Day 31 - 11/06/23 - At Sea to Antarctica - Day 2
Overnight at 1:30am, we passed over the south 60º latitude which puts us inside the politically defined Antarctic zone which brings about all kinds of responsibilities for being in the area. We traveled at over 17 knots and outran a storm front which permitted us to reach Destruction Island which is next to Snow Island. Deception Island is an active volcano although it hasn't erupted in many years. It has a narrow opening and smaller boats can enter in and in times past it was used as a whaling station. This permitted us to do some warm-up scenic cruising although our 4 day Antarctic Experience doesn't begin until tomorrow. But more about that later.
Once we were inside the protected zone, we had to reduce speed to 10 knots so as to protect any whales against our invasion of their space. I, in fact, saw a couple different whales during the lunch hour (one shallow breech and several spouts a fair distance off the port side of the ship.
While it was "sunny" & quite cold all day, there was a marine haze in the air that made for difficult photography. At one point we saw two expedition type ships but they were quite a distance from us.
After we encountered our first iceberg, many more began to appear. Many of them were much larger on the surface than the Zaandam and most of us know that 2/3 of the volume is under the water. One looked to be as long as a modern aircraft carrier. Others were sculpted gems of light and dark stained snow. According to the Captain, they were all grounded and all were on our port side as we headed northeast after we got into the waters protected by the South Shetland Islands. And at one point there were at least 20 icebergs in my naked eye field of view. Needless to say, it was pretty cool.
During the daytime as we cruised in Antarctica, we attended three lectures after participating in our morning Bible study. The first was a presentation by a Shore Excursions Team Member about our upcoming ports of call through Uruguay. He was followed by an excellent presentation by Dr. Neil Gilbert on The Importance of Antarctic Science. In the afternoon, Ian Miller presented on the The Heroic Era of Antarctic Exploration and touched on a Norwegian group of 5 men who sailed a small sailboat down to Antarctica and then two of them attempted to ride quads to the South Pole and back. They were totally unprepared for the harshness of the conditions, and in the end the two didn't make it there, and the other three perished in the sinking of their vessel. If you want to read more about it, use your favorite search engine to search for "yacht berserk Antarctica" and it's a chilling story.
Tonight we joined some friends in the Main Dining Room (MDR) for dinner at their wonderful table 137 in the very back of the ship. There I was able to photograph Destruction Island and the first of many penguins resting on icebergs. They were quite far away, so I couldn't get much detail with my long range Nikon P900 camera. But I could definitely tell they were penguins. I expect that in the coming days we'll be able to see penguins from a much closer vantage point. Coming back to dinner, I had Jumbo Shrimp Cocktail and Escargot for appetizers, a main course of Rack of Lamb and a mixed fruit plate for dessert. Angela had the filet mignon and lobster tail as did all of the others. All were quite good.
Our evening entertainment was a very good Brazilian vocalist and guitarist, Danilo Gomes. It was a high energy show and included a tribute to his favorite rock guitar groups. Afterwards, we watched "March of Penguins", a 2005 film about the life and love cycle of Emperor Penguins. We've seen it many times and it never gets old for us. It was truly fitting that we would see it just as we enter Antarctica.
Tomorrow begins our Antarctic Experience, and the beauty of it is that there really is no preschedule in the Daily Program. No lectures or other scheduled mass events other than a 4pm recap of the day with our Antarctica Expedition Team in the Ocean Bar. We just need to experience what the Navigation team is able to bring us to. The daytime temperatures are just below freezing with a stiff wind, and overnight snow is expected. We just need to have our binoculars and cameras and curiosity ready to experience the day.
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