Antarctica - Day 10

SATURDAY, DECEMBER 7TH

Today was a very interesting day.  Our first stops of the morning were at Port Lockroy and Jougla Point. 

The entrance into the harbor was just stunning and might have some of the most beautiful scenery seen so far. Little did I know what I would be seeing later this afternoon.  Here were the views on the way into Port Lockroy.

This was looking out the back of the ship as we cruised into the harbor.

And then this was the view looking forward to see where we were heading.

A Zodiac was sent out to pick up two of the volunteers from Port Lockroy who were going to come and give a talk on the history of the base, and answer any questions people may have about what they do here, what life is like being almost stranded here for months on end, etc.

Before heading to Port Lockroy though, I went with the first group of people to Jougla Point.

Jougla Point  lies at  the  southwestern  end  of  Wiencke  Island  and  juts into  the  small
harbor  of  Port  Lockroy,  a  protected  anchorage  entered  between  Flag  Point  and Lécuyer
Point. This point is a rocky peninsula indented with small coves, a point forming the west side of
the entrance to Alice Creek in Port Lockroy, in the Palmer Archipelago. Snow cornices, glaciers and
extensive, steep, and highly crevassed snowfields surround the Harbour. It was discovered and named by the French Antarctic Expedition, 1903- 1905, under Jean-Baptiste Charcot, who considered it to
be a peninsula.

I won't bore you with more Penguin photos but yes, there were more penguins here but not as many as we have seen at some of our other landing spots.  The weather was great and it was just nice to get out and walk around taking it all in while waiting for our turn to head over to the base.

Port Lockroy at Goudier island was a previous British Base, known as “Base A”, and now designated as Historic Site and Monument #61 under the Antarctic Treaty System. It is operated by the United
Kingdom as a living museum. In addition to Bransfield House (the main base building), there is a
boat shed, building foundations and a number of associated artifacts on Goudier Island. It was
built by the ending of the WWII, to prevent from further nazi settlements.

It also houses the only operational post office in Antarctica as well as a small souvenir shop. I think everyone on the ship was looking forward to the chance to mail off postcards from here, that would actually come with a stamp that was canceled in Antarctica.  I know I just had to mail a postcard to myself to have something to remember the visit and to keep as a memento.  I also was happy to find out I could keep up my tradition of buying a hoodie from everywhere I've traveled as they actually had a hoodie for sale here.

You can see the base here in this photo. That really is all there is to it.  A very small island, with no boat, no running water and no plumbing.  Yeah, you read that right and now can imagine how hard life here must be.  :)

Okay, so I'm going to share a funny story here.. I bought a postcard for myself and one for my daughter and wrote each of us a short little note to mail from here today. I quickly learned that sleep deprivation really does effect brain function as when I went to address the postcard to myself, I honestly could NOT remember my home address!  I sat there totally blank trying to remember it, and to make things even funnier, I forgot I had my wallet in my back pocket which has this little thing inside it called a driver's license.  On that license is my address.  Did I remember that?  Nope! After about 5 minutes the address finally came to me, but I think this was the first sign that I really needed to start getting some sleep on this trip.  LOL

I thought the view this morning was one of the most beautiful I'd ever seen and couldn't imagine anywhere else on this trip beating it.  Little did I know how wrong I was, and just how short the wait would be to see what might be the most beautiful place on the planet.  And yes, I still think so even now that the trip is over.

This afternoon, we made our way to the Lemaire Channel, which is a 11km long and 1600 meters wide strait off Antarctica between Kiev Peninsula in the mainland’s Graham Land and Booth Island. It's been nicknamed “Kodak Gap” by some because of its scenic views and once you see it, you'll totally understand why.

Instead of posting a bunch of photos here to try to give you an idea of just how beautiful this place was, let's try something different, here is a link to a timelapse video on my website that is about 5 minutes long, and kind of let's you get a feel of the experience of sailing a ship through the Lemaire...
https://www.jamesmiller.photography/Videos/i-rtzNJ5D/A

When we get close to the end of the channel, there is a huge iceberg and sheet ice in front of us, blocking the rest of the way through. You can kind of make it out when the ship slows and starts to turn around.  I'd say I was disappointed we didn't get to go the rest of the way through, but I'd be lying because having to turn around, meant we got to witness this beautiful place a second time and have even more opportunities to shoot photos that might hopefully capture it's beauty.

