Overnight we crossed the Antarctica Convergence where the relatively warm waters of the South Atlantic, Pacific and Indian Oceans meet the colder waters of the Southern Ocean. On our crossing, this boundary was marked by a band of fog. This area really marked our entry to Antarctica, the air felt chillier, huge grey tabular icebergs loomed on the horizon, birds were left behind and even the Albatross said NO.
And then there was land – The South Shetland Islands came into view, hinting at the continent itself, the islands were snow covered, igneous rock and looked like chocolate marble cake.
Zodiacs were launched that first evening and in glorious late evening sunshine ( we were to get no night for 2 weeks) we landed at Barrientos Island in the Aitcho Group. We saw our first fur seals, Chinstrap Penguins Antarctic skuas and a lonely King penguin. The King was 800 miles away from South Georgia which is where they nest and is where he should have been. It was very sad to watch him call for his mate. It would have had no chance of meeting up with another King Penguin ever again, and was doomed to spend the rest of his life mateless and as an alien ion a colony of temperamental, stone robbing, noisy and smelly chinstraps. The feisty attitude of the chinstraps was hilarious and I think they are my favourite penguins.
The following day we landed at Half Moon Island in the morning and then sailed into the caldera of an active volcano at Deception Island. You enter trough a narrow channel that the sea has breached and is known as Neptune’s Bellows, a steep sided volcanic channel. Here (at Pendulum Cove) we went swimming!! However, deception was a good name as despite the promise of the steam rising from the hot steam vents, the water was either at -1C or +50C and with little happy medium, and with a minus 10C air temperature, undressing from all our layers and replacing them on the windswept volcanic sand beach was far from tropical – but we had swum in the Antarctic – so tick in that box.
We typically went ashore twice a day for up to 3 to 4 hours at a time. All landings were on beaches or on rocks and were wet – i.e. we needed wellingtons as we had to step into the water each time. We were then free to wander where we wanted or just sit and let the penguins approach us – which many did as they inquisitive and have no fear of humans as they have no land based predators. Overnight we sailed across the Bransfield Strait to Danco Island and the Leamire???? Channel which is the Antarctic Peninsula proper. It was cloudy and snowing with poor visibility as we zodiaced for 4 hours through the Leamire Channel – we did not know it until the return journey but this is also known as Kodak Gap as it is so photogenic – but we saw very little but had the adventure of zodiacing around the icebergs and the brash ice. I remember seeing our ship sail past us in the fog which was eerie, and we met it on the other side of the Lemaire. .
By now it was new year’s eve and how bizarre to celebrate it in daylight at midnight on the deck of a ship in Antarctica. Happy New Year!
And then there was land – The South Shetland Islands came into view, hinting at the continent itself, the islands were snow covered, igneous rock and looked like chocolate marble cake.
Zodiacs were launched that first evening and in glorious late evening sunshine ( we were to get no night for 2 weeks) we landed at Barrientos Island in the Aitcho Group. We saw our first fur seals, Chinstrap Penguins Antarctic skuas and a lonely King penguin. The King was 800 miles away from South Georgia which is where they nest and is where he should have been. It was very sad to watch him call for his mate. It would have had no chance of meeting up with another King Penguin ever again, and was doomed to spend the rest of his life mateless and as an alien ion a colony of temperamental, stone robbing, noisy and smelly chinstraps. The feisty attitude of the chinstraps was hilarious and I think they are my favourite penguins.
The following day we landed at Half Moon Island in the morning and then sailed into the caldera of an active volcano at Deception Island. You enter trough a narrow channel that the sea has breached and is known as Neptune’s Bellows, a steep sided volcanic channel. Here (at Pendulum Cove) we went swimming!! However, deception was a good name as despite the promise of the steam rising from the hot steam vents, the water was either at -1C or +50C and with little happy medium, and with a minus 10C air temperature, undressing from all our layers and replacing them on the windswept volcanic sand beach was far from tropical – but we had swum in the Antarctic – so tick in that box.
We typically went ashore twice a day for up to 3 to 4 hours at a time. All landings were on beaches or on rocks and were wet – i.e. we needed wellingtons as we had to step into the water each time. We were then free to wander where we wanted or just sit and let the penguins approach us – which many did as they inquisitive and have no fear of humans as they have no land based predators. Overnight we sailed across the Bransfield Strait to Danco Island and the Leamire???? Channel which is the Antarctic Peninsula proper. It was cloudy and snowing with poor visibility as we zodiaced for 4 hours through the Leamire Channel – we did not know it until the return journey but this is also known as Kodak Gap as it is so photogenic – but we saw very little but had the adventure of zodiacing around the icebergs and the brash ice. I remember seeing our ship sail past us in the fog which was eerie, and we met it on the other side of the Lemaire. .
By now it was new year’s eve and how bizarre to celebrate it in daylight at midnight on the deck of a ship in Antarctica. Happy New Year!
