Lisa and Andy`s Antarctica Cruise

Transcription

Lisa and Andy's
Antarctica Cruise
January/February 2005
By Andy and Lisa Cubbon
with Photos by Andy and Lisa Cubbon
© Andrew and Lisa Cubbon, 2005
Lisa and Andy’s Antarctica Cruise
Introduction
This is our first cruise of 2005 and it was fantastic!! Antarctica makes my (Andy’s) sixth
continent visited; only Africa remains.
Last year at about this time we cruised around the southern part of South America aboard
the NCL Crown Odyssey. When we got to Ushuaia, Argentina we learned that many
Antarctic tourist cruises sailed from there every year. (By the way, Ushuaia is pronounced
‘oos whya’, not ‘oosh whya’ as was carefully explained to us by one of our guides.) On that
cruise, we learned that the Orient Lines’ Marco Polo makes that cruise and I told Lisa I’d like
to go. Although we didn’t book it on the spot, Lisa called the travel agent and booked it
shortly after we got home.
The only problem we had with the booking was getting the “packing list” that we were
promised. We only got it after several phone calls to the cruise line by the travel agent and
Lisa. We didn’t need to bring heavy coats because Orient Lines was providing these as part
of the package—a bright red parka. In addition to keeping us warm, it was mandatory wear
for going ashore. It helped the staff know where the passengers were, though it did make it
difficult to find your friends and family.
Cold Weather Things to Take
This is a sample of cold weather things you’ll need if you visit Antarctic or similar
environment.
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Thin sox*, two pair
Thermal sox*, mid-calf, two pair
Knee high (12”-16”) solid rubber boots (recommend cheap ones from WalMart for
~$13, and they can be left behind). I also used the insoles from a pair of tennis shoes
inside to add another layer of insulation that help a lot on wet ground or decks.
• Long underwear pants* (wear over normal briefs/panties)
• Jeans or similar pants, two or three pair
• Rain pants (got ours at an Army/Navy surplus store)
• Undershirts*
• Sweatshirts, two or three
• Fuzzy jacket for nicer days on deck and arrival at Ushuaia
• Inexpensive knit gloves to use as liners (Lisa got some at Walgreens and they worked
better than the special ones we got at REI).
• So-called convertible mittens; the kind that the front folds back to expose the fingers
for operating your camera or binoculars
• Neck gaiter; basically a cloth sleeve that you pull down over your head to go around
your neck; doesn’t come undone and doesn’t have ends to get caught in things
• Balaklava; yes, I know it’s ugly, but you need ear cover and face cover against cold
wind on deck and during Zodiac rides
• Small waterproof or water-resistant shoulder bag for camera and binoculars; it
should be wearable bandoleer style; this works best as it has to be outside your
lifejacket.
* The ship’s list recommended silk, wool or synthetic—not cotton, but I didn’t have any
problems with cotton undershirts, jeans and sweatshirts.
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Other Things to Take
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Camera(s) with lots of film or extra media. You will be taking lots of pictures.
Fabreeze for your room. The odor of penguin guano is pervasive.
Binoculars if you plan on doing serious wildlife observing.
Sound-canceling headphones for the long plane rides. Bose makes a nice pair for
$300…expensive but worth it.
Books
We had purchased two books in preparation for our trip.
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The Complete Guide to Antarctic Wildlife by Hadoram Shirihai. This is a beautiful and
heavy book. However, it proved to be of limited value on the trip because the ship’s
expedition staff provided quicker identification. Without the staff it might have been
more valuable.
• Lonely Planet Antarctica by Jeff Rubin. We’ve found the Lonely Planet books to be
excellent travel books. Though the recommended places to stay tend toward the lowend, the coverage of history, cultural, and sights-to-see is excellent.
I also took two other books I already had:
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Seabirds of the World: A Photographic Guide by Peter Harrison. This was useful,
especially when we didn’t have experts available. I’ve had this book for the last three
cruises and it’s been a stalwart companion. It’s main drawback it that the pictures
and text & maps are in separate sections.
Birds of Southern South America and Antarctica by Martin R. de la Pena and Maurice
Rumboll. I got this in Ushuaia last year and it is very useful for identifying land and
shore birds.
Picture Credits
Most of the pictures were selected from those I took on the trip including the following
cover pictures:
• Upper-left: Astrodome-sized tabular iceberg near Deception Island
• Upper-right: Gentoo penguin at Paradise Harbor
• Center: Black-browed albatross drafting ship in Drake Passage
• Lower-left: Chinstrap penguin at Half Moon Island
• Lower-right: Pretty iceberg near Paradise Harbor
Those that Lisa took are:
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Figure 1 on page 5
Figure 2 on page 6
Left photo in Figure 5 on page 14
The Antarctic Grass on page 15
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The whale spine picture on page 27
Figure 13 on page 29
Figure 35 on page 52
Text Credits
Andy wrote most of the text.
