Antarctica

Last we heard from our intrepid heros they were making repairs in Ushuaia, at the southern tip of South America. The first attempt at crossing the Drake Passage had not gone well. However, the prevailing wind, and thus the bulk of the excitement, was on the west, starboard, side of the ship as she was southbound. Our cabin is on the port side, so we’re hoping we have a stormy crossing when we return north in a few days!

Our second attempt to cross the stormiest section of ocean in the world was not as exciting. Drake Lake. Calm winds, smooth seas. Boring, but excellent omens for the next two days of cruising Antarctica. The first two days of 2009 brought us sunny skies, light winds, and absolutely stunning views of a very cold and inhospitable portion of our beautiful world. The pictures do not do this scenery justice, but we’ve picked a few of our favorites out of the 726 we took down there.






Our shortest night was 3 hours long, and never got very dark. The picture with color on the background island was taken at about midnight. The young woman with the scarf around her waist, just right of the pole, is our cabin stewardess. The two people with scarves at more appropriate locations are us, after standing on deck all day taking pictures. The small boat just right of the iceberg is one of our 35' long lifeboats that the Captain launched to get photos of our ship. Most of the scenery has no scale, so that helped us see just how big everything was. The three small dots on the iceberg are Emperor Penguins.





While we don’t have any great pictures to show, we did see lots of birds, penguins and whales. The penguins fly through the water just as birds fly through the air, using their arms/wings/flippers. When it wants to breath it launches into the air for a gulp, and dives back beneath the surface where the krill is. They travel at about 15 kts, which is a lot faster than our shutter fingers. If you look close you may be able to see one coming out of the water, and the splash where another just entered. The land shot is a colony of a quarter of a million chinstrap penguins on Deception Island. We were told that each little dot on shore and up the hill is a penguin, but some of us wondered what they really were, and if that was how the island got it’s name :)




Whales are rarer, and only surface very briefly. Margie actually saw one dive, complete with tail lifting, but Phil and camera only saw dorsel fins and blow holes. Still pretty neat! Lots of birds - mostly Petrels.




It’s now January 3, and we’re northbound across the Drake Passage. Hopes for a westerly storm, battering our side of the ship did not materialize, and we find ourselves on Drake Lake again. Despite a north-west wind of 40 kts, the seas are only moderate, so no excitement. We’ll post this as soon as we get far enough north to see a satellite, and then on to the Falkland Islands tomorrow.

Here’s hoping that your 2009 is as calm and beautiful as ours has started.