Date of Entry: February 17th 2016
Date of Writing: March 31st 2016, BLA hostel, El Calafate, Argentina.’
Today is a special day, it turns into one of my favourite days in the entire month in Antarctica, but I’m willing to bet Josh (our Trinidadian/Australian crew member) doesn’t remember it so fondly, nor did he expect so much from it, considering the way it started for him. As those who read yesterday’s entry will remember, Josh dropped his go pro off the back of the boat while helping me out of my kayak. Now a go pro is expensive, Josh has worked as a professional Diver for many years, and Darrel has one set of diving stuff on board all of which leads to an early morning dip in a sadly not so dry, dry suit for Josh as he searches for his go pro in the 10 meter deep waters.
We wake up early to do this, and I’m up to lend whatever helping hand I can, feeling bad for my part in the loss and wishing I knew how to dive to go in his place, since I’m good with cold water.
Either way,weighed down heavily Josh disappears into the murky water before 7 am and a few of us watch hopefully from on deck. It takes a few minutes, and some added weights but eventually he emerges shivering but triumphant, placing his go pro up on the sugar scoop and climbing out of the frigid seas as quickly as he can. His dry suit has leaked and the Caribbean blood in him does not seem happy, but at least now he can say he’s been diving in Antarctica.
The go pro is wet inside the casing but after a few days in rice everything works well and Josh is lucky, though looking at his chattering teeth I’m not sure he doesn’t regret going in even considering the mission’s success.
As soon as this is done were pulling up anchor and doing our best to untie the lines from the wrecked whaling ship ready to leave Enterprise Island behind and heading to our first anchorage on the Antarctic peninsula proper. It’s a decent distance away but everyone is really excited even before the Europa shows up, a huge wooden tall ship that cruises through Antarctica but does not make any landings. Still it’s a beautiful ship and we’re excited to see it, and from the way the tourists on board are taking photos of our tiny by comparison vessel, they’re thrilled to see us setting sail as well.
We get moving heading out of Enterprise island, which while a beautiful place, was probably are least impressive anchorage in Antarctica in my opinion, though sea kayaking was incredible. As we sail out of the little bay leaving the whaling wreck behind, the low partial clouds mixed with strong sunshine breaking through onto the stunning white mountains of Antarctica make for quite a show.
We keep sailing out towards the impressive mountains heading the same way I headed sea kayaking, as the skies clear a little more and we’re gifted a more complete view of the ridiculous scenery we’re sailing through, heading south towards cuverville island, which at this point in the day is our planned final destination. It’s home to a large Gentoo penguin rookery of over 5000 adults so I’m excited to get there. Still the scenery of the voyage there might be the most impressive yet and even the cold can’t force me below deck as I keep my eyes on the glittering snowcapped peaks.
As we keep sailing, the vessel cutting across the smooth ice covered water passing through narrow channels surrounded by imposing peaks, seals start to appear, lounging on small icebergs that Darrel says are called dinner plates. If we’re really lucky, we might see an orca attack from below flipping them into the air and catching a tasty meal unaware. We’re not that lucky, but we’re still in Antarctica so I can’t say we’re anything but lucky, and the seals themselves are attraction enough, most of them of the crab eater variety.
And while we’re not lucky enough to see orca’s hunting, it’s not long before we get another surprise, in the form of a lone humpback swimming nearby the boat and giving us quite a show before diving down into the inky black depths.
According to Darrel the water in the early summer is very clear and beautiful here, but thanks to an annual algae bloom by this point the visibility is next to nothing, and this year has been particularly bad in that way. Still the whale is incredible and I quickly become sure I’ll never tire of watching these immense creatures.
Once the whale has disappeared, we keep going towards cuverville as the sky continues to clear allowing Antarctica to dazzle in all it’s glory under the bright sunlight.
Off to our right Darrel spots a bigger iceberg dotted with crab eater seals and we divert our course to head over with little idea of the incredible scenes we’re about to see, penguins mixing with dozens of seals all framed by the jagged white mountains on the peninsula behind us. Including my favourite picture from this particular group, the rare jumping Gentoo Penguin which I’ve singled out below.
This one iceberg is one of the most exciting places we’ve visited yet, as the animals are active and the sky is beaming a brilliant blue, but eventually it’s time to carry on, and we continue sailing through some narrow channel’s joined by a few other small sailboats behind us. We glide past countless more icebergs and seals, though sadly no orca’s appear. But that barely matters, not when every direction you can look yields an incredible level of beauty, even If I am starting to miss the colour green.