Lisa’s contributions (other than corrections) are shown in the different type style of this sentence.
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Buenos Aires
Preparations
For several days we staged things for the trip in three rooms: Buenos Aires, Antarctica Cold
Wear, and Other.
We had purchased many special items and gear for the trip. The Xtratuf boots I’d purchased
in Seattle for this trip never made it to Atlanta. We’d asked Lisa’s brother Gino to send them
to us so we won’t have to lug them around on our Alaskan cruise, but the box got lost (along
with some other items). So, I ordered them on the Internet from the Angler’s Center in
California, but the ones they sent me were only the 12” ones—I never thought to check this.
I sent them back and they were going to send a 16” pair. These were backordered…sigh. I
finally got them 2 weeks before we left.
Lisa opted for the 13” WalMart boots for $12.97, which worked just fine and could be left
behind for the ship’s store of spares.
We got convertible mittens, glove liners, thermal socks, rain suits (we only took the pants),
and long underwear pants. We also purchased some additional items in Ushuaia. It turned
out that there were better choices on some of these (see list in Introduction), for example,
neck gaiters are better than scarves because they are easier to keep in place and don’t have
ends that can get in the penguin guano or get caught in life vests.
I got a lanyard to clip my GPS receiver to a belt loop. This saved it a couple of times. The
provided clip tends to get released unexpectedly now and again. It also provides a fail safe
when it’s unclipped for reading.
In carry-on were our two cameras, binoculars (I nearly forgot mine), GPS, the new digital
video camera (never used), Bose sound-canceling headphones (these are great for airplanes),
my iPod, medications and spare underwear. In the luggage we had spare batteries, and the
battery charger.
Tuesday-Wednesday, January 25-26
Departure, Airplane Ride and Arrival
We began departure day with a couple of hours of dance lessons (plane didn’t leave until
8:40PM). After dance we stopped at Publix to pick up a couple of those patches that heat up
for Lisa’s back and some fried chicken for lunch.
After lunch we cleared out e-mail. I was going to burn the final back-up CDs but the CD
burner wasn’t wanting to work today - #$&@*$ software. Shut down the house and the
limo picked us up at 6:00. Got to the airport without incident. The driver was a nice guy.
He’d just driven the new car down from Boston and got out just before the big storm hit.
There was no one at international check-in as all the European flights had already left. On
the airport train we rode with three Tampa rescue dogs and their handlers. They were on
their way to Virginia for cold weather training.
By the time we got to Concourse E, I was already complaining about the weight of my carryon bag (with all the electronics in it). So we went down to the Brookstones shop to look at
roll-aboards. We found a very nice one, which we purchased, and loaded all the heavy stuff
into—what a relief.
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The plane boarded smoothly and pushed back on time. Lisa chatted with a couple from
Arizona who were going on the same cruise. Early in the flight, we hit some minor
turbulence. The movie was Without a Paddle, but without back-of-the-seat screens, we opted
not to watch. It looked like on of the “guys doing stupid things” flick anyway, which I don’t
care for.
Dinner was the usual airplane fare. Lisa opted for the beef and I picked the chicken (saving
my beef cravings for La Estancia). Then we took our sleeping pills and tried to sleep. Lisa
seems to have had more luck than I did.
An hour before landing (the next morning) they served “breakfast” consisting of a croissant,
banana, granola bar, OJ and coffee/tea. After a 10-hour, uneventful flight, we arrived on
time at 8:20AM (Buenos Aires is two hours ahead of Atlanta).
We went through Argentine immigration and customs without incident. Orient Lines took
the luggage (next we saw it was in the room at the hotel). We got on the bus to the hotel.
This time we didn’t have the “required” city tour. For this we were grateful, as we’d had that
tour at the end of the cruise last year. This tour was available for those who wanted it later in
the afternoon, but we took a pass.
At the Sheridan Hotel on San Martin, we went to one of the ballrooms for the check-in
process. They had fruit, pastries and drinks for us there (including bottles of water). The
room we’d been assigned wasn’t non-smoking, so Lisa did her managing thing and got us
upgraded to the executive/club floor. We chatted with the couple from the plane and I
helped several people with the confusing check-in forms.
La Estancia for Lunch
Spanglish for the day: Fotocopias. Seen on many store fronts on Florida and Lavalle.
We dropped our carry on in the room and headed to La Estancia for lunch. We’d been
looking forward to this for over a year. The Sheridan is located on the northern, upscale end
of Florida, the main pedestrian street in city center. La Estancia is on the less well known
and lower scale Lavalle that crosses it. We walked about three blocks west to Florida, five
long blocks south on Florida, and then 3 ½ blocks west on Lavalle. La Estancia is on the
right. If you get to Avenida 9 de Julio (9th of July Ave.), the very wide boulevard, you’ve gone
too far. It was a little early yet, so we went on to 9th of July Ave. and turned right. A half a
block on is the Crown Plaza we stayed in last year. We stopped in for a bathroom break and
look around and then strolled back to La Estancia.
