They Call Me Stat Boy For A Reason

Penguins Seen: 10,000*
Seals Seen: 200*
Whales Seen:15*
Dolphins Seen: 1

* Estimated.

Types of Penguins Seen: Chinstrap, Gentoo, & Adelie.  My favorite?  Definitely Chinstrap.  Or Gentoo.  Maybe Adelie.  (As Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young should have sung: "If you can't be with the penguin you love, love the penguin you're with.")

Types of Seals Seen: Elephant, Weddell, Leopard, and Crabeater.  Crabeaters were the most plentiful by far.  The only Antarctic seal we did not see is the very rare Ross Seal.  The Ross Seal is very whiney and goofy, and has an on and off again stormy relationship with the Rachel Seal.  (If you didn't get that right away, think about it.  Waiting, waiting, waiting -- time for me to move on.)

Types of Whales Seen: Minke and Humpback.

Type of Dolphin Seen: Hourglass Dolphin

I can't estimate the number of sea birds we saw -- more than the number of seals but fewer than the number of penguins.  Types of Birds Seen (at minimum): Wandering Albatross, Southern Giant Petrel, Southern Fulmar, Cape Petrel, Snow Petrel, Sooty Shearwater, Wilson's Storm Petrel, Blue-eyed Shag, Pale-Faced Sheathbill, Brown Skua, Kelp Gull, and Antarctic Tern.  Possibly others.

Number of Photos Taken on My Camera: 3,838 (and I didn't even take any after we re-entered the Drake Passage heading north.)  I deleted a bunch.

Passengers on Board the Orion: 94 completed the journey.

Miles traveled on ship: Approximately 1,800.

Miles traveled by air: Approximately 12,883

Stations Visited: Two -- Palmer Station (USA! USA! USA!) and Port Lockroy (UK! UK! UK!)

Presentations Attended: 12

Number of Boring Presentations Attended: 0

Consecutive Days Having Omelets from the Omelet Station -- Ten.  (Now that I'm home, I come downstairs and are stunned to find no omelet station.  I suppose life must go on.)

Southern-most latitude reached: Approximately 65 degrees south latitude.

Their Special Porpoise

Did you know penguins porpoise when they swim?  Me neither.  But they have to get air somehow. So, as they are going along, they will do three or four quick jumps out of the water to breathe.  

It's pretty wild, because the ship will be cruising along, and suddenly you see things jumping through the air -- and then you focus and realize the flying things are penguins.  (Well, they don't fly, they jump).  Very cool, and very difficult to catch with a camera.  

(Click on photos to enlarge.) 

A Bit Of Broadway To Commemorate The Trip

The last night of the trip, a handful of passengers entertained us with

WHERE ARE THE BEARS?

by: Homer Moyer

(To the tune of “Comedy Tonight” from A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum)

Come to a briefing - just one more briefing.

There are some penguins that we think you’ve not met.

Humpbacks and more. Penguins galore.

We’ve walked the ice floe; we all know guano.

Chinstraps and Gentoos, lectures and free booze-

Hike in the snow, but with champagne.

Everything’s great, but - where are the bears?

Shaun speaks with feeling, out of the ceiling.

Martin’s a gen-ius at finding fast ice.

We have our gear. Tom’s finally here.

Holly’s our maestro from Inspirato.

Nikon and Canon experts are showing

How to make memories sublime.

You are the best, but - where are the bears?

Now we have come back. Stomachs are intact.

But we re-mem-ber when we rode through the Drake.

Those rides were wild. Shaun called them “mild.”

We were all fine, just getting our sea legs.

Bravo to Lindblad! We’re really all glad

To spend some summertime down here.

But when we come back - show us the bears.

(See, there are NO polar bears in Antarctica -- they are only in the Arctic.  So, polar bears was a running joke on the trip.  Very cleverly done.)

What Antarctica Photos Taken By Professionals Look Like!

These are some of the photos shared with the passengers on the journey taken by the Inspirato photo husband/wife team of Kevin Gilbert and Jamie Schander.  While I didn't take these photos (obviously, when compared to mine), they are reflective of the sights and scenes we all enjoyed.

Gentoo achoo?

50 Meter Freestyle.  Take your mark.  Buzz!

(Swim official joke that was. . .quite brilliant

too, if you've ever been one!)

Hey, you, get off of my berg!

The Gentoo argues back with the Chinstrap.

Sunrise on a tabular berg.

Zodiac boats on night patrol from Hidden Bay.

Rocky footing?  Snow problem!

