and the warmer equatorial water moving in the opposite direction) at 9.30pm last night.  The water temperature when we left Ushuaia was 5C, Drakes Passage was 4C and when we crossed the convergence it was 0C where the temperature of the water will stay at that till we cross back on our way home.  The convergence is the largest biological barrier on earth and marks the entrance to Antarctica.

ANTARCTICA FACTS AND FIGURES

The size of the continent is 11.9million sq. km

The size of the Southern Ocean is 36 million sq. km

The average thickness of an Antarctica ice sheet 2300m

Maximum thickness of ice is 4776m

Highest mountain is Vinson Massif at 4897m

The average rainfall is 150mm a year

The lowest recorded temperature was -89C

Tourists visiting per year in 2009-10 were 36,875 people

Number of Antarctic Treaty Nations is 47

The number of scientific personnel present in summer is 4460

The number of scientific personnel present in winter is 1094

The number of scientific bases in 2009 was 78

 

So welcome again to Antarctica also known as the frozen continent.  It is the only continent without permanent human population and is the fifth largest continent.  It is the coldest, windiest, driest, iciest and highest of all the major land masses in the world.  It is the continent with the longest nights and the longest days and it is home to the world’s largest concentration of wildlife.  It is also one of the last true wilderness areas left on earth and largely unchanged since the early explorers landed here almost 2 centuries ago.

With our wakeup call over the PA system at 7.30am we were also informed that we just may get our first landing in this afternoon in the South Shetland Islands, if the weather is on our side and we keep making good time.  As we had an awesome day yesterday, we have made excellent time and we travelled at 13 knots yesterday instead of the usual 11knotts, so we are a little ahead in schedule.  So that has really picked lot of us up, as another day on the rolling ship was starting to take its toll on people.  It was a beautiful crisp morning but the main concern was the winds that were gusting up to 100km an hour!

After breakfast our first lecture of the day commenced with Antarctica Geology – Land of Fire and Ice by Alex Cowan.  I am not much of a ‘rock’ gal, but I went along hoping that I would be able to understand a little of what Alex had to say.  I tell you it is a pretty complex subject to start with and I kept up most of the way, but he basically went through how the continents were formed hundreds of millions years ago and how Antarctica got to be where it was and about the continental plates and other geologic stuff.  It shed a little light, but was a little too in depth for me.  Thanks for trying though Alex. 

We then had free time till 11.15 when we had a mandatory IAATO Briefing.  All people who visit Antarctica have to sit through this which has been put together by the International Association of Antarctica Tour Operators.  It is an organization on responsible tourism of the region where all good operators are members of the organization in sustaining the environment.  Some of the information was common sense stuff.  Don’t touch the animals, don’t deface buildings or refuges, and don’t bring anything back on board the ship including rocks, feathers etc…. But some advice that I didn’t think about was the bio security of the region.  Check your clothes, shoes and bags for seeds or foreign matter that maybe stuck to the velcro of your jackets or in the bottom of your pockets.  Introducing something foreign like that into the environment could be catastrophic for Antarctica.  We will be asked to wash and disinfect our boots before and after each landing to also help eliminate the transference of matter from one site to another. 

The saying leave only footprints doesn’t apply to Antarctica, they want you to leave nothing, not even foot prints as there are rare moss and lichen that should also not be damaged and this also includes toilet stops at the landings.  If you need to go to the toilet, they will run you back to the ship in a Zodiac and then bring you back.  That also includes the gentleman.  No wild bush stops in Antarctica, not that it affects me anyway with a bladder like I have.  The landings can last 2-4 hours so everyone needs to make sure of their liquid intake before heading off the ship. 

Be respectful of the animals.  They will always have the right of way and with penguins the minimum distance from them should always be 5m.  That doesn’t mean if they move closer to you that you need to back off, this is acceptable as they haven’t read the guidelines but where we can we need to keep our distance.  We always need to keep our voices low, slow movements, and no manic hand gestures and to just be careful and always monitor the wildlife and be alert at all times. 

G Adventures will also try and get us to a research base if possible.  This would be an amazing experience, but it entirely depends on the base itself and if they aren’t too busy to accept us.  They are always keen to accommodate ships when they can as it could have been months, sometimes up to 12 months where they haven’t seen anyone else except the base staff, so they do enjoy taking us in when they can.  Antarctica is a dedicated continent to science and scientific research and has priority over all other activities.  There could also be scientific equipment in the field where we are, so once again don’t touch or remove any of this as it could damage a research programme.

