Paradise Bay, Antarctica -Saturday, January 20
We have been out six days on this amazing adventure. Since the first anchorage, we have seen no one else until today. We have become a good group consisting of the five of us “two weekers” , Manuel, our fabulous chef, photographer and crew, Brad, our fascinating scientist, and, of course, Laura and Fede, who are full of information and fun!
We have seen humpback whales, including a mother and baby; we nudged the nose of the boat into an iceberg to get a close up view of a sleeping leopard seal; we have seen many crabeating seals sleeping on ice floes, snow petrels, comorants, gulls, skuas and penguins and even more penguins.
Yesterday, we anchored at Cuverville Island, a black, half domed 250-meter-tall island with a Gentoo penguin rookery. Ashore, 9 of us fanned out from the rocky beach to view the penguins: penguins in the water, penguins standing on the beach, not moving, except for a twitch here and there, penguins walking their awkward waddle, and most of the penguins standing on circular nests of mounds of grey shale like pebbles (for drainage), some on eggs, and most wonderfully, some penguins on grey fuzzy chicks, mostly two to a nest. Fascinating watching one penguin standing huddling chicks and the other waddling off to find the perfect stone to add to the nest. It seems the perfect ones are on the edge of another’s nest. The trick is to get in close to steal it, but not close enough for the neighbor to actually peck you, just squawk threatenly at you. We spent a fantastically long time studying these amazing creatures.
Today, we awoke to bright sunshine and blue skies today! The charcoal smudged greys of the sea, mountains and sky replaced by sharp contrasts. We motored between icebergs and looming white cliffs with rocky peaks, far off mountains jutting into the gelatinous blue sky.
More whales, more seals, more penguins, more lovely hikes and then a stop at Brown Base, an Argentinian base in Paradise Bay between Lemaire and Bryde Island on The Antarctic Continent. We climbed boulders behind the base and toasted setting foot on the white wilderness. We had a display of bubble feeding from an accommodating humpback whale, as we sat on our boulder high above the sea.
The days are long as it is never dark. There is only a bit of twilight from 2-4 a.m. Our days are long too, but interspersed with breaks, while we move to a new spot. We usually have breakfast at 8 and activities until dinner at 7:30 or 8. For instance, today we motored toward our destination, but stopped for whales, for our leopard seal, for our unscheduled stop on the beach at Danko. Then lunch at anchor and a motor to Paradise Bay for Brown Base and stepping on the continent. And now we have pushed into a cove further in Paradise Harbor surrounded close in by icebergs and snowy mountains coming right down to the sea. It is calm, even as the weather closes in. Someone said, “It looks like a protected harbor.” Fede answered, “every harbor is protected when there is no wind.” He and Laura are a calm and confidence inspiring team.
This is an other-worldly experience. I find the views even more awesome than the wildlife. It is difficult to describe or to explain in words, the feelings the environment engenders. This is a land of superlatives, with scale being its most salient feature.
P.S. Someone asked if it was cold. The temp is around freezing, but with the right clothing and no wind it is not cold and when hiking or in the sun, it can get too warm!
– Becky
