Ocean Tramp – sunrise or sunset?

Ocean Tramp Blog Day 7 ( 7th Dec 2022 )
The day began typically, with a perfect sunrise at 1:45 a.m., and it ended similarly, with a luxurious ocean swim followed by sunbathing and low ozone tanning on the deck of The Ocean Tramp. In between, cloudless deep blue skies and balmy weather.
Ok…actually…some other stuff happened in between. After I experienced the glorious sunrise (or was it a sunset…who knows around here?) and went back to bunk, at around 4:00 a.m., icebergs hemmed the Calypso in mercilessly, which made moving our mooring critical and urgent. And even worse, by breakfast, we were hemmed in on all sides by cruise ships and their swarming flotillas of zodiacal devices.
Fortunately our brave captain steered the Good Ship Lollipop effortlessly through towering sea ice and tourists to a new mooring just south of Danco Island. There we explored a multi-leveled massive Gentoo colony, where a lot of penguin procreation was happening, as will happen when it’s summertime, and the living is easy. The three straight days of warm, sunny weather we’ve had so far is apparently highly unusual, and probably disturbing from a global warming perspective.
I focused my attention on a Gentoo who was lovingly tending his egg, far too close to the water, or at least in my uninformed opinion. None of the overeducated lot of us seems to know why certain groups of Gentoos nest close to the water, while others penguin-waddle a kilometer or more to the top of islands hundreds of meters above the water to lay their eggs and raise their young. It seems like a very long walk to carry a nest pebble or go for a swim and a fish and crustacean snack. Especially since penguins are not the most effortless walkers. In fact, they fall down a lot. Much like the passengers on the Tramp, who I can hear laughing boisterously as happy hour extends into triple overtime.
We wisely chose 4:00 p.m. (is that noon here??) as the polar plunge hour, air temperature 5 degrees, zero wind, and in we all went! Ok…not all of us…half of the passengers and half of the crew. The captain actually managed something resembling swimming for half a minute – impressive. Most of us focused on getting back to the ladder as quickly as possible. I simply wanted to survive. Water temperature 2 degrees…that might be an overestimate. But the sunbathing part is real – the Ocean Tramp for a brief shining moment resembled an oligarch’s yacht. And I have the pics to prove it.
We motored on to the Isle de Ronge and a delightful mooring downwind of a Gentoo colony with a substantial smattering of Antarctic shag nests, which place one of us immediately dubbed Fragrant Bay. First kayaking of the trip, at 6 pm (is that early afternoon…who knows?) for two of us, myself included. Fabulous…penguins jumping all around us in the water. Then a superb roast beef, cauliflower, rice with coconut milk and carrots, and plentiful red wine. A perfect day in Antarctica! It’s now 8:30 pm, so sunset should happen in the three or four hours…or will it be sunrise?
Fred Meyerson