Last night wasn’t as bad! Flipping to the opposite side of the bed helped a lot. In addition, from peak to valley I was only able to count from one to five which is a great improvement over the previous night. I slept almost the whole night, but was awoken to the sound of Brad rummaging through the fridge for water at 1am. I coaxed Brad out of bed to get some breakfast this morning. He showered then met me in the dining room just in time for some pancakes and oatmeal to be ready for him. He slowly ate, but at least he ate some food. You can tell that the head cold and sea sickness were not doing him any justice in enjoying his trip.
Our first lecture was presented by Heidi, on glaciers. The presentation was fascinating. She spoke in detail about how glaciers formed and how they lose mass. She briefly spoke about climate change and how the melting of the ice caps would affect the rest of the world. Since it’s such a complex topic, she was not able to hit all the points but I did spend some time after the lecture asking some additional questions. She happily obliged and answered all the questions I could have about glaciers and the effects of climate change.
While waiting for the next lecture, I headed out on deck and took some photos of the scenery. The next lecture was on the biology of penguins and the types of penguins there are in Antarctica. We were told that we were likely to see: Gentoo, Macaroni, Chin Strap, and Adeli penguins. The least likely penguin we were likely to see was the emperor penguin because they’re so far south. Unfortunately, that’s the one I was hoping to see the most because of the movie Happy Feet. After the lecture we grabbed lunch which had turkey, gravy, and cranberry options. I was SO HAPPY because it felt like Thanksgiving. At the conclusion of lunch we had a camping instruction which we were required to attend. At this instruction we split up into groups and learned what to expect for our outing. We would head out from the ship, after dinner. We would then dig a hole in the snow for us to sleep in, crawl in our sleeping bags and arise at 4am to head back to the ship for breakfast. Toilet facilities (a bucket) would be located down wind, behind a snow embankment with an occupied light for those in desperate need. Although, it was highly encouraged to use the facilities onboard ship before going out since the crew can’t leave the bucket there. After the meeting we received our sleeping bags, sleeping bag liners, and bibi bag. We were instructed to assemble the bags in our room and roll them up so we could be ready to go if everything goes right. No sooner had I assembled my camping gear when we got the announcement that we would be making an excursion out to the island at 4pm. I unpacked everything I would need, then got dressed in my layers to prepare for the zodiac trip.
For the first trip I dressed a little conservatively. I wore waterproof boots, two thermal socks, thermal bottoms, thermal snow pants, thermal top, polo shirt, heavy fleece sweater, and my expedition parka. I put thin glove liners on, and packed the thicker snow gloves in my waterproof bag. I also applied sunscreen, a winter cap, and sunglasses. In my waterproof bag I packed some spare gear, my camera, and a scarf or two. When the call came to come and enter the zodiac, I was set. The crew helped me into the Zodiac which appears to be a rubber craft with a wooden floor and motor at the back. They are also incredibly sturdy. We had 9 people on-board and it didn’t sag, suffer, or deflate at all. I was surprised! After a short two minute ride to the shore, we were there! We got out of the craft and there I was… on my sixth continent. As soon as we hit the shore we saw penguins! We were briefed of what to expect when we arrived on-shore and I quickly grabbed my camera from my bag. I was only able to get 15 feet away from the penguin by law so I knelt down on the rocks to grab a better picture. Unfortunately, I took the knee right into penguin poop. Oh well, that’s why we have waterproof pants. We also saw an old wooden whaling boat, some ice burgs, and a lot of chin strap penguins stealing pebbles from each other to make their nest larger. We hiked up the island to get a good view of the land, and saw some penguin highways from the top of the mountain to the ocean. It was really fun to see! I hiked for about a half mile and wound up at the top of a hill near a cluster of several penguins. By the time I had made it back to the zodiac I was pretty tired. I climbed into the zodiac and was surprised to learn that one of the kayak guides had seen an emperor penguin around the island. Our zodiac guide, John- the photographer- drove us over to the location of the penguin.
Along the journey, we saw a bunch of iceburgs and we heard that a whale was spotted near our vicinity. Unfortunately, I didn’t see the whale but not for lack of trying. While we were pulling up to the penguins I couldn’t help but notice how clear the water was. I was surprised to see that we could see rocks very clearly about 15 feet below us. It was absolutely stunning. When we actually saw the emperor penguin, the little guy seemed to be stranded on below a 3′ ledge of snow. Compared with the other penguins he looked much larger. It was interesting because a chin strap pengin swam up next to him just so you could see his size. As we backed away from the penguin site, one of the other people on our boat asked the guide what would happen to this penguin. John didn’t sugar coat it… he said “oh, he’ll die.” Unfortunately, that’s a sad fact of nature. On the way back to the boat we sped back at a decent speed. It was a LOT of fun. We climbed out of the zodiac pretty tired. It’s a lot of work walking around the island in snow, with all those clothes and gear on. For the next trip, I’m going to thin out my additional bag to some essentials.
Brad and I dropped our stuff off at the room and met up at the bar for some coffee. I grabbed my camera and checked out some of the pictures I took. I was pretty pleased with the first day. Dinner was served and I had a lovely meal with some of the people on the boat. The meal was spaghetti in a white sauce with some sea food. It was pretty tasty. I had a great meal with awesome conversation about run clubs in other countries with Keith and his wife Mo (from the UK) and experiences with others being on boats. After dinner we had a post expedition briefing where we talked about what we saw, and discussed what to expect tomorrow. From there, I went up to the bar to grab a quick drink, enjoy the music, and do some writing. I must say, this is has been an exhausting day and I can’t wait for tomorrow. This is bound to be interesting!
