Sunday, January 3, 2010: Tabular Icebergs and Penguins!

Day nine of a remarkable adventure. There has been so much to see and do (fortunately not much to do as the doc) that finding time to "journal" has been a challenge. First was the long but uneventful flight to Ushuaia at the tip of South America. An area similar to Vancouver Island it was stunningly beautiful and even the snow that fell couldn't dampen the group's excitement. Between South America and the Antarctic Peninsula, the Drake Passage offered a relatively smooth passage with few "casualties".

From there the experience has been incredible. We have seen Heroina Island, home to over a million Adelie Penguins with a sight and smell that was something else. Seals, sea birds and whales - humpbacks and fin whales - have rounded out the Antarctic life.

There have been immense tabular icebergs of pale blue and white ice floating on a dark blue ocean illuminated by the very bright light of an early morning sun.

I have also watched this sun rise in the southeast, zenith to the north, and then set in the southwest only to rise again a few hours later - a definite challenge to one's sense of direction. And two nights ago the moon, full, pale gold, and upside down rose over the ocean and Antarctic Islands to further remind us we are in an other-worldly place.

But most important of all has been spending time with my son and getting a measure of the man he is becoming before he sets off on adventures of his own making (even if he did give me a hard time about these last two paragraphs).

- JN Armstrong, Expedition Doctor

Today, we took a zodiac excursion early in the morning to the actual continent.  Before today, we had only landed on one island.  The continent is snowy and quite barren from far away, but under closer inspection reveals itself to be teeming with life.  We landed at a location called Brown Bluff.  When we stepped onto the land, the smell was overpowering. Thousands upon thousands of Gentoo and Adelie penguins covered most of what we could see. They were waddling along the shore and were slipping along the glistening ice. I didn't realize it until now, but penguins are very talented climbers.  The penguin highway, as we called it, ran for as far as we could see. About 15 feet away, the penguin’s highway was interrupted by a large meaty rock... which turned out to be a baby elephant seal!  The seal was molting so it was covered in a fine brown fur. Underneath, it was possible to see the color that it would be as an adult.  As we watched, it turned its big brown eyes toward us and wiggled a couple inches towards us. Then it sat. Then wiggled. Then sat. Then wiggled until it was about in arms reach of us. At that point, we were a little scared.  Elephant seals bite and are very very heavy. If it rolled onto one of our feet, it would have broken it for sure. The penguins seemed to ignore the seal and continued on their highway, walking as if there was an appointment they were late for.

I was fascinated by the bridge and its operations. The officers, working with several different technologies, notably radar, GPS, gyrocompasses, depth sounders, old-fashioned dead reckoning and navigational charts, manage to safely navigate through immense glaciers capable of gouging the ship's comparatively weak hull.

The two radars are either the most or the least frequently used instruments. While in the open ocean, there are few obstacles that they will pick up. However, when traversing ice fields they work overtime, scanning for even the small icebergs capable of unanticipated destruction for their size. Remember, only around 1/5 of an iceberg is showing, so a 1 metre iceberg can go down 4 or more metres below the surface. Gyrocompasses are constantly referred to determine the ship's heading. However, this heading is not equivalent to the direction the ship will go. Much like how planes must correct for wind speed and direction, so too does the ship while also taking into consideration the tidal movements and currents. All the while, the ship's course is both plotted on navigational charts and on the computer, alongside the depth measurements from the depth sounders.

The crew of the M.V. Ushuaia, captained by Jorge Aldegheri, merge all of these technologies in order to safely plot our course through the waters of the world's last uncharted wilderness, Antarctica.

- Ryden Armstrong, Participant

We have finally landed on the Antarctic continent and explored Brown Bluff today. Last night was surprising since the sunset posed of many different colors. Geoff, our expedition leader, allowed us to stay up later before our curfew just to see how wonderful it was.  We also saw 3 hump back whales and two more seals that night. Antarctica keeps leaving me speechless and even more when we explored it. We went on our handy zodiacs and the waves were really strong today. As we landed at Brown bluff I saw a huge volcano which is surrounded by enormous glaciers. This volcano has survived two glaciations periods and is said to be probably more than 15 million years old. Just being in this area makes me consider the world in a different aspect. This continent keeps surprising me and I enjoy ever moment of it.

- Estefani Chimbo, Participant

Antarctica just keeps getting more and more amazing! Last night we were allowed an extended curfew because the sunset was just absolutely spectacular. The extended curfew must've added to our good karma because we saw 3 hump back whales and two seals sitting on the ice flows. It was a whirlwind of an evening. The sun sets at 11:09pm and rises again at 2:30am. I am loving it! You can just fit so much into one day. I woke up this morning and we had 10 people out for yoga, which was awesome. After breakfast we headed out for a shore landing at Brown Bluff. There is a huge volcano there that is surrounded by massive glaciers. The volcanoes are more than 15 million years old and have survived two glacial periods. There were tons of Adelie penguins and some Gentoo penguins as well. There was also a small elephant seal lying out on the beach! It was quite the sight. I spent a lot of time observing the ways that the penguin and elephant seals reacted with each other. It is barely noon and we have already packed in more excitement and knowledge than the average person does in a week.

Looking at the lives of Geoff, Fred, Scobie, Fletch and all of the other veteran polar experts, their lives are packed full of adventure and stories and I think the key to an active lifestyle full of excitement, stories and interest starts with getting up early and using the day to its fullest potential! We are passing by a gallery of incredible icebergs; large ones, round ones, tabular ones, bright white, light blue. Wind sailing was also fabulous! We had a wicked awesome wind to be out on deck in. They are breath taking! Who knows what the rest of the day will bring, I am sure it will be wonderful!