Take away only memories and photographs and remember to simply take some time to simply reflect without your camera sometimes as well.

So with all that information, most of it common sense we were then called to lunch.  I started to feel a little woozy after lunch, so I decided to step out on deck and get some fresh air.  Fresh being the understatement, it was beautiful outside.  The sun was finally out, the ocean still had a swell of 4-5m, but considering I only had on ¾ pants, and my jacket, only my hands felt cold, my feet, just in ballet flats were warm, it was just the wind chill on my hands that was a little cold.  After hanging out at the back of the ship I headed to the front (or bow) and the most top deck you could reach and there was another man up there as well, enjoying the front motion of the ship and then he pointed and we saw out first ICEBERG!!!!!  Alex (the man) saw it first and this was part of the competition on the person who spots it and the person who has the closest time.  So he went to the bridge to tell them he saw it and I think I may have won the closest time.  It was 1.48pm and I had guessed 2.58pm.  I must be damn close if not the winner on that.  Alex said he will share his champagne with me, so it is a win win for me either way!  An ICEBERG!!!!  That finally makes it sink in that we are in ANTARCTICA.  AN ICEBERG!  I was so excited.  Even though it is a massive berg, it was still too far away for my camera to pick it up, as it was a little hazy, but I still snapped a photo, I know what it is and it is my first ICEBERG!

So free time again till our mandatory Zodiac briefing back in the lounge.  It is still looking promising that we will get to the group of South Shetland Islands and to Aitcho (pronounced H and O) Island.  Known for its Weaner Elephant seals, Chinstrap penguin colonies and Gentoo penguin colonies.  Susan is not totally committing to 100% landing this afternoon, but it is still on the cards.  The Zodiac briefing was eye opening and this is the most worrisome thing for me on the cruise.  They had the incorrect and correct way of getting from the ship into the Zodiac.  The correct way to get on and off the Zodiac once on land and the correct procedures while in the Zodiac.  They literally are a ship to shore taxi most times unless we have a Zodiac cruise without landing on a beach. 

The Mud Room is the start and the finish of all landings.  This is where our boots are kept, washed and stored for each landing and also where we can keep our wet clothes after coming back from a landing.  The Mud Room is located next to the engine room, so it is warm in there and a perfect place to let things dry.  We have all been assigned a number in the mud room that has a bench, a clothes hook for opur jackets and a place where our boots will be kept.  There are showers, brushes and the final disinfectant procedure is also performed in the Mud Room.  The last point for the Zodiac landings is ‘last zodiac time’.  This time will be given when we get to shore and it is a time that must be strictly adhered to no matter what.  I’m not sure I am 100% confident about the Zodiac’s but I guess once I get it done the first time, I will feel a lot more confident.

This morning we had to put our names on a list in groups of 20.  They were named after certain past explorers of the region.  Jules and I got into Weddell group and we found out this afternoon that this is basically just a group name for them to stagger us off the boat at different times for the landings.  We literally will not be on a Weddell Zodiac; it is just a way to get people off in a timely fashion.  Especially since we will all be rugged up to the hilt, the last thing they want is for us to be sitting in the Mud Room sweating our arses off.  It is a pretty good system as we don’t have to wait for the same group to come back to the ship, they just fill up Zodiacs and take us back to the ship and then check us back in as we re-board the ship. 

So when the talk had finished we were then called down to the mudroom to fit our boots that we would be wearing for the rest of the week.  We took our socks with us, to make sure we got the correct size and then we left them at our numbered station for when we are ready to make out first landing!!!  It is starting to get real now that we will soon be stepping onto the continent of Antarctica!

We were expected to get to the Aitcho Islands around 5pm and then they hoped to have us disembarking us at 5.30pm.  We arrived pretty much on schedule and we dropped anchor around 3km off shore.  The first 3 groups were called to the mudroom over the PA and we shipped off to the island.  As the groups are 20 in size and they are putting 10 of us in a Zodiac at a time, pretty much half the ship gets the first call and then the second half leave around 40 minutes after them.  The groups are on a rotation system, so all the groups get a chance at being the first ones to arrive at the landings.  So Jules and I headed to the cabin to get ready and dressed for our first landing.  It was going to be a bit if trial and error to know what will keep us warm, what we need to take etc…..  But in the end we had a pair of thermal bottoms, my cargo pants over them and then my waterproof pants that I bought in London on top of that.  I then put on my long sleeve thermal, my turtle neck, my Colombia hoodie and then my Waterproof jacket I also bought in London.  Additional to that I had my beanie on my head, one pair of socks and a neck gator.   I also had a pair of inner gloves and a pair of ski gloves that I put in my pocket as I am not sure whether I was going to need them.  So I looked like a Michelin Man, but as long as I was going to be warm, this was going to be the least of my concerns.  This was one part of my trip that was really worrying me, even before leaving home on whether I would have enough clothes to keep me warm.  So our call came to head to the mudroom, and with butterflies in my stomach I was pretty excited that I was going to finally land on ANTARCTICA!   