Lemaire Channel at night.  Even though I

slept thru this, I never would have gotten

a shot anywhere nearly this good.

Fierce growl or

Playful yawn?  Your call.

A style reminiscent of our polar plunge.

Life Is A Penguin Highway, I'm Gonna Waddle It All Day Long

(Editor’s note: dear readers, assuming you know the “life is a highway” song, I hope I’ve got the above two lines stuck in your head.)

Our last excursion off the boat on Sunday was to a steep hike up a ridge, high above a Gentoo penguin rookery.  It was our first time stepping foot on continental Antarctica – the other stops had been on islands just off the coast.  (Those islands count as being part of Antarctica, just as someone who goes to Manhattan Island after flying in on Long Island has been to the North American continent).  At the same, it was great to be able to step foot on the mainland.

Shortly after the five of us on the zodiac got out, a penguin jumped into the boat.  Naturalist Tom Ritchie had fun dealing with a penguin in his zodiac.  Finally, he took a couple of steps toward the penguin, which hopped up on the bow before jumping into the water.  Pretty remarkable.

Tom told me later that penguins are known to jump into zodiacs if leopard seals were around (any port in a storm, I suppose), but there was no leopard seals in the area.  Perhaps the penguin just wanted to see what’s what with these zodiacs.

It was not a long climb in the snow, but it was a steep one. We were rewarded with magnificent views of the larger Andvord Bay, and a scenic look at the ship and rookeries below.  We marveled at the glacier ringing Neko Harbour, and saw several large chunks of ice calve off, and then, higher up the mountain, an avalanche.  Huge blocks of ice – three or four stories tall, looked ready to fall off into the water, which would have created quite the waves.

During the hike down, I stopped to bodysled on the track that had been made.  It was quite a steep run, and I had a good wipe out as I flew off the unexpected jump.  We then went down and hung out by the Weddell seal.

I then got some penguin photos before climbing partway up to go down the main trail.  Because of the depth of the snow, the penguins had created quite the system of what are called “penguin highways” – pushed down snow that allows them to quickly go down to the water to swim and feed, and then back up again.  I plopped myself down in the snow to get a good perspective of them, and got some really great photos.

It was exhilarating just to watch them go up and down the hill.  Some went solo, while others were in groups.  This was our fourth penguin rookery, and it never got old.

In the end, we stepped off Antarctica for the last time.  But two more adventures awaited.

Penguins At Neko Harbour

Penguins taking I-95.

Famed Naturalist Tom Ritchie stares down

at an unexpected guest in his Zodiac boat.

Darn Gentoo didn't even hitchhike -- just 

jumped right on in!

A rookery overlookery Neko Harbour

Orange-u glad he's got an orange beak?

Sad thing is, he sings

better than I do.

A penguin family.

Smaller chicks.

Shows you how deep

the penguin highway is.

You get up every morning from your alarm clock's warning

Take the 8:15 into the city

There's a whistle up above and people pushin', people shovin'

And the girls, who try to look pretty

Penguin bro-hug

On the road again.

One penguin goes one way and the other

goes the other.  (Think "Goodfellas" and dogs)

Running in the ocean is great for the glutes, man

Official Lindblad Expedition Reports

The official daily expedition reports are here:

Day One -- Drake Passage

Day Two -- Drake + Barrientos Island

Day Three -- Antarctica Sound

Day Four -- Report Not Found

Day Five  -- Gerlache Strait & Palmer Station

Day Six -- Penola Strait, Lemaire, & Grandidier Channel

Day Seven -- Port Lockroy

Day Eight -- Neko Harbor & Dallman Bay

Day Nine -- At Sea

Day Ten -- Final Day

When You Take Over 1,000 Pictures of Whales & Their Tails, It's Hard to Pick Just Ten

It's true, different whales have different

tail patterns.  These are all Humpbacks.

Surfacing upside down.

This photo isn't a fluke.

Well, actually it is.

Compare the underside of this whale's

tail with the first photo in this series.

One whale is using the blowhole,

while the other is fluking/diving

Getting ready to dive.

Our photographer nailed the double fluke!

So good I had to show it twice!

The whales were spectacular, and

the scenery was breathtaking!

In Which Our Hero Gets Shamed for Telling "A Dad Joke."

After visiting Port Lockroy and the Gentoo penguin rookery across the bay on Saturday, we headed back to cross through the Lemaire Channel again – this time during daylight hours (which last a long time during austral summer).