- Jenna Gall, Participant

Yesterday we went out onto the zodiacs again but we got to go onto land this time. We made it out onto the Danger Islands and there was this huge Adelie penguin rookery; in fact, it's the biggest Adelie rookery in this part of the Antarctic. When we first made our way in the zodiac to the landing it looked like the island was covered in a bunch of rocks, but as we got closer I realized that they were penguins instead. When we got out of the zodiac we had to make sure that we stood far enough from the penguins and didn't get in there way. I just sat down and watched them go by and I was stunned at how close they came to me and how much they weren't afraid of me. I was even lucky enough to see a seal while I was sitting there. At first glance, I thought it was a big rock but then I noticed that it was breathing and I was in awe. I hope I get a chance to see even more seals up close.

We have been very fortunate with our weather; it's the perfect weather for the Antarctic and even the crew members who have been down this route before are excited. The weather is usually unpredictable and some days you don't even see any animals. We've been lucky enough to see all kinds of animals every day and to have a really nice sunny day. Today we're supposed to be taking the zodiacs and landing on the Antarctic continent itself....hopefully I get to see some more seals.

- Jess Dancer, Dancer

Flexibility is the key! Got up at 5am this morning (to a bright polar morning) to hopefully spot some Emperor penguins on the bridge. Sadly, it turns out that we had hit some sea ice a few hours earlier and had to turn back to follow our alternate route. But I get to get up at 5:30 tomorrow morning too, so hurray! (I'll decide whether that was sarcastic later). The last couple of zodiac landings have been simply incredible, spending time with the panicky Adelie penguins and the calmer Gentoos. It's awesome how close they get to you, sometimes within one foot. Nothing really keeps them from continuing their mission, whatever that may be. Not even a big dumb human being.

- J.P Renaud, Participant

Today was, in general, a seal day.  We Zodiac-ed to the land of Antarctica, not only an island around it! It had plenty of Adelie and Gentoo penguins.  There was also a single baby Elephant seal that was sleeping by the water.  A group of students gathered around the seal just wishing to observe it sleeping.  A few moments later, however, the seal moved like an oversized caterpillar a few feet forward.  Maybe it wanted to come closer to us, maybe it wanted to create a penguin passage behind it (the penguins were circling it rather uncertainly).  Either way, the movements brought the seal about five feet or so from the sitting students.  It continued to sleep, occasionally lifting its flippers to scratch its belly or head.  It also barked at a few penguins, but it posed them no real danger as Elephant seals do not eat our tuxedo-ed friends.  The seal was so human-like in its actions as it slept yet so monster-like in its size.  We returned to the ship and listened to a lecture about seals in the Antarctic.  Fun fact- did you know Elephant seals can dive down as much as two thousand meters into the freezing ocean, more than any other seal? And that Leopard seals eat penguins, though the majority of their diet is still the oh-so-common krill?  Male elephant seals have trunks, which makes them a tad ugly yet attract female seals?  'Twas an entertaining day, yep yep.

- Aleksandra Makowska, Participant

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Wow!  Each day just has more and more amazing adventures.  Today we were up and on the zodiacs early, taking a quick trip to Brown Bluff...our first actual steps on the continent of Antarctica.  There was another Adelie penguin rookery with many, many young birds.  Alex and I were very fortunate to watch a new penguin begin its life.  The parent bird was helping get the egg off the baby and we had quite a good look at this new little life.  It was adorable and a great experience for Alex and I to witness.  What an amazing continent this is!  We really need to protect it.

- Marion Woodman, Chaperone

Today was our first landing on the actual continent of Antarctica and it felt like we had really made it then. During our last landing I did not realize that I should stop to feel what it was like to be on land that was not swaying like our floating home. I paused for a second. I do not know if it really felt like land or not. It felt like "normal." Just how it is for the main part of our journey on our ship. I was not swaying or fully stationary -- it was a strange sensation. We ended the day by watching an Imax film that one of our staff, Alex, helped film. We even had a little contest to see who could guess where he appeared in the film. An interesting thing happened while we were watching. The story was talking about the boats and rocking, and just then our ship started to rock from side to side. It seemed very fitting. When people watch movies they either wish they could go to the place the movie is about or they remember the trip they had to that place. The film showed pictures from Elephant Island, where we landed. It was amazing to see a place that we had just visited.  It is just amazing to think that we can now watch a movie about Antarctica and can say we have been there!

- Kerry Morse, Participant

I woke up at five this morning, voluntarily.  It had been announced the night before that there would be the possibility of spotting emperor penguins early in the morning, and I was not going to miss that chance. 

When I arrived at the bridge, I discovered that because of the ice conditions, we had changed course and the ship was no longer entering emperor country.  Although disappointed, I took up a pair of binoculars and scanned the horizon anyway.  After a few minutes I noticed a small group of adelie penguins waddling around on an ice floe.  Then a seal (it was hard to identify, but was probably a leopard seal) jumped up beside the ice floe, near some of the penguins.  Wings flapping frantically, they all scrambled to the other side of the ice floe, only to be met by the seal again.  It had popped up on the other side.  The ship was moving quickly, and we soon passed them, so I never learned the outcome of the penguin vs. seal encounter.  However, something else immediately caught my attention.  There was a penguin sitting alone on an iceberg.  It was much larger than the adelie, chinstrap and gentoo penguins that I have already encountered, and it had some yellow plumage on its chest.  It must be an emperor penguin!  I stared silently at it through my binoculars, and for a moment considered getting out my camera.  There was still enough time for me to whip it out of my bag, pop off the cap, flick it on, zoom in, focus and snap the picture.  But I didn’t.  It was just one of those moments where I didn’t have the heart to take a picture.  Although I may not have the moment preserved as a photo, the memory will stay with me for the rest of my life. 

- Olivia Rempel, Participant

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