The open
seas have been a bit rough all night and all of today. We heard that a Fin
Whale and maybe a Blue Whale was sighted, though the naturalists on board
couldn’t confirm the Blue Whale with the photo that was provided by the guy
that thinks he saw one. The Fin Whale was definite.
Breakfast
and especially lunch was not overly attended, I suspect due to the rocking and
rolling of the ocean. It definitely has been a one hand on the ship kind of day
if not 2 hands on the ship when possible, timing walking with the pitch of the
ship. At lunch my fork that was resting on my plate was thrown and hit the
floor at the lady’s feet at the table next to us. We had a presentation on
types of whales and later in the day a talk by the geologist on the beautiful fjords
we saw yesterday. We have a porthole room and during the open seas they have
bolted it shut so it makes for a dark room. I guess we get our lost hour of
sleep back tonight as we are getting closer to Antarctica.
During the
evening briefing Shane said we may need to skip Elephant Island since we had
lost time trying to navigate in the rough ocean.
We had
already gone to bed when an announcement came over the speaker that there was a
10 mile long iceberg in the distance. We decided we could miss that. We were
later told that it was very hard to see in the distance so we felt better about
skipping it.
Here is today's program:
Tuesday,
December 29th, 2015 -En Route To Antarctica
07:00 -
08:00 A Continental Breakfast is served outside the
Main Lounge
08:00 -
09:00 Breakfast is served in the Dining Room
09:15 Our Marine Biologist, Liz,
will be in the Main Lounge presenting “Whales of the Southern Ocean”
11:00 Please join Sam in the Main
Lounge for her presentation, “Living and Working in South Georgia”
12:30 Lunch is served in the Dining Room
14:30 Please join Mark for his presentation, “Seabird
Conservation”, in the Main Lounge
16:15 Our Geologist, Will, will
be in the Main Lounge presenting on “The Extraordinary Geology of South Georgia.”
18:30 Following Dinner we will have a Recap & Briefing in the
Main Lounge
19:30 Dinner is served in the Dining Room
21:15 Please join Will in the
Main Lounge after dinner for his bar talk, “For Bataar, or for Worse”
“How fresh was every sight and
sound on open main or winding shore! We knew the merry world was round, and we
might sail for evermore.” -The Voyage,
Tennyson
Sunrise:
03:51 Sunset: 21:30
December 30,
2015 - Approaching
Antarctica
The seas
were much calmer today. We spent some time out on deck watching the birds and
the occasional iceberg.
Cape Petrel
Cape Petrel
Cape Petrel
Cape Petrel
me staying out of the wind
Cape Petrels
Since we
just left South Georgia and will be in Antarctica next we had to do another Bio-Safety
check of our gear so that we don’t transport any seeds or anything from place
to place.
Very
interesting lectures today. Nikita is world renown for his research on Polar
Bears and he gave a talk and showed the movie made about him and the Polar Bears.
It was
announced that since the captain was able to make up the lost time from
yesterday we are still on track for Elephant Island. The room cheered. IF we
are lucky we will get a 1 hour zodiac cruise and a possible landing.
We also were
told that we may not make it across the circle. The ice is slow this year and
may not be broken up enough for us to cross. But, he doesn’t rule it
out. We have several days before we get there for more to break up.
He also said
that we may have a very slim chance of seeing Emperor Penguins, since we will be
about 65 kilometers from where they sometimes are. So, we all will be paying
extra attention out on deck at each passing penguin on the small bergs.
Since we are headed into areas where we will see more ice, here are some definitions:
Icebergs are
pieces of ice that formed on land and float in an ocean or lake. Icebergs come
in all shapes and sizes, from ice-cube-sized chunks to ice islands the size of
a small country. The term "iceberg" refers to chunks of ice larger
than 16 feet across.
Bergy Bits are usually less 15 feet in size and are
generally spawned from disintegrating icebergs.
Growlers are less than 6.6 feet
across that floats with less than 3.3 feet showing above the water.
Floe Ice is
a usually large flat free mass of floating sea ice
Pack Ice is an
expanse of large pieces of floating ice driven together into a nearly
continuous mass, as occurs in polar seas.
Here is today's program:
07:00 -
08:00 A Continental Breakfast is served outside the
Main Lounge
08:00 -
09:00 Breakfast is served in the Dining Room
09:15 We will be conducting
another Bio-Security Cleaning Procedure for our arrival to Antarctica. We will once again be
using the Main Lounge and the Library. Please stand-by for announcements.
11:00 Please join Hadleigh in the
Main Lounge for his presentation, “The Contribution of Contingency: The Story of the
Swedish South Polar Expedition”
12:30 Lunch is served in the Dining Room
14:30 Please join Will in the
Main Lounge for his presentation, “Ice, Ice, Baby: Glaciers and Icebergs of Antarctica”
16:15 Please join Sam in the Main Lounge for her presentation,
“Polar Photography: Part 2”
18:30 There will be a Recap & Briefing in the Main Lounge
19:30 Dinner is served in the Dining Room
21:15 Please join Nikita in the
Main Lounge as he introduces his film “Life On The Field of Bones"
“Some people have told me they
don't think a fat penguin really embodies the grace of Linux, which just tells me they have
never seen an angry penguin charging at them in excess of 100mph. They'd be a lot more
careful about what they say if they had.” - Linus Torvalds, creator of the
Linux computer operating system.
Sunrise:
03:02 Sunset: 21:21
Here are some photos of areas around the ship:
the glassed in outer hallway
at the head of each staircase there was some type of artwork
my favorite photo of the lighthouse in the Falklands - time-lapsed wave
the bridge
dining room
staircase between decks
smaller bar (mainly where the staff had their meals)
this is the area (one on each side of the ship) where we boarded the zodiacs and the washing station where we washed our boots before and after an excursion.
outside of the library
my muck boots
the hall outside of our cabin
Well, our fingers are crossed that we get to visit Point Wild on Elephant Island tomorrow.
I forgot to comment on the fjords, they were lovely along with the photos from your sail away. I appreciate the lesson on icebergs and the various definitions. The photos from around the ship gave me a feel for what the ship was really like. The Quark company seems very diligent in how they handle the equipment along with the itinerary. I too like the lighthouse photo.
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