Today's Weather Conditions
Weather & Sea: Partly Clouded | Calm
Temperature: 3ºC | 37.4 ºF
LAT. 65° 11’ S, LONG. 64° 10’ W

Antarctica - Day 9 - Part 2

December 6, 2019

After lunch, it was time to kick back a bit in the lounge and share stories with people about the trip so far.  A number of people were working on photos but I was just spending most of my time making 2 full backups of all the shots I'd taken so far.  I wasn't sure if I'd ever get down here again, so wanting to be extra careful and get two copies of everything JUST in case one of my hard drive backups went bad.

While waiting for my group's turn to get out on the Zodiacs and cruise around Cierva Cove, there was some big excitement, as a group of whales came up really close to the ship and were actively feeding. Until now most whales we'd seen were hundreds of yards away but this group was probably less than 50-75 feet from us.   Everyone grabbed their cameras and rushed to the deck in hopes to get some great shots.

There was a moment when we all thought we were going to see something extraordinary, when we could see the whales begin to build a bubble net!  I don't know how well you can see it in this photo, but the whales began to circle and blow bubbles which helps them gather their prey into a nice tight group so that they can then swoop up and get more in each mouthful.  If you've ever seen video or photos of a group of whales with their mouths wide open punching through the surface of the water, that's what I thought were were going to see here!

Everyone had their camera's ready and you could hear the excited voices thinking we were about to get a GREAT show, but sadly this group of whales was just going to tease us, and they ended up feeding just below the surface instead. So we didn't get those amazing shots, but still got a really fun show as the whales just slowly moved back and forth next to the ship, slowly feeding and from time to time showing their dorsal fins, and every once in a while, giving as a quick view of their tails as the would go into a deeper dive for a few minutes.   Here are just a few photos of the whales in action: 

They stayed right next to us for close to 20 minutes before finally moving on and out of site of the ship. Even though we didn't get the epic type of show, it was still so very cool to watch them up so close to us.

At 16:00, it was finally time for the second half of us to climb aboard the Zodiacs and head out into the cove.  There was a lot more ice here although much of it was smaller than what we saw yesterday. The Pro that was in our boat had scoped out a very cool area with the first group, and asked our driver to hurry and take us there first to start the ride.  The thinking was it was much further out than most of the other Zodiacs would go so we'd have it all to ourselves, and if we started off as far away as we dared go, we could take our time out there, and then slowly work our way back to the ship.

Cierva   Cove  lies   at   the   western   side   of   the   Antarctic Peninsula in the northern
entrance of the Gerlache Strait. In the  vicinity,  there  is  an  Argentinean  station  (Primavera
Station).  It  is  truly another beautiful  area  surrounded  by  spectacular glaciers and as we headed across the water you could really see just how big those glaciers were!

 The first shot most everyone wanted to take of course, was another photo of the ship from on the water just below it  After that, we were off and running across the bay.

Here are just some of the views we had once we got to the far end of the bay. It's really hard to judge how tall these glacier walls were, but if I had to guess, I'd say they were about as high as a 6 story building.

Once we all shot tons of photos in and around those big glaciers, we began to slowly head back toward the ship and pass a number of very interesting looking icebergs.  One cool thing I started to spot on some of them, were these long icicles hanging down from the edges, where you could see that the snow on top had begun to melt during the warm days and as the water ran down and dripped into the sea, it would freeze again at night as the temps dropped.  It was pretty interesting to me...  

Here is a quick look at a few of the rock formations poking out of all that ice and snow.

The icebergs here are so seriously blue when the light hits them just right.  Here you can really see that blue and how it almost seems to glow from deep inside.

Just for fun I'm including a couple of shots with another Zodiac in the photo for scale.  We were cruising around this one berg with a cool arch in it when suddenly another Zodiac pulled in front of the arch on the other side.  We were soon all shooting photos of each other through the arch. LOL

In this shot, you can see just how full the bay was with all kinds of small chunks of ice.  I'm guessing most of these were from all kinds of small chunks breaking off of the big glaciers from earlier and then those chunks slowly melting and breaking down over time.

Once back on the ship, it was time to get out of the extra layers and waterproof stuff and into street clothes.  Before dinner was served, there was a quick lightroom class on the Develop module. It's always interesting to me to see and hear how others use Lightroom to edit their photos.