We ordered the exact same meal as last year (except for wine choice):
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Half bottle of Norton Classico, a nice medium to full bodied, crisp red with little
tannin and no oak flavors, probably a Malbec--13 pesos (~$4.00 US)
Liter bottle of bubbly water, i.e. con gas (this is not the same as club soda)
Complementary empanada (small meat pie) to start; two tenderloins (14 oz. sirloin filets)
One salad to share
One order of papa frita (French fries) cooked in beef tallow
We also requested Chimichurri sauce. La Estancia’s version has about equal parts
green olives, garlic & onion; some red pepper flakes, oregano & parsley, and olive oil.
This goes perfectly with the beef.
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Tab came to 75 pesos plus a generous 8-peso tip (10% is customary), a little over $29 US. La
Estancia adds the tip to the credit card bill, which is unusual. It is customary pay the tip in
cash because it takes up to 45 days to process credit card transactions. This was a bit higher
than the $26 US we paid last year. Inflation is everywhere, plus the dollar is a little weaker
here too.
On our waddle back to the hotel we did a little wine shopping with the information we’d
gotten from the Wine Spectator and other sources—no bargains. The wines we were looking
for were those designated for export and targeted at tourists here. This plus a high VAT tax
made them way more expensive than they would be in the US; over double in some cases.
We did see a full 750 ml bottle of the Norton Classico (not intended for export) for 10 pesos
(~$3.40 US) in one of the shops at the lower scale part of Florida. Near the hotel we got a
couple of overpriced (for here) 1 ½-liter bottles of water at 2.50 pesos (~85 cents). Last year
on Lavalle we were buying it for 0.80 pesos, but we were now at the touristy end of Florida.
Figure 1. Buenos Aires, view southwest from our hotel (Lisa)
Back in the room we crashed for the afternoon, napping and watching bad TV programs
including most of Arthur, el Primo Caballero (King Arthur) with Sean Connery, Richard Gere
and Julia Ormond, and episodes of John Doe and Quincy. These were all in English with
Spanish subtitles.
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Sei Tu for Ice Cream
Around seven we went out for ice cream at Sei Tu that we’d also found on our last trip. So it
was back to Lavalle. Here the price hadn’t changed from last year; still ¼ kilo (more than a
½ lb.) for 2.50 pesos. Lisa got a quarter kilo with three flavors: vanilla, dark chocolate and
lemon with chocolate pieces (our supper). We sat outside the shop to eat it and watched the
people parade. Lisa decided we needed another quarter kilo for dessert. This time she got
dark chocolate, tiramisu and lemon ice. Ummm good! On the way back we watched a
mediocre tango couple for a while. We bought a Tango CD Lisa heard on the store’s system
and liked, I got a classical CD for $1 US for Don (Lisa’s cousin’s husband) because I knew
he’d like the price.
Figure 2. Buenos Aires harbor sunset from our room (Lisa)
Back at the hotel it was just getting dark, as this was still summer time in this hemisphere.
We both showered (it was quite warm, but not oppressively hot here) and went to bed. Lisa
was asleep by 10:30 and I held out until 11:00.
Thursday, January 27
Spanglish for the day: minimercado (minimarket). Seen on the bus ride to our tour.
Lisa got up about 7:00. I lasted until booted out (by Lisa) at 8:00. Down to the San Telmo
room for the provided breakfast buffet at 8:30. It was a nice buffet. The bacon was especially
good and Lisa liked one of the pastries, though I wasn’t as impressed. We sat with Jim and
Olive from Richmond, VA. He’s retired Army plus other subsequent jobs. They travel quite
a bit. We learned that her checked luggage didn’t make it from Richmond to Dulles on
Monday (they came a day early), so United send it to Chicago in hopes that it would make
the Chicago to BA flight. It didn’t. Later we learned that it had probably been on the
Tuesday flight, but that flight had an engine fire 40 miles out of Chicago and had to do
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return emergency landing. Those folks and Olive’s bag finally got to BA at 2:00AM
Thursday. Her bag was delivered later that morning.
Jim and I talked about genealogy research for about 45 minutes. We share England’s Edward
III as an ancestor. His lineage goes back through the Cicel line. He’s also of the Foote line—
both on his mother’s side. Meanwhile, Lisa chatted with a couple, Joe and Barbara, from
Manchester England.
After breakfast, we went up to the Fenkel shop where Lisa bought a Capibera hide coin
purse plus several others for gifts. We also purchased a tiny stone penguin. When we got
home Lisa put it in a plastic Easter egg and sent it to her brother, Steve, with a note that read
“As promised, Lisa and Andy.”. He’d asked us to bring him a penguin egg, but only if it was
legit. Lisa also drooled over a ¾ length leather coat going for 1800 pesos (near $600 US).