It was other worldly (I know I’ve used that word before, but it fits again!).  A 40 foot sailboat was transiting at the same time.  We couldn’t believe that a boat that size would cross the Drake Passage, and then have to worry about dodging all the icebergs, bergy bits, and ice floes.  The hull of the sailboat is made of steel, but I can’t imagine how stressful the crossing and subsequent ice must be.

The Lemaire Channel is a very narrow body of water that leads (when going southbound) to the Penola Straits.  Mountains that do double duty as islands rise up on either side, and glaciers abound.  Of course, the sun wasn’t out so the pictures are, like many on this trip, a bit on the dark and grey side.  Trust me, whatever pictures I post won’t do it justice.

We came out the other side in the Penola Straits, and the Captain ran the ship into an iceberg to park it.  Our fearless leaders decided there was too much snow to land on Pleneau Island, so instead we hopped in the zodiac and cruised around the islands and many large icebergs (not tabular size, but these are still big enough to cause Leonardo DiCaprio to wake up in a cold sweat).

On one ice flow, there were a bunch of seals scattered about, sleeping as is their wont to do.  Two of them – a Weddell and a Crabeater, were lying down next to each other.  Alyssa, our driver, answered questions about it – saying they don’t mate, and they don’t fight, they are just hanging out together.

So I quipped, “I guess they are just going with the floe.”  While the other nine passengers laughed, Alyssa said, “You must be a dad, that’s a dad joke.  My dad would use that joke.”  If you listened closely, you could hear my daughters cheering her on all the way from the Northern Hemisphere.  (Sorry, daughters, that comeback can only be used once, and Alyssa already did, so don’t think you can zing me with it.)

We covered a lot of ground in the Penola Strait, including stopping by the hotel zodiac for whiskey tasting (I passed – I stick to my beer and wine).  The amazing part was that there were times we couldn’t see the ship – it was hidden amongst too many icebergs.

Tripping the Light Fantastic

We had one night of clear skies, leading to the most spectacular sunset I’ve ever seen.  Fire and ice.  Some photos are down below, but that barely scratches the surface.  The interplay of sunset and ice and water were like nothing I’d ever seen before.  At points the whole sky was red, as was the water.

The mountains and huge icebergs behind us took on a stunning red/pink glow, providing us with an Alpenglow show at the end of the world.

Early on in the light show, the captain came on the announcement system and essentially ordered anyone in bed already to get outside and see this fantastic sunset.  He was just as excited about the sunset as all of us were – and that’s a great quality to have in an expedition ship captain.

Then, as it got dark around 11:30, a full moon started rising, and it was beautifully reflected in the water.  I toyed with the idea of staying up a couple more hours (or less) for the sunrise, but we had already had a full day, and there were more adventures awaiting the next day.

A Different Kind of Magic Kingdom

Sunset in the Antarctic.  

An Iceberg basks in the Alpenglow.

I see the full moon rising.

Red sky at night. . .

Mountains meet the sea.

Some sea ice, but mostly red clouds

Antarctica Trip Riffs. . .Endurance!

If you ever have the chance to take a small ship, such as a National Geographic/Lindblad expedition, to Antarctica, take it!  It will be one of the most incredible journeys you can undertake.  Just be prepared to pay the Drake tax –put the patch on before bed the first night!

We have done a wider variety of activities involving mammals, birds, and of course, penguins (they deserve their own special category!) then I ever could have imagined when we signed up for this trip.

One source of constant wonder for us are what I call the “rando penguins” – those who are randomly on an iceberg that is heading north, those are swimming near the ship when it is out in the middle of nowhere.  The show the penguins put on as they jump out of the water, through the air two, three, or four times in a row is quite impressive – and I had little luck catching the buggers on film.  It’s called “porpoising.”

I set a new record yesterday (Sunday) by taking 1832 photos.  Most of them are burst shots of whale tails as they fluke.  More on that in another post.

We’re back on the Drake Passage heading north.  Between slightly lower waves, having our sea legs, and wearing the patch, I’m not feeling any seasickness at all.  As we head further north, I hope to be able to post more pictures on the blog, and on Facebook.

Our expedition team, led by Shaun Powell has done a great job of having us do a variety of activities – penguin rookeries, visits to Palmer Station and Port Lockroy, enjoying time on the fast ice, a hike up to a ridge with great views in Neko Harbour, kayaking, the polar plunge, whale watching, presentations, zodiac cruising among the icebergs and also through Hidden Bay, taking the ship through the massive mountains of Lemaire Channel.  Heck, I’m sure I left something out.

