Day 33 - 11/08/23 - Antarctica Experience - Day 2

 Our second day in Antarctica once again began early at 7am with a PA announcement regarding what was going to happen today.  I rolled over and looked at my tracking app and saw that we had done a long and slender oval overnight.  I terminated that track and started a new one.  











For those wanting the technical details, I have two apps that I am using to track this voyage.  The first is Pocket Earth Pro (there's also a free edition.  It's really handy and area maps can be preloaded when one has internet connectivity and then used without a connection to the internet.  The second app is Polarsteps.  This app I am using to track the entire voyage.  It has ways of dropping a marker at key stops like ports and adding pictures and written commentary.  And it also lays down a breadcrumb.  This one is running 24/7.  


Below is a screen shot of our route today.  The skies were clear and the temperatures were below freezing all day.  Today I did don long pants and my goose down parka with a hood before heading to deck 6 forward to do my initial camera work.  Throughout the 5 hour window we had multiple penguin encounters, humpback whales, orcas, and seals. With my long range camera I did get some nice penguin pictures.  The whales were much harder to photograph.  

Our general route was to start in the Gerlache Channel near Couverville Island (home to a large Gentu penguin colony) and then proceed up to Paradise Cove.  And Paradise Cove was spectacular with the majestic mountain peaks, lush & rugged snow fields, Argentinian (Brown Station) and Chilean (González Videla Antarctic Base) research stations, and a couple of expedition type ships.  And of course there was the wildlife!  There were penguins swimming, penguins in colonies, penguins climbing snow fields, and penguins throughout the Brown station. A large pack of killer whales passed in front of us and a couple of grey whales surfaced and I got a picture of the flukes of one as it dove into the icy Antarctic waters.  There were numerous birds including a large colony of cormorants, sheetbills which occupied the deck in front of the Crow's Nest and the aft LIDO pool.  

Sheetbill


After we rotated counter clockwise and headed out of Paradise Cove, it wasn't long until we were totally engulfed with fog and snow.  By dinner time at least 4" of snow had accumulated on the after Lido deck and the crew was frequently found playing in the snow. The low visibility and snow continued until it was nearly dark around 9:30pm.  



In the afternoon, since there was no programming and no outside visibility, they added a 2:30pm showing of Mawson, Life & Death in Antarctica.  It's a chilling tale of the harshness of the environment.  


Our evening entertainment was the Singers and Dancers in a really nice program, Time After Time. Angela also saw the 9pm showing while I worked on arrangements for our upcoming Penguin excursion on Sunday in the Faulkland Islands.  


Tomorrow we don't reach our scheduled viewing location until mid afternoon, so we have a return to semi-normal lecture presentations in the morning.  




Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Day 72 - 12/17/23 - At Sea to FLL - Day 1

Day 05 - 10/11/23 - Puerto Límon, Costa Rica

Day 63 - 12/08/23 - Exiting the Amazon River - Day 1