She managed to not buy it. I hope this doesn’t turn into another “silver bracelet.” (In
Cancun years ago she saw a silver bracelet she really liked, but didn’t buy because she got “a
case of the cheaps” as she puts it and has regretted it ever since.)
We meandered around this end of Florida and strolled through the Galleria Pacifico. I
bought a Buenos Aires souvenir pin. Then we had lunch at a fast-food place called Aroma.
We got a salad, a pre-made ham & cheese sandwich, 2 waters and a lime tart for 22 pesos
(~7.00 US).
Parana River Delta Tour
Back to the hotel to get ready for the Parana River Delta Tour. A friend of ours who’d done
it a couple of years ago had recommended it. We were all to meet in the hotel lobby at 1:15.
We were there but no guide yet. The guide appeared about 1:40. While we were waiting Lisa
got into a conversation with two couples from the UK. One of these couples, John and
Lynn, would become our main companions on the trip. It took another 20 minutes to get us
all loaded on the buses and collect the tickets. We pulled out at 2:00.
We drove north for 35-40 minutes to a dock on the Tigre River (really one of the hundreds
of branches of the Parana river delta). At the dock we had to wait another 15 minutes or so
for the boat to arrive. While waiting, I saw a mockingbird-like bird catching insects. It used
its wings to shade areas in the lawn to flush an insect then hopped around to catch it. It
seemed smaller than the U. S. Mockingbird. I’m not certain but I think it was the Chalkbrowed Mockingbird based on the habitat description in the bird book.
The boat, when it arrived, was a long, narrow canal or riverboat with the helm in the rear.
The passenger area was fully covered. The rear half had rows of two sets of three seats
across the boat with a central aisle. The front half, where I sat, had benches along the
tapering sides and a center bench, front to back, facing out to the sides. I was able to set the
GPS on the edge of the open windows (tethered of course) and get signal.
We thought we were going to get a “nature” cruise of delta wildlife. Instead we got a
“vacation play land” cruise. There was very little wildlife about. Most of the channels of the
delta that we cruised were lined with vacation/week-end homes, fancy resorts, country clubs,
amusement parks and beachside restaurants. The canals were full of people and boats. The
people were swimming, fishing or water skiing. The latter was only allowed in designated
places. There was also a fair amount of commercial activity. Some shipyards and marinas,
people harvesting reeds, and small ships full of freshly cut logs for lumber. Near the
shipyards, the channel was lined with half sunken, rusting hulks (see pictures below).
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Figure 3. Parana River Delta Tour
The boat traffic was mostly pleasure craft of all sizes from rowboats and kayaks to yachts
with the occasional commercial craft mentioned above. In places the channels were quite
narrow and crowded.
I believe the guide said that the normal cottage rented for about $300 US for the summer
plus expenses, such as the gardener and maid. Many of the cottages had boatlifts. These
were steeply angled steel tracks and a cradle that used a wench for lifting small, speedboatsized boats out of the water.
During the cruise we were served a complementary foil wrapped, chocolate covered
cookie/cake confection with a dulce de leche filling. Dulce de leche is made by reducing and
partially caramelizing condensed milk. It has the consistency of peanut butter. Based on later
experience, these were not particularly good. I think of these as sort of Argentine Moon
Pies. We were also given very sweet espresso (Cuban coffee). Beer and soft drinks were also
offered for sale.
Just before the end of this 90-minute jaunt, the three of us on the port side of the bow got
doused with water when our bow wave and a wake wave of a passing boat combined just
right. Sort of like a log flume ride. Fortunately, most of the water landed on my legs with
very little getting on the camera or binoculars (GPS is water proof). I wiped everything down
with Purell hand sanitizer that I shared with my fellow victims—didn’t need to come down
with any weird maladies just before sailing to Antarctica.
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The only wildlife I saw on the river (other than crazy water skiers) were some Olivaceous
Cormorants, which I’d seen on last year’s trip, and a couple of Great Egrets (same species as
the North American Common Egret).
Back at the pier, we were given a bathroom break and Lisa got an ice cream cone that was
quite good. Back on the bus for the ride back, my new English friend, John, and I spent
some of the time looking for birds we’d seen. John had seen some type of thrush, but we
were unable to find it in my bird book. He’d also seen a sparrow-sized bird the previous
evening by the hotel that he found in the book. It was a Rufous-collared Sparrow. I didn’t
see it in Buenos Aires, but we both did later in Ushuaia.
We made a stop on the way back in San Isidro, a ritzy suburb of Buenos Aires that is
popular with English immigrants. The guide led a walking tour near the cathedral to show
off the fancy homes, but neither Lisa nor I went. She stayed on the bus, and I walked about
near where the bus was parked. The cathedral was nothing special. In fact it looked brand
new, but I suspect it had recently been cleaned. Even so, it couldn’t have been particularly
old.