There was also a quick briefing by the expedition leader about tomorrows activities and then it was off to dinner.   The first few days on the ship, a group of 6 of us had found a nice small and quiet back room to sit and have our meals in.  Turns out the secret was out and when we got in the dining room, our table had been overtaken by another group.  We moved to another table in the room even though it wasn't set up for meals, and the crew was more than happy to bring us what we needed to sit there since they knew we'd used that room every meal until now. 

After dinner there was one more talk given.  This one was on the mammals of Antarctica and then after that it was everyone to themselves.  Once again, the large majority of people headed off to bed, and the usual suspects kept looking out the window, knowing we could possibly had yet another beautiful sunset ahead of us.  I mean, who can sleep when the weather looks like this?

Once again we stayed up really late, taking lots of photos, and then when the light stopped changing and we felt satisfied with our photos, it was time to head off to bed to try to get at least a few hours of sleep.

Antarctica - Day 9 - Part 1

December 6, 2019

The wake-up call this morning didn't come until 6:30 which was nice after the super early start yesterday.  Breakfast was served at 07:00 but I wasn't feeling hungry today so I just took my time getting myself ready and packing my camera stuff for the only landing scheduled for today.

We were doing an 08:30 landing at Hydrurga Rocks which is a small  landing  site  at  the  northern  entrance  of  the  Gerlache Strait.  We were told to expect to see Chinstrap  penguins,  Antarctic  Cormorants and Kelp gulls here, accompanied by snowy sheathbills and Antarctic Brown Skuas. Weddell seals will often haul up on the snow to take naps here too, so we were to keep our eyes open for them as well.

There was a lot of snow at this landing site and with the warmer temps it was pretty hard to walk through. Falling through the snow up to your thighs was a pretty common occurrence for the day.  I think I found myself thigh deep in the snow at least a dozen times myself.  Any time you got off the small path that had been trampled down, you were almost sure to bury yourself.  lol

This location is really pretty (which has pretty much been everywhere we've been now, but it still makes you catch your breath) and has a trail that winds up and around a small inlet of water before wrapping around to the back side of the little island.  If you went up and to the left at the top of the hill, you could walk down to a couple of small penguin groups on the rocks, and one that had taken up residence around an old building which I'm missed hearing what it had been used for or maybe if it was still in use.

When you went to the right, you could see this high rock on the other side of a small water inlet which was covered in penguins and Blue-eyed shag, an Antarctic cormorant. It was funny to see how Penguins work their way so high up on rocks when you know it must take them forever to get up and down from there.  They aren't the swiftest animal on land.

A pair of snowy sheathbills strutted their way around me for a good 5 minutes, not seeming to care how close they got. They aren't the prettiest birds around for sure.

I got a little closer to actually getting a face pic of a Weddell seal... this was about as close as I got but I won't give up!

There were a few Kelp Gulls flying around the area too so we really did see everything they'd told us to watch for.  

Usually when you see pictures of Penguins, they are fresh out of the water and so nice and clean.  It was pretty interesting to see how that is far from the normal state of these silly creatures.  They are almost always covered in filth because they seen to not mind sliding around mud and their own poo.  Heck this fella looks like he just created some hideous crime somewhere and is making a run for it! LOL  Actually that's just poo I'm sure as most of it is red because of their main diet of Krill.  I know... I just ruined your idea of lovable, cuddly Penguins.  Sorry. Don't worry though, they clean up really well when they hit the water and hunt for food.  They come out looking squeaky clean after a good swim and then you can cuddle away :)

There were mostly Chinstrap and Gentoo Penguins here but there was one lonely Adelie trying to fit in and not be noticed.  It was funny to watch this guy standing in the middle of a group of other Penguins. He stood there like a statue for a long time almost like he was hoping no one would notice him. LOL

Maybe the coolest thing I saw this morning was a pretty good sized iceberg that was floating just off the beach, suddenly break in half and roll as it tried to settle into a good balanced position again. This thing was bigger than it looked before it rolled, and then you saw two pieces of ice about the size of  large SUVs spinning around.   I wish I had caught that on video but here is a before and after look of it.

And yes... that's the same chunk of ice. :)

Well, at noon it was time to head back to the ship.  Lunch was going to be served at 12:30 today and then we are scheduled for another fun Zodiac cruise today.  This time I'm in group two so I will have some down time before I get to go out there.  The cruise today is going to take place at Cierva Cove.

