Ramble On

Thursday March 16 The Beagle Channel and Arrival in Ushuaia I woke up feeling sad and panicky that this was the last day of the trip. I thought through all the meals I would have that day, visualizing how I could maximize the opportunities for connecting with people I really liked before we go back to real life and the magic bubble of this trip bursts. We had quite a few activities and lectures on the last day about climate change, citizen science recaps, and final submissions for the photography contest. Then in the afternoon we had an auction to raise money for the South Georgia Heritage Trust, HappyWhale.com, and a general crew fund.  Some of the more creative items that were auctioned off: The chance to make one of the daily announcements over the PA system, affectionately known as a “bing-bong” Naming rights for an as-yet unidentified humpback whale that our ship spotted in the Gerlache Strait on HappyWhale.com (I bid on this so I could have my nephew help me pick the name for...

Tuesday March 14 Whaler’s Bay, Deception Island (Neptune’s Window and Caldera) South Shetland Islands - Greenwich Island The first really beautiful sunrise we had was this morning. Around 4am I woke up to very large swells so the seas had picked up in the Bransfield Strait but as soon as we turned into Deception Island and its protected bay, created by a caldera (complete with natural hot springs!) we had very calm water surrounding us and a sweeping, desolate landscape of another former whaling station. We suited up again and shuttled over to land in the Zodiacs on a bright, sunny morning to walk up and down the seashore littered with elephant seals, male fur seals (no women, the pups and the females are all on South Georgia right now), defunct whale oil storage tanks, and whale bones. We could walk up to a window in the basalt wall and then back along the shoreline (being wary of seals!) up to a hill to get a view of the whole bay. Cruising for this long, I knew I would miss long wal...

Monday March 13 Paradise Bay and Neko Harbor When you dream of a place, and you dream it in the fullest form you can imagine - with the most beautiful light, color, features, surroundings, and conditions your mind can muster based on research, images from others, and then your own creative touches, your own subconscious details. In Paradise Bay, I awoke to something more beautiful than I could ever have imagined. Only the pictures can point the right direction. To be treated to views like that first thing in the morning, over a hot cup of coffee, wrapped in warm clothes, standing in quiet and soaking it all in, is a mental ebenezer I have built in my mind to be able go back to whenever I want/need to. And then, I knew it was calm enough togo out kayaking. The water was almost glass. So after that quiet moment, I could feel my heart begin to rise as I knew that I would be out there, on the water, in the ice, in just a short time. I couldn’t WAIT to get out there. So I layered up, donned...

Saturday March 11 Brabant Island At the briefing the night before, we learned that the weather was very bad on the Weddell Sea side of the Peninsula, so we were going to head pretty far south down the peninsula in search of calmer seas and places where we could land and kayak. This meant one more morning at sea. They tried to do a landing in the morning but the wind kicked up and made it impossible, but the staff always has a backup plan. Brabant Island was where Antarctica really started to feel like Antarctica to me. This is a high-stakes trip. It’s expensive, it takes a long time, for many it is a bucket list item, and it is a completely unpredictable environment. This is a nightmare scenario for people in the polar travel industry. You have a high-dollar investment from many people in your hands and you really can’t guarantee them anything. This hedging starts during the phone calls with the different companies while you are shopping for the expedition. All of them say the same kin...

Wednesday March 8, 2023 Scotia Sea between South Georgia Island and the Antarctic Peninsula Woke up around 1am with a huge swell making things fall over all around me. I was very thirsty so I got up to get some water and look out the window at the raging sea around us. They don’t let us go outside on deck in seas this high (15 feet). It was a quiet day on board since there was so much swell and I spent most of the day reading a book and watching lectures. Thursday March 9, 2023 Scotia Sea Day 2 The clocks changed so everyone got an extra hour of sleep. The buzz on board about the wedding that will take place is growing, the rumor is it will happen on March 12 or 13. Another quiet day with lectures about geology, penguins, and a game where your team had to guess the size of different animals and plants. They do a good job entertaining us on days at sea but they are definitely quieter days for most of the passengers. Some due to sea sickness, some just trying to catch up on sleep. The en...

 Monday March 6, 2023 St. Andrew’s Bay and Grytviken The day started with a somewhat disappointing failed kayaking attempt. We were in an unbelievably stunning place with the largest colony of King Penguins in the whole world, and it was a pristine blue sky day. You could see even the highest peaks of South Georgia Island, at nearly 10,000ft tall. It would have been our first time out as a group; unfortunately, the winds were just a bit too high. Also unfortunately, they calmed down to acceptable levels after we made the call about the kayaking being a no-go for the morning and after I struggled into my dry suit and fully geared up. But walking around the bay was still incredible. With massive elephant seals belching and yawning and playful fur seal pups causing trouble for the penguins, the area was teeming with life. The elephant seals all lay closely together to share warmth and viewing them looks like a patch of slightly differentiated brown and extraordinarily large, blubbery ...

Saturday March 4, 2023 South Georgia Island, Day 1 We awoke at about 5:30am at the expedition leader’s recommendation to watch the boat arrive at the tip of South Georgia Island at first light and we were greeted with a thick wall of fog and some vague shapes of shadowy peaks in the mist. Shortly after our breakfast which started at 6:30am today, the clouds started to burn off and we headed into Right Whale Bay to visit a King Penguin colony. The swell was still hefty but the sun broke through and we had really lovely weather and a stiff wind to greet us in this pristine locale. Very mountainous, views of glaciers and dramatic, sharp peaks as far as the eye could see, it’s an entirely different landscape than the Falklands.      Right Whale Bay For context, (and to brag a little bit, clearly) I have camped in the Serengeti amongst prowling lions and hyenas, I have seen lots of bears on hiking trails, been charged by a bull elephant, gone swimming with sharks, had a moose ...