As we keep sailing Darrel let’s us know where getting very close to Cuverville Island where we’ll be making our next landing, but as we come out of a narrow channel and into a wide ice filled basin we find a large cruise ship ahead of us, The Ocean Nova, and soon our radio’s are blaring. Darrel’s good friend and awesome all around guy Mariano is expedition leader on this boat, and he’s kind enough to invite us all to a barbecue on board the ship later this evening. We all readily accept, eager for a night without the chore of cooking. Pics on board come much later in the entry, but here’s the impressive ship that holds 61 passengers.
As we come up close to the ship though everything begins to kick off as 5 or 6 humpbacks appear in the waters nearby, swimming, blowing water and diving quite actively and frequently all around us. What follows is probably the best whale experiences of the trip so far, as we’re able to get absurdly close to some of these massive beasts, and the weather is beyond perfection.
Once the nearby whales disappear most of our group ducks down below deck, but Matt, Tash and I stay out at the bow of the boat and enjoy the stunning weather, taking some king of the world titanic pictures with powerful gender reversal messages as well as watching for more whales as we approach our landing at Cuverville. We’re lucky enough in the end to spot two more humpbacks though they are not so close and getting good photos proves difficult. Still watching the boat sail through the seal dotted ice chunks towards incredible mountains is a special experience and I wonder why we’re not all always outside. Especially in such nice weather.
I also take a quick video of the sailing process to try to give you guys an idea of the level of tranquility and beauty of it all.
Next thing we know we’re confirming the details of the barbecue later on tonight and I’m piling into the first of two zodiac rides taking us to shore on the island where thousands of Gentoo Penguins and their chicks are waiting for us. I’m beyond pumped from the amazing past few hours and what is to come on the island just has me more excited as we’ve not really gotten up close and personal with big groups of Gentoo’s before. And Penguins with their chicks is always fun.
We land on the poop covered rocks, reminded quickly again of just how special penguins smell, though I’ll admit to me it’s slightly less pungent than the whale’s breath you get when whales get really close. Still it’s not exactly pleasant but as we head out across the rocks looking out at stunning mountains and countless glowing blue white icebergs on the cold water, the penguins amusing antics more than make up for their odour.
Our groups separate and the advantage of just having 7 people on shore again becomes evident as one by one we separate leaving each of us relatively alone to wander through the huge rookery and get in touch with penguins. We do our best to keep 5 meters away of course, but the penguins move quickly, and if you stay mostly still they are certainly not afraid to approach, one juvenile taking a rest maybe 15 centimeters from my bright orange muck boot. (Good muck boots are a must for any trip to Antarctica, luckily Darrell somehow had a pair big enough for me and lent them out.)
As I crest the second hill of the rookery and look down on the little bay which is veritably covered in icebergs and swimming penguins I stumble upon a beautiful sight. A few tiny little baby’s still in the nest with their parents, nuzzled into the bottom of the feathered bellies of mum and dad. They are beyond adorable, though as I begin to piece it together I realize this is also a tragic sight. These babies have been born far too late in the season and their chances of surviving to adulthood are slim to nil, which explains the dozens and dozens of baby penguin corpses we’ve walked through.
As the parents start to get protective of their doomed little ones I leave them behind climbing down to the beach at the far side of the rookery in the shadow of a green mountain covered in resilient Antarctic grass, though we are not allowed to go up there because the grass is a protected species. Beyond the grassy cliff are bigger snow capped mountains and in reality it is a three hundred and sixty degree painting of scenic perfection all around me.
I head down on to the beach and plod along through the fist sized multi coloured rocks and endless penguins, passing by a lone whale vertebrae and way too many Gentoo’s though even more baby corpses litter this part of the rookery. Penguins live a hard life, the babies can die from lack of food, from predatory birds like Skua’s or if their parents die from one of the many predators like leopard seals while hunting, then the abandoned chicks are all but sure to die too.
I get to the pick up point just after the first group is picked up and taken out through the scenic icebergs by Josh. The Europa has now pulled in behind us and seems to be playing hide and seek with me amidst the icebergs. As Tash and I wait for Ulises and Mariana to catch up we find a resting crab eater seal and snap some photos of each other. The seal looks up to check on the intrusion, but once he realizes we’re not going to attack, he can’t seem to care about our presence.
Oh and just in case the pictures don’t provide enough insight into the life of a gentoo Penguin Chick and the incredible scenery that surrounds them. Here’s a video or two.