Las Nazarenas for Dinner
We got back to the hotel at 6:30. I changed my shirt and we went across the street to Las
Nazarenas for dinner. It had gotten several recommendations from tour guides and some of
our fellow tourists, plus it was nearby.
The ambiance is more upscale than La Estancia, but, like La Estancia, it was also a parrilla
(Argentine for barbeque). We ordered basically the same meal we’d had a La Estancia. Both
because when you come to Argentina you have beef, and so we could do a fair comparison.
We ordered a half bottle of red wine—San Telmo Malbec 2002, which was more full bodied
and less crisp than the Norton Classico, but was also 13 pesos. We started with a
complementary empanada, shared a salad and French fries, and each had the tenderloin that
was a bit smaller than the one at La Estancia. The total was 83.50 pesos plus a 10-peso tip
(~$34 US). Here we paid the tip in cash. Both of us felt it was not quite as good as La
Estancia and it was more expensive. But it had a better ambiance and was located in the
touristy part of downtown.
We made an early night of it because we needed to be up, breakfasted and ready for a 7:15
bus to the airport in the morning. So we both showered and packed up our luggage, which
had to be out side the room by 9:00PM for pickup and transport to the airport. This was
nice, as we didn’t have to handle the big suitcases at all. They just showed up in our cabin on
the ship in Ushuaia. We were told to only take a small carry-on, just the bare necessities since
there was very little overhead space on the plane.
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Antarctica
Friday, January 28
Trip to Ushuaia
Our alarm went off at 5:00AM and Lisa got up. I wasn’t planning on getting up until 5:45,
but was fully awake, so got up at 5:15. We did our morning stuff and were down for
breakfast in the San Telmo ballroom by 6:00. It was the same fare, but they also had a high
fiber cereal today. At breakfast we chatted with a couple from Manassas, VA. He was a
computer chip manufacturing engineer who’d gotten downsized. He retrained as a soil
engineer and is doing land use assessments for property developers. They would like to
move back to Colorado if they can find work there.
After breakfast we cleared out of the room and waited in the lobby for the bus that was
suppose to be there at 7:15. There was a big crowd and we didn’t board the bus until 7:35.
We joined the Brits for the ride and arrived at the airport at 8:07 only to get in the longest
security line I’ve ever had to wait in. There were probably over 200 people trying to get
through 2 security stations. Clearly the BA airport was not setup for this many people. But,
with our new Brit friends, the wait was cheerful. Lynn, John’s wife, and I [Lisa] took a stroll to the
front of the line, window shopped, and visited with other people in line (while us guys held our
places in line).
Orient Lines needed to get 550 people from BA to Ushuaia in one morning, which involved
two or three full charter flights. It was 9:12 when we cleared security only to wait a bit longer
in a crowded, Spartan waiting room. Several of our little group decided we’d better go to the
toilet, which required going back though security, but by this time there was nobody there.
Then we were all put on shuttle buses that took us to the international concourse where our
planes were (apparently there was no room at the domestic gates for the charters). The bus
drove in a large circle to stop maybe 200 yards from where we boarded it. We then climbed
some stairs walked down a short passage way roped off from the rest of the international
gates and out the jetway to our plane.
They had told us repeatedly that the flight to Ushuaia would be on a smaller plane, so we
had to severely limit our carry-on luggage. Not true. The Airbus 340 is one of the bigger
planes with a 2-4-2-seat arrangement in coach and huge overhead bins (our Brit friends were
up front in business).
We had an uneventful three-hour flight to Ushuaia. Lunch was served consisting of a small
salad, spinach wraps and a bread-based cheese pizza with a dinner roll, crackers and a
nondescript dessert. It was OK for airplane food. They also showed a movie, but neither of
us watched it.
Ushuaia, Argentina
Arriving by plane in Ushuaia is a treat. We started our approach by flying easterly down the
Beagle Channel between the mountains on either side. After passing Ushuaia we made a
sweeping U-turn and made our final approach to the west. The Ushuaia airport is built on
the tip of the peninsula that separates the harbor from the main channel, so if the plane
lands short or long, you’re in the drink. This makes for an exciting landing.
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We arrived more-or-less on time at 1:30 to beautiful weather: 60º F, light breeze, sunny skies.
We left the plane, went down a flight of steps in the terminal and right outside to the waiting
buses that would take us to the ship. These same buses had brought those who had taken
the previous cruise to the airport and we saw them in the security line, many carrying their
red parkas.
It was a 20-minute ride to the ship. There were six other ships at Ushuaia’s one and only
pier: 4 other cruise ships, and an Argentine naval vessel and icebreaker. Most were also
headed to Antarctica. We had to wait on the bus for several minutes while our passports and
cruise documents were collected.
We then boarded the ship using the magnetically striped boarding cards we had been sent.