Since this entry is getting long again, I'll split it in two like I did with yesterday's blog.  Watch for more later today.  :)

Antarctica - Day 8 - Part 2

THURSDAY, DECEMBER 5TH

After getting back on the ship, it was time for breakfast.  I normally skip breakfast but now that I've been up and trudging through snow for a couple of hours, I worked up an appetite so had to check out the offering.  Breakfast on the ship is buffet style, and they had put out eggs, bacon, toast, fruits, cereal, yogurt, and a few other things I probably missed.

After breakfast, we suited up again. This time it was going to be for a Zodiac cruise in the waters around Spert Island, an island lying off the west extremity of Trinity Island, in the Palmer Archipielago.  They had to split everyone into two groups in order to get us all on the available Zodiacs for a 90 minute cruise around the bay.  I was in the early group today.

The water was really smooth and the Zodiac ride was awesome. Just feeling the wind on your face, smelling the fresh air, hearing the water splash around us.. it really felt like you were IN nature now more than just observing it.  The views all around us were amazing but with people on each side of the boat, it was kind of hard to get great shots without someone getting in the way.  It took a little time but we finally figured out a method that seemed to work well.  people on one side would kneel down on the floor while the other side took photos over your head and then we would switch when the views were on the other side of us.

I was really surprised at just how beautiful the weather was and how warm it was on the Zodiac.  I was so worried about being cold on this trip and so far, I've been anything but. Even on the water like that. :)   Here are a few shots to give an idea of how things looked:

The first two shots have the Zodiac in them to try to give an idea of scale to the area we were in, and to the size of one of the icebergs that was just sitting behind the ship when we offloaded.

Here are two more shots looking on each side of us to show you how big this bay is and just how smooth the water is right now. 

And this shot hopefully gives you at least a little idea of how massive those mountains really are. I felt really small sitting down on the water looking up at them.... heck, just that iceberg in front of the mountain was massive!

Here is another shot of that iceberg with a Zodiac closer to it, so you can really see the size of it.

After going around a few icebergs and getting up close to them, we wandered further out and over to this massive rock and channel between them.  There was a big chunk of ice stuck in there that totally blocked our ability to pass the rest of the way through there, but it was fun to get up close to it and just see how wedged in there it was.

In the photo it looks like that thing might be connected to the rocks, but it was actually fully free floating in there.  When we got up and super close to it, you could watch it just bobbing up and down on the water and it didn't seem possible as that chunk of ice had to be the size of a 2 or 3 story home.  Yet it just bobbed around effortlessly between those huge slabs of stone.

This was just a quick shot, looking back at the ship to see just how far we've traveled so far, and we were still moving further away when I shot this.

There was a very cool rock arch hidden way from our view until we got close to it, and then two small caves as well.  We tried to talk the driver into taking us through there, but he wouldn't risk it because he couldn't be sure how safe that would be.

Here is another decent sized iceberg that has been worn smooth by the seas over however many years it's been out there floating around.

There was a little bit of a ice jam back here... at least until the winds and tide change again and all that huge ice floats back out into the bay.

And then totally unexpectedly, we saw our third type of Penguin out there..  this Adelie Penguin was far from home and much further north than they usually travel. No one seemed sure what might have brought him so far north, but for now it was taking a break from swimming and just hanging out up on a rock shelf.  

The 90 minutes out there went by so very fast. I couldn't believe it was already time to get back to the ship, but there was another group waiting for their turn so back we went.  Here's what it looks like looking up at the ship from down on the water.

The rest of the day was spend on the ship and was pretty relaxing.  We were served lunch at noon, and then after a short break there were a few lectures again. The first was on the Exposure triangle at 13:30 and then at 15:00 there was the first Critique session where everyone was asked to pick two shots to share with the group and then the Pros would tell you what worked or didn't work with the shot and ways to make them better.  That session was great and it was interesting to see what other's were shooting.

Then it was dinner at 19:00 and Critique session #2 which mostly covered the photos that the first session didn't get to.  After that, a lot of people headed to their rooms to sleep after getting up so early, but the light outside was looking good and I wanted to stay up and see what came of it, along with a handful of others.  Looks like this might be the regular night owl group as it's the same people again tonight as it was last night.

The wait paid off as the light was pretty amazing tonight.  Now to find out if I got any great shots out of it.  It's too late to look now... it's almost 1:30am and I need some sleep!