Catching up with and sorting out our blog hasn’t been easy. In the process we have mixed ourselves up as to who should have been writing on which day. Never mind, everyday has been covered.
We were very lucky to have 3 sunny and relatively mild days. Today is a much more typical Antarctic day. Windy, cold and with blowing snow. This morning’s activity was a zodiac cruise around Curtiss Bay, an indent in the coast of Graham Land between Cape Sterneck and Cape Andreas on the Davis Coast.
We were just 4 participants in the zodiac, Dennis and I and 2 American ladies, but we were honoured to have Mariam, our Expedition Leader, as our zodiac driver. We saw breaching hump back whales and did a tour around the bay looking at icebergs. When the weather is cloudy and overcast, the blue colours are more pronounced. We returned wet and cold and covered in a layer of snow.
Dennis turned down the opportunity to get cold and wet again in the afternoon. I ventured out on the excursion to Mikkelsen Harbour, a small indent on the south side of Trinity Island between Skottsberg Point and Borge Point in the Palmer Archipelago. It was used by sealers and Norwegian whalers at the beginning of the 20th century.
The weather was pretty grim. The worst conditions we had been out in. Someone in our zodiac asked about the beacon on a rock and was advised it was a navigation aid, as there was a hidden reef in the bay. Our zodiac driver told us not to worry as they knew the route well. Fortunately as the water was so choppy we were going slowly, as soon after this we hit rocks. Everyone looked a bit shocked, but there were no casualties. I think, Gabriel, our driver was a bit embarrassed though.
Disembarking the zodiac we were surrounded by gentoo penguins. The smell from the colonies is not pleasant. Also wandering among the penguins, were snowy sheathbills.
A young elephant seal going through the molting process, lay on the shore, completely ignoring the onlooking tourists.
Walking up the hill past the penguins nesting on the bare rocky outcrops, we had to stop a number of times to let penguins pass. They follow the same path and compress the snow into a penguin highway. There were Skuas circling around trying to steal penguin eggs, but the penguins were scaring them off.
Over the hill were the remains of a whaling boat and whale bones, plus more seals and penguins. The wind was strong and bitterly cold and it was quite a struggle back up the hill in the deep snow. Once back on the returning zodiac the wind had picked up even more and it was seriously rough. Unfortunately, I was as the front of the zodiac so got drenched with the water spraying over us every time we hit a large wave.
I was quite pleased to be safely back on board and rushed back to our cabin to get out of my wet clothes, before visiting the Club Lounge for hot chocolate and cakes. There is a big Christmas tree and a display with all sorts of chocolates and sweets for guests to help themselves to. We couldn’t walk past without helping ourselves to a few.
After our evening meeting to recap on the day and a briefing on tomorrow’s events, which being Christmas are a bit different, we went to dinner. After dinner, as we have now upgraded to a higher category WiFi package, we went up to the Club Lounge, where the WiFi appears to be strongest, to set about trying to catch up with the blog.
One of the expedition team, Alexis, who was our kayak leader, came over and said he had a video he wanted to share with us. He also tried to help us trying to move pictures from our different devices into the blog, having been involved in IT, before becoming involved in expeditions. Sadly we couldn’t do this, with the WiFi package only being allowed on one device. At the moment all the pictures in the blog have been taken by Dennis with his cannon camera.
After dinner a carol concert had been arranged. I went to see if this was still in progress. One of the crew was giving a solo performance, but this was just coming to an end. We returned to our cabin to find a facecloth made into a snowman and chocolates on the bed. It has become quite rocky so I don’t know how well we will sleep.
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