We were leaving the main lounge after listening to a lecture on Sir Ernest Shackleton and his fantastic voyage aboard The Endurance, when the captain announced the first iceberg had been sighted. We all grabbed our cameras, binoculars and parkas, and headed to the Promenade Deck.
It’s truly an amazing sight--off in the distance it looked small and insignificant. As we got closer, we realized it was a large iceberg--the size of a five-story building. The naturalist guide on deck called it a tabular berg, a flat, table-topped berg that had broken off from the ice shelf,
different from more irregular shaped icebergs that calve from glaciers. What’s even more amazing is that only one-fifth of an iceberg’s height and one-eighth of its volume floats on top of the water. This thing was gigantic.Not long after we sighted the iceberg, we sighted land--we were approaching Elephant Island, the northernmost island in the South Shetland chain.
Elephant Island became famous after the crew of The Endurance landed there in April. 1916, after their ship was crushed in the ice of the Weddell Sea. Shackleton left Frank Wild and 22 men on the island while he set out with five men for South Georgia Island. It took them sixteen days, in a small lifeboat, over treacherous seas, to reach the whaling stations at South Georgia, and another four months to finally rescue his men after several unsuccessful attempts. The story of Shackleton and his incredible journey of survival is well worth reading. It has a happy ending--all 27 men survived and several even volunteered to go with him on another expedition five years later.
Early the next morning we arrived at King George Island. I couldn't wait to go ashore. We put on several layers of clothes, beginning with our thermals and ending with our red parkas, waterproof pants, rubber boots, a hat and gloves. We “waddled” down to the boarding deck and off we went on our first zodiac ride to shore.
Our welcoming party was a group of Adelie Penguins--all dressed for the occasion. They are so much fun to watch--like miniature Charlie Chaplins on their way to the beach for a swim.We were free to walk around, as long as we stayed away from the areas designated as a Sight of Specific Scientific Interest (SSSI). The Polish Research Station, Arctowski, established in 1977, has been studying fragile plants and mosses as well as the behavior pattern and interaction of three different types, or species, of penguins --- the Adelie, the Gentoo and the Chinstrap Penguins.
Let me backtrack for a moment. Geographically, Antarctica is the continental landmass surrounding the South Pole. Politically, Antarctica is considered a “no-mans land” and falls under the jurisdiction of the Antarctic Treaty. Basically, the Antarctic Treaty is an international agreement enacted in 1961, that provides a framework for “cooperation and management of Antarctic concerns.” The intent of the treaty was to provide freedom for scientific investigation and cooperation and very strict guidelines regarding wildlife conservation. It even covers tourism, the number of people on an island at any one time (100), not removing anything from the land, not polluting the waters, keeping a safe distance from the animals, etc. As the naturalist guides like to say, “take pictures and leave footprints.”Throughout the islands off the Antarctic Peninsula, several countries have established research stations: Brazil, Korea, Great Britain, Argentina, the United States, China and Chile. Some of the stations are staffed year-round; others are staffed only in the summer months, between late November and March. We had the opportunity to visit several of the stations, check out their living conditions and hear about their scientific projects.
Back on the beach, we found a “clump” of elephant seals. Describing them as a clump may not sound very articulate, but that’s exactly what they looked like. During the summer months, the elephant seal comes ashore to molt and is very lethargic. Males can weigh up to 11,000 pounds; females are smaller and average around 1,800 pounds. They look like giant slugs--not the most attractive of the Antarctic pinnipeds (fin-footed ones.)
Hard as it was to leave our newfound friends, the penguins, the weather had turned windy and cold and it started to snow. We boarded the zodiac, took a short excursion around Admiralty Bay, and headed back to the ship.As we headed south, the waters were calm, and the air temperature averaged a mild 40 degrees F. (I attribute the description of the weather to the naturalist guide from upstate New York, where the temperature was in the low teens during my first week in Antarctica.)
As we continued through the Bransfield Straits toward the Antarctic Peninsula, we continued to watch for whales and attempted to identify the birds following the ship.
I was happy the afternoon lecture was on Antarctic birds; it would certainly help me put names to the birds flying overhead. I was fascinated to learn that there are over 50 species of birds living in and around the Antarctic waters. Most Antarctic seabirds, such as Albatrosses, Petrels and Penguins, spend their lives on the open ocean, out of sight of land. They come to land only to breed and rear their young. These birds nest from late October to late February on land that is free of snow and ice (not always an easy task). Once the brief summer ends, they return to the sea, living around the pack ice or migrating north to more temperate environments.We were up bright and early the next morning. The 168 passengers had been divided into two groups, for shore excursions and Zodiac outings, and we were the early group that day. Our destination was Neko Harbor on the Antarctic Continent. There was definitely a sense of excitement in the air. For many passengers on the ship, this would be their seventh continent, myself included.
Join me next week as we visit the penguin colonies in and around Neko Harbor on the Antarctic Peninsula and venture into Paradise Bay, famous for its scenic beauty and abundant wildlife.
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