Captain Martin Graser has been fabulous, working with Shaun to give us great opportunities to see and do things.  The captain lives life with gusto, and he was very aggressive about taking us to the best places.  He’s also been very friendly to Carol and I – each time I’m up on the bridge, he carries on a conversation even as he guides the ship through some tricky bits.

Our Inspirato rep, Holly Bryan, has done a great job arranging the best food we’ve ever had on a cruise, afforded extra fun things such as having the hotel meet us on expeditions with glug wine, whiskey or other spirits (I had the wine, skipped the rest – but it’s the thought that counts!).

By no means have we gotten to know all 96 passengers, much less the expedition personnel and crew (although we have met most of them).  Everyone is quite nice, and the expedition personnel keep saying they really enjoy this group of people because, since we are all connected with Inspirato, there is a unity and camaraderie that is stronger here than on other trips.

The facilities on the ship are first rate, and the zodiacs are great for getting quickly from ship to shore, or for zipping around a bay.

 

Of Ports & Penguins

Saturday we went to Port Lockroy as well as a nearby island rookery.  Our group caught the zodiacs over to the island with Gentoo penguins and some massive whale bones that were way up on shore.

While this rookery was not anywhere near as interesting as the first two we had been to, there is still plenty of great penguin activity.  Just off shore was a brilliant blue iceberg, and there was rock scrambling to be done.

After an hour or so, we got back on a zodiac and headed over to historic Port Lockroy.  There are four British women who are staffing it – and it is the Southern most post office in the world (of course it is British!).  Not only did they have a souvenir shop, but they had a museum from the time it was established as Base A by the British in 1944 to monitor German movements (all for naught – after failing to conquer Russia, Hitler didn’t mess around with an even colder place).

After the war it was turned into a scientific research facility, so the museum had both scientific sections, as well as every day life – the bunks, the kitchen, cans of food on the shelves.

Carol and I had a good chat with a young lady from London who had about five more weeks to go on her assignment.  She’s enjoying it, but is looking forward to nice green salads.  I also have to think she’ll enjoy having running water once again.

There are also Gentoo penguins living on the island, some surrounding the flagpole with the Union Jack flying, others living under the building.  We walked around a little bit, then took another zodiac ride back to the ship.

Kayaking Antarctica (Well, Not The Whole Continent, Just Part)

After the fast ice walk, and before the polar plunge, we went kayaking around the ice floes and bergy bits in the afternoon.

As someone who has fallen in love with kayaking in the last few years (I have two, and it is an unusual trip out on the Potomac where I don’t see multiple bald eagles and many osprey), I was quite keen to do it at the bottom of the world, so I had asked our expedition leader a couple days earlier when he asked for questions when we were kayaking.  He gave me grief for being impatient, so, in announcing the kayaking, he said, “This announcement is for Glen.”  I will point out that, as of Sunday morning, no one else has had their own announcement.  (Of course, what does that say about me?)

We went over in the zodiac boats to a “platform” that the expedition team made off a large ice floe.  We scooted our bodies from one zodiac to another, where we were given a device that automatically sends our location to the ship’s bridge and to the expedition team if we fall in the water.  The good news, we did not have to use it.  The bad news is. . .well, there is no bad news (vultures!  Hoping that someone else would fall in!).

So then we carefully scooted into the kayak.  They are two person, inflatable kayaks with foot pedals for the rudder.  We were advised not to use the rudder, but unfortunately it was set to turn us left.  We kept going left, as I backpaddled to turn us right.  I felt foolish – first blaming Carol’s paddling for pushing us left (well, I knew it couldn’t be my fault, of course), then doubting my own yaking skills.  Finally I realized that the darn rudder was doing it.  I used the foot pedals to straighten out the kayak, and everything was smooth sailing (paddling) after that.

We paddled around a bunch of ice floes, going up to some bright blue bergy bits as well.  I dubbed one ice formation the kissing seals (because they look like kissing seals, duh!).  Meanwhile, a small (relatively speaking) iceberg had drifted closer, so we paddled over near it, enjoying listening to the waves lapping at the berg, ever changing it.

Huge tabular bergs were off in the distance.  We had been warned not to go over them, but they were so far away there is no way we would have gotten there and back in 45 minutes (plus, Carol would not have let me).

We were able to get back easily to the platform, transferred, and off on the Zodiac we went, back to the ship.

Adelie Penguins on Torgersen

Dead seal.

Adelie Penguins as far as the eye can see.

Rock hopping

As the snow falls, an Adelie penguin defends

the rookery against a hungry Brown Skua.

Dashing through the snow!