Ship Day 14: The Antarctic Peninsula

December 9, 2016     (reprinted from allisonwanderssome.wordpress.com)

 

The Vavilov docked in the ice 

Another fantastic day on this amazing adventure! We have been so so lucky with the weather, it’s crazy. I thought at 5:30 am when I got up that things were looking bleak but the sun broke through and our first outing was absolutely perfect. The ship cruised into Wilhelmina Bay about 7:00 am, so we were off on the zodiacs by 9:00 am. They’ve been offering “photographic cruises” on the first few zodiacs to leave – these would stay out longer, spending plenty of time at each “sight” making sure everyone had a chance to take as many pictures as they wanted, and to offer camera advice as needed. The problem this morning was that they couldn’t fill the 2nd boat so rather than wait around for another boat, Sheila and I hopped aboard. I was a bit worried as I’m just a point-and-shoot photographer and I thought I might get bored or cold but that just wasn’t possible today. We started our excursion by checking out the ship, which had pushed its nose into the fast ice, effectively anchoring it in position. The Vavilov has an ice-strengthened hull so this wasn’t a worry and it was fun to watch it drive itself right up into it.

Then we checked out some seals and Arctic terns that were camped out on the ice, before switching over to shoot iceberg shots. By this time the grey sky had cleared and warm sunshine was filling the sky and every photo looked great. We cruised around the large bay looking for wildlife but came up a bit short in that department. We did come across a very large group of shags (a type of cormorant) that flew away, flew in circles, dive bombed us, chilled out on rocks, swam for us, ignored us, and came over to check us out.  It was amazing. We’d watch them for the longest time, cruise away, and they’d follow us! Our driver said that in 5 years he’d never seen a thing like it!  The stray Chinstrap or Gentoo penguins that we saw got short shrift compared to these shags.  It was noon before we returned to the ship and I immediately began to edit the 425 pictures I took down to about 50! Luckily my aim isn’t that great so the task wasn’t too onerous.:-)



Lunch was an Asian Fusian buffet (more delicious food!) then a 2-hour cruise to our afternoon landing at Cuverville Island. Nate, the expedition leader, described the landing as Gentoo heaven with the option of checking out the various little colonies, going for a good hike, or just chilling on the shore and watching the penguins play. This happened to be the one time I forgot my ankle brace and the hike was straight uphill in the deep soft snow, the rookeries were both left and right a distance through the deep soft snow, and the shore was filled with uneven large rocks! So I found a nice-sized boulder and sat in the warm sun right there by the zodiacs and watched a few little penguins cavort in the surf and waddle back and forth in front of me. I was perfectly happy with just being a passive observer.



P.S. As was mentioned at lunch the staff actually offered a 3rd trip this evening – leaving after dinner at 8:30 pm there would be a trip to (missed the name), a beach actually on the Antarctic Peninsula so those worried about not actually stepping on the 7th Continent would have their chance. There is a planned landing tomorrow but it’s always weather dependent and today we’re having stupendous weather so why not give it a go today?  It’s light so late at night, in fact it only seems like right afternoon now and it’s already 9:20pm as I write this, that time wasn’t a factor.  It wasn’t described as an excursion that I could do with my ankle so Annie and I and a select few decided sit this one out.  Instead, I was able to photograph the intrepid folks blazing a trail up the snow-laden slope to a remote Chinstrap rookery with a killer view from the warmth and coziness of the top deck bar!!