One of the cabin staff escorted us to our cabin, #310, amidships. It was on the smallish size,
even for a cruise ship, but adequate.
The Marco Polo is an older ship but in very good shape. They keep it immaculately clean
and the food was very good to excellent. The shows (yes they had shows) were mediocre to
poor and I only went to one (I preferred to be on deck looking for birds and whales; it was
light until after 10PM). However, I did attend all the lectures. Incongruously, they also had
bingo and an art action, which neither some of the expedition team nor I thought was
appropriate to this itinerary.
We dumped our carry-on bags and headed off to go into Ushuaia. On the walk down the
half-mile long pier there were the usual birds about: White-chinned Petrels, Kelp Gulls and
South American Terns.
In town we first looked for an Internet place, which we quickly found. We both cleared out
the junk mail and Lisa sent one of her vacation bulletins. At 0.50 pesos/10 minutes our
charges came to 2 pesos (~66¢). We followed this with a bit of shopping. I got a souvenir
pin at one place and a map of the Drake Passage at another (the latter proved to be less than
useful). We also bought a few more winter clothing items. Lisa got a neck gaiter (a sleeve like
neck scarf). I got one that was narrower and closed with Velcro and an ear band, both of
which proved to be of little value—I should have gotten a neck gaiter (more on this later).
Our next stop was for coffee and a nosh. The place we picked was a candy/café shop called
Dulces Antesanales on San Martin (the main shopping street). We found out later that the
ship’s crew knows it as Ushuaia Chocolates. This is what the much more prominent sign
above the shop reads. The place’s actual name is hard to find on the outside. We each
ordered a Café Americano but got what was much more like Cuban coffee: a very sweet
quadruple shot of espresso, which was quite good. We also shared a piece of very good
chocolate cake.
Next we looked for the bookshop we’d been to last year and where I bought the Birds of
Southern South America and Antarctica but it wasn’t anywhere near where we remembered it.
Just before returning to the ship we stopped at a small convenience store and got six, liter
and a half bottles of water to take back to the ship. It was less expensive that what we’d
purchased in Buenos Aires and a lot less expensive than that sold on the ship. It lasted us the
whole trip (I didn’t drink much of it).
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Departure for Antarctica
Even though we weren’t sailing until 8:00PM they wanted us back aboard by 5:00. Firstly,
because of the mandatory lifeboat drill that was scheduled at 5:30, and secondly, to be sure
any luggage issues were resolved before sailing.
I went back to the cabin and Lisa stopped at the restaurant to arrange our table. Unlike our
previous two cruises, this one had the traditional two seating times for dinner in the main
dining room with an assigned table, though it was open seating for breakfast and lunch. They
also had a buffet that was open for all three meals. They didn’t have any “specialty
restaurants” like the other cruises, so you won’t be regaled (or bored) with those dining
experiences.
At the cabin Joseph, our steward, was bringing in our luggage and wanted to get our sizes for
the red parkas included in the price of the cruise. Lisa got back in time for the fitting (small,
medium or large). I got a large and she got a medium. These are nice parkas; light weight and
warm with nice big square outside pockets plus a Velcro-closed inside pocket and an
Antarctica 2005 patch on the sleeve.
We had the usual lifeboat drill with everyone milling around in various stages of life vest
attire. We didn’t have to go outside. This was good because it had gotten quite windy and
cold on deck. Temperature had dropped into the 40s and the wind was blowing across the
deck at about 35 mph.
After the drill we went to Reception to get our credit card swiped for on-board charging
privileges with our boarding card. We took a quick stroll about the deck for a couple of bad
pictures and a GPS reading (S 54º 48.659’ W 68º 17.74’; this is right at the end of the
Ushuaia pier). Then we went back to the cabin to do some unpacking and get ready for the
main dinner seating at 6:15. As it turned out, we had dinner in the main dining room every
night. However, with the exception of one lunch, we had breakfast and lunch at the buffet
because it was just off the pool deck where I spent most of the cruise and it was quick and
convenient. Plus, we could eat “tapas” style; small tastes of lots of foods.
For us going to the dining room was easy. It’s about 20 feet down the corridor from our
cabin. We were at a table for 8. Our companions were Russ and Janet from Tampa and
Sarasota respectively who were romantically involved judging by her behavior. He’d been on
43 cruises and she’d been on 38, apparently many together. Never did get the story of their
relationship. We learned later that they were going on a Caribbean cruise on the
Queen Mary II less than a week after getting back from this one. There was a couple from
Peoria, IL, Gus and Louise and two ladies from Maryland, Bernice and Pauline. Talk was
about our various travel experiences.
The food was very good. I had a salad, potato and leek soup, pork medallions, and vanilla ice
cream for dessert. Lisa picked the salad, quiche, Indonesian stir-fry with noodles and shrimp,
and “nothing” for dessert. The waiter brought her a plate with “nothing” written on it in
chocolate—cute. We intended to start on a bottle of a nice Sauvignon Blanc, Caliterra, Chile,
but ended up drinking it all—unusual for us.