Eventually we’re taken back to the boat and get busy preparing to go. The original plan had been to spend the night here in this wondrous place but the Ocean Nova is on a tight schedule (like all big cruise ships) and so has moved on, so if we want to make our dinner reservation we have a few more hours of sailing to do, heading towards the Chilean Naval and Military base of Gonzalez Videla in paradise bay, our first stop that is actually on the Antarctic peninsula.
We hurry on our way and pass through a narrow channel heading still further south, and while no more whales appear there are tons more seal and endless sets of imposing mountains and icebergs that we pass by gleefully amazed by the day we’ve had and all getting very hungry. I still spend almost all the time out on deck, because how could I ever go inside?
As we get going Darrel brings out a surprise in the form of some Pirate costume odds and ends, and we decide we’re better off boarding the ship and taking what we want as pirates rather than being gracious guests.
After a few more hours sailing we arrive at our final destination for the night, cruising in to a place aptly named Paradise Bay that is home to a Chilean Antarctic Base. We quickly set to work dropping anchor while the mexicans prepare for their first night out camping, though before that will come to pass we’re headed on board the Ocean Nova for a delicious buffet barbecue that is making me hungry just thinking about it. First though we take a little zodiac ride around the bay and are very very lucky to see a sizeable ice berg flipping over and breaking apart in the water, which I captured on a very shaky and poorly filmed video.
We are taken over on board the cruise ships bigger Zodiac and given a warm welcome by Mariano and his charming wife Lolly (sorry If I am misspelling your name). At the ship we climb up on board and are led through posh looking hallways with tight schedules displayed everywhere as we’re given a quick tour of the ship, which includes a gym, a library, a gift shop, comfortable cabins and a top deck indoor lounge with stunning panoramic vistas through big windows. According to Darrel the Ocean Nova is one of the nicer boats cruising Antarctica with its small size (61 passengers) and good staff. It only does fly in fly out trips of 5, 7 or occasionally 9 days from King George Island, which means no drake but carries with it risks of it’s own where bad weather can entirely cancel trips.
We end up in the panoramic lounge sipping on complimentary drinks thanks to Mariano and enjoying some snacks before the barbecue which will be outside on the top deck. We share some stories and chat as cruisers look at us not sure exactly who we are. As the barbecue begins we head outside again, my eyes feasting on the absurd spread laid out buffet style before us.
We wait until all the passengers have been served and then dig in to delicious food, steak, chicken, ribs sausages, potato salad, fish and anything else you could imagine. Are plates ambitiously full we stand on deck chatting with the crew and passengers alike. Many of them seem to be amazed by the idea of coming here on a sailboat and crossing the drake at all. I suppose it is somewhat crazy, but while it certainly did test me a bit and get a little crazy it really wasn’t that bad.
As I stand there and make pleasant conversation with strangers and eat too much good food I can’t help but find myself incredibly glad that I found the Spirit of Sydney. It’s not that the Ocean Nova’s is not a beautiful ship (think 4 star hotel) it’s just the crowd of people, the tight schedules, the on board gift shop. Going on a small ship was the absolute right choice for me, and while it did cost more, the price per day spent in Antarctica was fractions of the price per day of the bigger ships. (4/6500 = 1625 USD 21/9200 = 438 USD) Still the spread is good, and for this single evening I’m very glad to be on board along side the cruisers as well as some representatives from the Chilean Naval and Military base.
As the night wears on we eventually have to get moving off the ship, they have a long way to sail tonight on their tight schedule, but not before James makes a sudden appearance in his penguin suit given to us by Freestyle Adventure Travel for the trip. The chinese contingent on board is delighted, as are the Chilean officers, and everyone asks for pictures as we continue eating dessert and James offers stamps from Darrel’s custom made Spirit of Sydney stamp.
As the Ocean Nova begins the process of getting out of Paradise Bay we’re escorted to the zodiacs and bid a fond farewell as we climb on board the Chilean Base’s zodiac and catch a ride back to our boat. It’s late, almost 11 and the sun is sinking low in the sky behind the base which provides a beautiful way to end our first night spent in Paradise bay.
Josh, Ulises and Mariana get back to the ship and immediately head off in their kayaks, camping gear all packed, while we enjoy a few smuggled cookies from the ship before crashing to bed, all over-fed and utterly amazed by the day we’ve just had. For me at least it’s another contender for best day of the trip along with our day among the chinstraps on deception island.
So now we’ll end with some photos of the stunning sunset which greeted us back on board and I managed to snap a few photos before falling in to bed for some much needed sleep. It’s been a long, amazing day.
