Yankee Harbor in South Shetlands Island

Wow!  Our first time to step foot onto Antarctica.  We were scheduled to go ashore at 12:30; however, were delayed about 30 minutes because the zodiacs from the first group (8:00 am) got iced in.  While we will try to post pictures, NO picture can capture the grandeur of this place.

Margo started the day with a typical cruise ship activity, getting a facial.  Mark attended the presentation on the Antarctic Treaty.

The system the ship has for getting people on and off the land is, like most everything on this cruise, remarkably impressive.  Jan, the cruise director, makes an announcement 15 minutes prior to your departure time to come down to deck 5 “clipped and zipped.”  This means we are to be completely dressed in all our layers, including Seabourn jackets, compact life jacket that weighs 15 pounds, everything except our boots. We go into the club dressed for very cold weather, yet we are still inside so we are terribly uncomfortable.  We have to pass a visual inspection that all our layers and life vest are properly fitted.

Getting dressed and knowing how much to wear proved to be a tiny bit of a stressor for us. Margo was concerned about being too cold; Mark was concerned about being too hot. Margo decided to wear her long underwear, top and bottom, two pair of sweat pants over the long underwear, and her waterproof pants.  On the top, she was dressed like a very cold motorcycle ride – Tank top, long underwear, another layer, then the beautiful orange Seabourn jacket with the liner.  Then there were the decisions of which gloves to wear?  [the big ski gloves with liners] Should she wear her fleece neck warmer? [take it in the backpack in case she needs it] Should she use the hand and foot warmers? [she took both in her backpack but did not put them in] Should the backpack be on her back or on her front [she started out with it on her back but couldn’t reach anything so moved it to her front when she was on land.]

When our turn was called (12:45 for 1:00 departure) the anxiety and excitement were palpable!  This is really it, kids!

Our boots remain in a particular area on deck 5 primarily so we don’t track penguin poop throughout the stip.  Actually. Everyone scrubs their boots in the water with brushes before getting back into the Zodiac.   

The zodiac holds 10 passengers and the driver.  Before entering the zodiac we step into a disinfectant liquid.  Getting into the Zodiac while tied to the ship is quite a challenge because both are moving up and down but at different rates.  Three crew help you and so far, no one has fallen overboard!

You can see from the picture (when I can post pictures) how beautiful the sky is.  Elliott asked how we got to Antarctica – Danny and Jess, show Elliott this picture of our ship so he will know how we got here.  For everyone else, notice the beautiful blue skies and calm water.

When we arrived on shore we greeted by Gentoo penguins, lots and lots of penguins! Margo was pleasantly surprised that the penguin poop didn’t smell as nasty as she had feared. See picture below on how close they come to us.  This little penguin was just strolling by – no zoom required on the camera. This whole area is rocks. The penguins are not the least bit afraid of people, although they do keep a safe 8 to 10 feet distance.  We are so glad that we attended the penguin lecture the other day, so we understood their funny behavior.

Most of the chicks have hatched and many of them are almost as big at their parents.  You can tell the difference by the feathers – The adults have sleek, shiny, black feathers while the youngsters have fuzzy, greyish down feathers.   There was one penguin still sitting on a nest; the guide told us that that one wasn’t going to make it.  He said all the chicks have hatched that are going to hatch.  Margo wonders if the penguins mourn when one of the chicks doesn’t survive.

Their feeding habits are hilarious.  The parent goes to the water and eats krill, then regurgitates it to feed the chicks.  But the parent makes the poor chicks work for it!  The chicks will chase the parent around, making their funny gentoo penguin sound, while the parent runs away.  Sometimes multiple chicks are chasing a parent, not necessarily their own parent.  The parent then shoos the other chicks away and eventually feeds their chick.  Parenting is tough even in the penguin world!

Margo walked a bit away from where we landed and saw an elephant seal lounging on the rocks, surrounded by hundreds of penguins just going about their business.  There were penguins as far as one could see. We guess there are thousands and thousands of penguins that call Yankee Harbor home for the summer.

By time the zodiac made its return trip to the ship and hour and half after landing, it was so foggy we could not see the ship.  The zodiac driver with his sense of humor said, “hm, can anyone tell me which way to go?”  We asked him how would he find his way back to the ship.  He said he had a general idea, and if he didn’t see it by time he thought he should he would turn on the GPS. The picture below shows how close we were when we finally saw it.  Just 2 hours earlier we had clear blue skies and now we were encased in fog.  The weather truly changes so rapidly in Antarctica.

We returned from our first visit on Antarctica full of excitement.  The energy level overall is so different than it was the night before.

We attended the daily 6:30 briefing and see we are assigned to visit Half Moon Island at 11:00 tomorrow – weather cooperating!

Our evening ended with a spectacular cruise around Iceberg A-57A.  We do hope the pictures can be attached to this blog because the iceberg was phenomenal.  The iceberg is 37km long, about 150m high, and only 10-12% above water.