Day Seven - Danco Island

 

We began our final day in Antarctica with a fantastic view of icebergs drifting nearby.  Each is of a unique size, shape and color.  Several of them dwarfed the Special Operations Boat (SOB) in the foreground. The SOBs are 40' in length.

As a bergy (small iceberg) floated by, the clear water provided a great view below the waterline.  Only about 1/10th of an iceberg is visible above the water.  Any questions?  Ask the Titanic.

In the hanger, passengers que up for a zodiac tour.  Staff check to see that life jackets and other safety equipment are properly in place.  
 

Once aboard, the zodiac ride to shore will take 5 to 10 minutes.

Going to shore, two humpbacked whales surfaced about 40 yards on our left.  We slowed down to watch,  one can never see too many whales!

Danco Island is a favorite location for penguin rookeries.  One has to be careful walking to avoid tripping over these adorable birds.

These penguins have just come ashore after an early morning breakfast swim. Fish are their primary food source.  Clean feathers is another indication of a swim.  Once ashore they waddle through guano and become quite dirty.

To reboard the zodiac, we wade through ankle deep water.  Our rubber arctic boots come up to our knees.  The boots are insulated and very warm!

Back onboard, the kitchen has outdone themselves with an "everything chocolate" dessert table.

The kitchen must have used a quarter ton of chocolate in the spread!

 Before leaving the World Cafe, the chef provided Jan with a two pound slab of dark chocolate.  What more could a vegan ask for?

As we departed Danco Island for Argentina, we passed another exploration ship, the only one we have seen since leaving port 7 days ago.  The Monrova Expedition is about half the size of the Viking Octantus and much older.  They will have an exciting trip back across the Drake Passage soon.  I hope they have lots of sea sick pills aboard!

Day Six - Neko Harbour

Our zodiac struggled this morning through sea ice toward the rocky shore. From a quarter-mile out, we could see "dots" in the snow, gentoo penguins.

At the landing area, a single gentoo penguin casually walked by ignoring us.

On the ridge above, a waddle of  penguins gathered to view the distant glacier.  Most of these penguins are nearing the end of their moulting, a two-week period when they shed their old feathers and new ones replace them. During this period, they are unable to swim and thus are fasting. Fish are their only diet.  Once their moulting is complete, they will return to the sea.  Soon after they will begin their migration north where they will winter in warmer waters.

An elephant seal rested above the shoreline among the penguins.  (The brown bulge in the photo center.)  This bull seal was likely 13' long and weighted more than two tons.

By the time we returned to the Octantus, the sea ice had drifted on.  After lunch Gene was scheduled for a ride in the submarine. 

It was a half-mile ride by zodiac to reach the sub.  Octantus carries two subs, this one was named Paul.  Our sub's pilot had already performed his pre-dive checks and was waiting  topside for our arrival.

Six passengers accompany the pilot on each dive, three passengers on each side.  The quarters are tight and the interior reminds me of the early Apollo space capsules used by astronauts.  They spent a couple of weeks aboard on their journeys compared to one hour for our dive.

We descended 770' to the bottom of the ocean.  There is virtually no natural light at this depth and depended on the sub's exterior lighting to view our surroundings.  

Vegetation was non-existent (no light, no plants) and only a few simple creatures to be seen.  This Antarctic sun starfish lives on the sea bed and can grow to 24" in diameter.

Gene's vanity photo seated in the submarine Paul.

 

Day Five - Skontorp (Paradise Bay)

 

At 8 AM the Viking Octantus arrived at Paradise Bay under cloudy skies.  Considering that the prior day was a washout, both passengers and crew were eager to leave the ship.  About sunrise, passengers were arriving on the bow watching for wildlife.

Penguins were abundant!  Every few minutes a raft of the birds could be seen near the ship.

 

A minke whale surfaced on the starboard side of the ship.  The minkee is the second smallest whale; the male grows to about 28' in length and weighs in at 15 tons.

Early afternoon, Jan boarded a special operations boat (SOB) for a harbour tour.  These excursion boats hold 12 passenger, are of aluminum construction and have two 450 H.P. turbo engines.  They are able to rapidly reach distant areas where wildlife has been spotted. 

In a few minutes time we were next to three humpback whales, two adults and a calf.

The whales provided a magnificent performance including prominent displays of their flukes.  

 Returning to the Octantus, everyone agreed that it had been a very productive day of viewing Antarctic wildlife.

Day Four - Mekkelsen Harbour

After a beautiful day at Demoy Point, rain set in and the wind picked up.  The Captain chose to travel about 200 miles north overnight hoping for better weather.  The forecast there was for clearing weather and calm winds.    This is what greeted us on our arrival at Mekkelsen Harbour.  It had rained hard all night and the winds were still 30 knots.  