As people got ready, they stood in line, got their cabin cards scanned that they were leaving the ship, disinfected their shoes and then waited at the ships doorway to wait to be called and asked to board the Zodiac.  The boots are quite hard to pull on, as they are knee high with no zips and once they are on you have to wear your pants over the top of them.  If you tuck in your pants into your boots and you get water on your pants then it is going to run inside your boots.  Makes sense.  So with boots on, having been scanned out, we waited for the second last Zodiac to arrive to take the last of us to land.  I was second on the boat, and I have to say it was a hell of a lot easier than it was made out to be and it was a little choppy, so it wasn’t like an easy start.  I was in the Zodiac and I didn’t fall in!!!!!  So we travelled the 8 minutes to get to the landing and then we were unloaded one by one off the boat from each side and once again it was a lot easier than I thought it was going to be and we walked in about 15cm of water to get to the black beach and we were now officially STANDING IN ANTARCTICA!!!!  We weren’t on the mainland, but we are still officially IN Antarctica.  Flying the 44 hours was so totally worth this awesome moment and Billy and I just turned to each other and high fived each other right there and then.  We had made the final frontier and there were hundreds of Gentoo penguins to welcome us!!!  The sun was in the sky when we landed and the ship had sent an advance party of staff to check the landing site was accessible and then they mapped a ‘human highway’ for us by compacting the snow and flagging the way to walk safely and not destroying any of the penguin rookeries.  Once on land you could then take your own time, passing people if you wanted and we were given a ‘last zodiac time’ of 8.30pm.  We had 2 hours to just soak in our first experience and watch the Gentoo and Chinstrap penguins doing their thing.  I had heard stories that the penguins smelled and this is definitely true.  They are currently in the breeding season, so we saw a few couples’ getting it on’ and they really do stink.  There were about 5 rookeries on the shoreline and they are quite distinguishable as they are all sitting in a brown area in the snow and yes you are thinking correctly they are sitting in their own poo.  That’s disgusting, but that is how the Gentoo’s breed and this is why they are smelly.  They were so cute though and they weren’t scared of us at all.  Some of them would need to pass in front of us to get to their nests and as we have to keep 5m away from them, we sometimes had to wait a few minutes for them to keep moving before we could pass them.  We walked to the other side of the island and saw another breed of penguins called Chinstraps and as the name suggested they have a black stripe under their chin that looks like a strap. From this angle it really was a National Geographical shot, seriously more than a thousand penguins in their rookeries as far as the eye could see.  We could also see a massive iceberg from here as well.  It was amazing.  The light began to fade, so I made my way back to the Zodiac, having to wait for some of the Gentoo penguins to cross over my path (how rude) and was simple as to get back into the zodiac, and then we were transferred back to the ship.  What an amazing afternoon and totally surreal that we had done it.

Once back on the ship, we had to scrub the bottom of our boots, rinse them off and the step in disinfectant, get scanned back in and then we were free to disrobe out of our gear and leave it in the Mudroom to dry.  I’d like to report that I was totally warm enough, the only thing I would change tomorrow is to wear 2 pairs of socks, as my feet sweated in the boots and then my socks got wet which in turn made my feet cold.  Not totally frozen or uncomfortable, but I had cold feet.  Everything else worked a treat to which is a great RELIEF!!!

So after going back to the cabin and taking off our 25 layers of clothing and getting back into normal clothes we headed up to dinner where tonight was a buffet due to the staggering of us coming back onto the ship.  Just looking around, people’s spirits were high and we all had smiles from ear to ear.  The staff were also smiling, I guess they are thankful that we are all happy but to also have a successful landing where no-one fell into the drink and no animals were harmed (by accident) then we were all happy campers.

So that is my first experience on the Antarctic Continent.  We had a small briefing after dinner about tomorrows plans and all going well we will get 2 landings tomorrow.  One after breakfast and another one after lunch.  But it really is all dependent on weather and the ice conditions as we are not sure whether enough ice has melted for us to be able to pass through certain areas.   

TIA.  This is Antarctica!!!