12
Figure 4. L-to-R: George, Alyson, John, Lynn, Lisa and Andy (taken later in the cruise at
our usual evening hangout).
After dinner Lisa wanted to go to the show, but I opted to go back to the room and do
some unpacking. By the time I got up to the show lounge, it was over. I found Lisa in the
Polo Lounge (amidships) with our new British friends: John & Lynn from Norwich near
Great Yarmouth on the east coast of England north of London, and George and Alyson
from Edinburgh, Scotland. We had drinks and chatted for a couple of hours. This would
become our evening routine, though we moved up a deck and aft to the Charleston Club
where they had a small combo playing and there was dancing. George really likes to dance.
John is a more avid birder than I am. He’s a member of the Royal Society for the Protection
of Birds (RSPB) and volunteers at a nearby Little Tern rookery trying to protect it from
people and foxes. As the cruise progressed John and I spent a lot of time on deck with the
Chris Wilson and a handful of avid bird watchers.
We got back to the room at 11:00 and finished unpacking; getting to bed at midnight. There
were some interesting engine noises in our room with some sort of regular clicking sound,
but it never kept me awake. By now we’d gotten out into the Drake Passage and there was
some gentle rolling, but nothing dramatic.
Saturday, January 29: Drake Passage
I woke up at 2:00AM and couldn’t get right back to sleep, so I wrote in my journal for about
an hour and a half. Dozed off a bit, and got up at 6:15. As you may already know, I’m an
early riser on cruises. This is contrary to my normal habit of getting up at the crack of 9:00. I
was up nearly every day before Lisa—a complete reversal of our usual morning roles.
13
The program listed a bird watching session on the back deck for 7:00AM. This turned out to
be very informal. Chris Wilson, the expedition ornithologist, was almost always on deck
before 5:00AM. Being the summer season, and being this far south, the daylight started early
and ended late. Chris maintains a daily list of birds and mammal sightings on a whiteboard
on the back deck. It listed what anyone saw, though contributions generally only came from
Chris and a few from those of us who were sure what we’d seen.
It was cold on deck, in the 30s and windy, though it wasn’t very rough. We had some snow
flurries at about 9:00. With a lot of help from Chris, today I saw Southern Giant Petrel,
Antarctic Prion, Grey-headed Albatross, Wandering Albatross (has a wing span over 10
feet), Blue Petrel, and a Yellow-nosed Albatross. The Yellow-nosed was well outside its
expected range, which is over 1000 kilometers north and east of the Drake Passage. It took
Chris a while to validate the identification. Several other species made the list, but I didn’t
personally see them today.
Lisa and I had breakfast in Raffles, the buffet. I had eggs, sausage, excellent corn beef hash,
and fiber cereal. Lisa had a similar breakfast but no eggs or fiber cereal.
One of the things we noticed was a group of 30 or so Chinese passengers. They had a
woman that translated everything for them. In lectures she sat in the back and spoke into a
short-range transmitter and the passengers had a receiver and headphones. She even wrote
the Chinese translation of the names of birds and mammals on the whiteboard on the back
deck.
Figure 5. Lisa and Jim Mastro at Paradise Harbor; Rich Kirchner and Andy at Half
Moon Island (Lisa).
After breakfast I went back out on the deck until the first lecture at 10:15. I got to chatting
with Rich Kirchner, the Assistant Expedition Leader, nature photographer, and avid whale
watcher. I learned that his girl friend, Mary Lou, worked as a ranger at Glacier Bay. I asked
him how long she’d been there. When he told me it had been eleven years. I said, “Then she
probably knows my brother-in-law, Doug Lucchetti.” At this point he stared in amazement.
He told me he had worked with another of Lisa’s brothers, Pete, in Antarctica in the early
90s. He also said, I needed to talk with Jim Mastro, another of the expedition staff because
14
he knew both Pete and Doug from Antarctic, but Doug more so. It was one of those
surprising “small world” events and helped us get to know the expedition staff better.
The first lecture began with introductions of the expedition staff by Allen Morgan the
Expedition Leader. These included the science staff (see Appendix B), artist and Zodiac
drivers. This was followed by an excellent overview of Antarctic history by Jim Mastro. It
was similar in depth to the history in the Lonely Planets guide. Jim is the expedition team’s
historian and mammalogist (whales and seals here). He currently lives in New Hampshire
with his wife and infant son. He has a Bachelor of Science degree in Zoology and a Masters
in English. He’s written several books about Antarctica. The most notable for us is
Antarctica: A Year at the Bottom of the World, which is a photo memoir of his nine summers and
two winters there (see Appendix B for more details).