The 24-hour rain had created an unsafe landing area for our zodiacs.  Besides the mud, gooey guano (penguin poop) created a slippery mess!  This, along with the stiff wind caused all operations here to be cancelled.  The Octantus turned around and headed south hoping for a better day tomorrow.  Gene had been scheduled for a submarine ride here.  Hopefully it can be rescheduled. 
 

Day Three - Damoy Point

 

The morning was sunny with a calm breeze as two "red penguins" head for the hanger to board a zodiac.  Dressed for the weather, they are outfitted with about 20 pounds of gear.

The zodiacs transport 10 passengers at a time between the Octantus and the shoreline.  Today's calm wind made for an easy trip.

The zodiacs stopped about 10 yards from the shoreline because of low tide.  We hopped over the side into calf-deep water and waded ashore.  Small bolder-sized rocks made debarkation challenging. 

Once ashore, we trekked up a gentle slop to reach the penguin rookery. 

A few cute penguins like this one made the morning trek worthwhile. 

Later in the afternoon, we cruised by the Port Lockroy Station.  This historic British facility is one of the few shoreline stations operating year around.  It is difficult to see, but the station is surrounded by gentoo penguins.

 

Blue Ice is seen frequently.  This ice comes from glaciers that have compressed snow for thousands of years squeezing out most of the air.  The resulting crystal refracts sunlight creating the blue color.

Day Two - Petermann Island

 

 Day two we arrived at Petermann Island.  This photo is of the beautiful sunset as our ship sailed the Lemaire Channel.  I will be adding more photos of this day's activities and a lot of shots of wildlife.  The days here are quite busy and it is difficult to find time to sort, process and upload photos to this blog.  Let me give you a typical day's schedule:

The day begins early with breakfast about 8 AM.  By 9:30 AM it's time to dress for the morning excursion.  It requires about 40 minutes to put on 3-layers before the final outer layer.  Then the Arctic boots are added.  With all this gear, we waddle like penguins to the zodiac for our 90 minute excursion.  Returning, we strip for lunch, and then begin the redressing process again for an afternoon excursion.  Finally by 5 PM we can dress down for dinner, eat and then collapse.  Most days I'm too tired to process photos for the blog, thus they are usually a couple of days late. Tonight I hope to uploade some great whale, seal and penguin photos.

Our zodiac was only a short distance from the Octantus when we came across a raft of gentoo penguins in the water.  They are very efficient swimmers and leap out of the water like porpoises as they move.  They can swim 22 miles per hour and dive up to 600 feet.  Their speed is their only defense against leopard seals and killer whales.

Near Petermann Island gentoo penguins began to appear.  It is late in the southern summer and many have already began their migration north for the winter.

The penguins still here are young birds that have not completed their moulting. This is the process where they lose all their "baby" feathers and cannot swim until their new feathers have grown, a process that takes a couple of weeks.

Icebergs are everywhere.

Three humpback whales decided to play with the Zodiacs.  Because of their size, they could have easily overturned our rubber boats, but they were probably only curious about us.

 

One of the whales stuck its head above the surface for a look around.

Later we found a juvenile leopard seal sunning itself on an ice flow.  This one was about 6' long.  Male's can grow to about 11' in length and weigh about 660 pounds.

Then we spotted a mature male leopard seal nearby.

First Stop In Antarctica-Melchior Island

 

We finally arrived at the continent of snow and ice on Saturday.  We have been blessed with exceptional weather; sun, low wind and mild temperatures in the 20s and low 30s.   Approaching the continent, icebergs were continually around us.  Some were larger than our 600' ship (remember that only 1/10th of an iceberg appears above the ocean's surface.)

Our stop for the day was at Melchior Island off the coast of the Antarctic Peninsula.  The Viking Octantus positioned itself in a small bay.  About 9 AM groups of 10 boarded rubber Zodiacs to explore the shoreline.  Visitors are restricted from stepping onshore here since it is an active research area.  Our task for the day was to observe wildlife.

On the shoreline we found Melchior Research Station.  At the moment, it is unoccupied, so seals have taken advantage of the area.

This time of year (fall), the juvenile male seals practice sparring preparing for manhood and the privilege of having their own harem. 

These adolescent seals are not yet fully grown, but are still several hundred pounds. Penguins, the darlings of the Antarctic, are not present on this island.  We will see them tomorrow on Petermann Island.

Traveling to Ushuaia

 Our 13 hour flight turned into a 36 hour adventure!  Getting to Ushuaia, the southern most city in the world, was interrupted by a 24-hour strike of airport personnel in Buenos Aries on Wednesday so flights and luggage were all rescheduled and rerouted.  But we made it and embarked on the ship Thursday evening about 5PM.   Since nearly all of the passengers were in the same situation, departure was postponed until everyone arrived.  There were only a few passengers who lost their luggage and have been begging for handouts to wear during the 2-week voyage.

The next two days were spent sleeping as we crossed Drake Passage, the roughest sea in the world.  The crossing can be either "Drake Lake" (very smooth) or "Drake Shake" (very rough).  We fortunately enjoyed Drake Lake.