Mikkelsen Harbour & Portal Point, Antarctic Peninsula Landing

January 2

In the morning we had a landing at Mikkelsen Harbour followed by a zodiac cruise of the area. Absolutely stunning scenery. While we were waiting out on deck for our zodiac to be called it was snowing. Just gentle snow that really added to the ambiance of being in Antarctica.

 approaching Mikkelsen's Harbour

 

We knew the stops today were not huge on wildlife, but were huge on jaw-dropping beauty. here was a Gentoo colony as well as a few Weddell Seals. There were some abandoned buildings and an old boat and a compilation of whale bones.

There were no long hikes here and it was nice to have a less strenuous morning. We heard lots of loud cracks & booms of glacier calving all around. Of course, by the time you hear them they have already fallen.

 remains of a whaler's "water boat"

 various types of whale bones

 landing spot

 

After we were finished walking about we had the option of going back to the ship or going on a zodiac cruise of the area. We heard glacier calving while on the zodiac cruise. We  even got to see some fall.

 

After lunch we had quite a bit of time before the afternoon excursion to take in the scenic beauty as we sailed to Portal Point.

 me chillin' and enjoying the view...

 Cape Petrel

 Southern Giant Petrel

 we watched them use a crane to move this from one deck to another.....

 Krill fishing boats

 

In the afternoon, we went to Portal Point which was our 2^nd Continent landing. First, we hiked a pretty snowy steep hill for the beautiful views.

 the landing site

 me

 kayakers in the bay

 

After that we hiked back down and then hiked to another area where we watched Humpback Whales for a while. We even caught a glimpse of a mother and baby Humpback whales.  After that short stop we proceeded to climb to the top of the ice cap to walk around it. The ice cap was actually an easier hike than the first one. We saw a few Chinstrap & Gentoo Penguins and some Seals. It was a pretty awesome experience to walk on the ice cap and hiking in the snow was fun.

An ice cap is a glacier, a thick layer of ice and snow, that covers fewer than 50,000 square kilometers (19,000 square miles). Glacial ice covering more than 50,000 square kilometers (19,000 square miles) is called an ice sheet.

 pink penguin guano stained snow

 people hiking down from the ice cap

 me resting before we head up the hill

 my boot in the stained snow

 mother & baby Humpbacks

 me making a face at Greg

 more pink stained penguin poo snow

 

We actually didn't see very much pink guano on this trip. It is stained from the krill that the penguins eat and it was a "bad krill year" so they are eating fish instead. Fishermen are over-fishing the krill. So, I took a few photos of it as we expected it to be everywhere we went.

Then after our return to the ship we got another treat of seeing a large pod of Humpback Whales bubble net feeding. We saw them make the bubble ring, but not really coming up in the center of it like we saw in Alaska. We did see lots of tails and activity in the water. At one point we watched the mother and baby porpoise through the water and both tails came up in unison. (no pictures of that)

 Bubble Net



We actually had no briefings over the next few days. We didn't know there wasn't one tonight, but while we were in the lounge we could see the Whale performance going on outside. Tonight there was just no time for a briefing as our excursion ran right into dinner.

Here is today's program:

Antarctic Peninsula - Mikkelsen Harbour & Portal Point

06:30 - 07:30 A Continental Breakfast is served outside the Main Lounge

07:30 - 08:30 Breakfast is served in the Dining Room

TBA We hope to land Mikkelsen Harbour

Mikkelsen Harbour lies on the southern coast of Trinity Island at the northern end of the Palmer

Archipelago. The site was discovered by Nordenskjöld 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. 

1) McNeish 2) Shackleton 3) Worsley 4) Crean 5) McCarthy 6) Vincent

12:30 Lunch is served in the Dining Room

TBA We plan to land at Portal Point

Portal Point lies at the entrance to Charlotte Bay on the Reclus Peninsula, on the west coast of Graham Land. It was named by the British after they built a refuge hut at this site in 1956,

enabling them to use a nearby snow slope as a gateway up onto the Peninsula plateau. The hut was occupied between 1956 and 1958. Research conducted from this field hut focused on surveying the region and geology. The building was dismantled in 1997 and taken to the Falkland Islands where it is now an exhibit in the museum at Stanley. Portal Point is also very scenic due to the surrounding mountains, crevassed glaciers and glacial tongues that extend down to sea level. 

1) Shackleton 2) Worsley 3) Crean 4) McCarthy 5) Vincent 6) McNeish

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 the Expedition Team in the Main Lounge for some fun and games with the

“The Great Southern Race” (also canceled)

“Glittering white, shining blue, raven black, in the light of the sun, the land looks like a fairy tale. Pinnacle after pinnacle, peak after peak - crevassed, wild as any land on our globe, it lies, unseen and untrodden.” - Roald Amundsen 

Sunrise: 03:05 Sunset: 23:49

Tomorrow and the next day would have been sea days en route to the Antarctic Circle, but Shane & the bridge had been busy planning things to fill our next 2 days. It's a combination of places we can get to with the ice situation and places we could get permission to go to. The program for tomorrow said they "hoped" we could transit the Lemaire Channel & Expedition Day. I guess we will find out tomorrow what pans out! Quark, the Captain and Shane our expedition leader, are to be commended for filling our days with excursions instead of just sitting in the lounge listening to lectures. Shane said we all paid a lot of money to see and experience Antarctica and he would rather we experience it instead of being told about it.