The lecture on Antarctic ecology by Dr. Neville (Nev)
Jones followed at 11:15 after a 10-minute break. Nev
is from Wales. His doctorate is in Entomology
(insects) (see Appendix B for more details). He was
one of the more passionate scientists aboard. He
carried two fishing line boxes around with him. One
contained a collection of the only resident Antarctic
insect, a springtail, which is about the size of a
comma on this page. The other had a bunch of
slightly larger mites that are the predator in this very
short food chain. The only other land animal is a
small crustacean about the same size as the mite when
you include its shell. The crustaceans and springtails
feed on lichen, moss and algae, which are the dominant plant life. There are also two
flowering plants that live in the more northerly parts of Antarctica; one is a grass that we saw
on Half Moon Island later in the cruise. It was a rather poor specimen (see picture above).
Lunch time weather report from the bridge: 41º with 25-knot winds and moderate seas (510ft). Today, we went to the main dining room for lunch. We were seated with four other
people. A couple was from Hamilton Ontario. A woman was from North Carolina, and a
guy was from Lexington, KY. I’m pretty sure he was gay. As usual the conversation was
about travel. Though the guy form Lexington went on about his walking for weight control
quite a bit. We both had the Greek salad and vegetable soup. I picked the meatloaf and Lisa
opted for the grouper. She said the grouper was a little fishy tasting, but the Lexington guy
said his wasn’t. The meatloaf was good but had an unusually flavored sauce. For dessert I
had the brownie and Lisa had the chocolate mousse pie.
I went back out on the back deck after lunch to look for wildlife, but didn’t see any new
birds before the 2:15 lecture: “Seabirds of the Southern Clime” given by Chris Wilson the
ornithologist. He is the grandnephew of Dr. Edward A. Wilson who died with Capt. Scott
on his ill-fated attempt to be first to the South Pole. He arrived only to find that Amundson
had beaten him there. He and his party all died on the return trek. Chris is well known and
respected in ornithological circles in the UK and has made many contributions to the field.
He is currently the Warden of a wildlife refuge in Ireland (see Appendix B for more details).
His lecture was an excellent overview of what we were likely to see. It not only had some
beautiful pictures (most taken on previous Marco Polo cruises), but he also had recordings
of many of the bird’s sounds (which he used to keep us awake).
15
The mandatory Antarctic Landing Briefing came next after a short break. Here we were
introduced to the dos and don’ts of behavior on shore. We were suppose to stay at least 15
feet from any penguins, stay inside the marked people areas, yield right-of-way to penguins,
and of course not interfere in any way with the wildlife and take nothing but pictures and
memories back. They also covered guideline of the International Association of Antarctica
Tour Operator (IAATO).
The best crack of the Q&A session was when someone asked why Marco Polo doesn’t
belong to IAATO, another audience member quipped, “Because he’s dead.”
The Marco Polo doesn’t belong to the association because it lands more than 500 tourists
per trip. However, it conforms to all their other guidelines & limits and submits the required
reports. Plus, Allen Morgan attends all the sessions except those limited to voting members.
The I-didn’t-read-any-of-the-material question of the day was, “Will there be port-apotties on shore?” The answer is “no.”
According to the hourly surface-water temperature chart distributed later, we crossed the
Antarctic Convergence between 1:00 and 3:00PM. The water temperature dropped from 4ºC
to 1ºC. The middle of this zone was at 58º 56’ S (it can move around a bit). This change in
water temperature separates the Southern Ocean from the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian
Oceans. It also acts as a divider for many wildlife species.
After the lecture, John and I went back to Raffles for coffee and snacks expecting to meet
Lynn and Lisa there. But there was a misunderstanding as they went to a different place. By
the time we all got together, it was time to get ready for the Captain’s Cocktail Party, one of
the dress-up nights.
There was a long line to meet the captain. Lisa had read in the daily program that this could
be bypassed, but it wasn’t obvious from the end of the line. So, I left Lisa in line to hold our
place and did a little recon. Sure enough, you could get in on the left without waiting in line,
so we did.
Inside, we met up with John, Lynn, George and Alyson plus a third British couple that
occasionally joined our group, Brian and Sue. They are from Nottingham, England and he is
related to someone that was a Sheriff of Nottingham, but not the Sheriff of Nottingham.
We had the usual champagne and hors d’oeuvres. When the captain was introduced we all
wondered how someone that looked about 25 years old could be the Master of the Marco
Polo. Unlike most captains, he was an excellent speaker and joked about his youthful
appearance. He then introduced his senior staff. Also Lisa’s remarks about him on page 38.
After the talk, we learned that Lynn was very unhappy with their table in the dining room. It
was a table-for-two located across the aisle from ours. They had requested a 2-top, but not
one located behind a serving station where she got to watch the busboys scrape plates. After
much wrangling, the ship had offered them a booth in a recently opened part of the dining
room (as the ship wasn’t full, parts of the dining room had been closed off). The ship had
opened it to accommodate a family group of eight. The problem was, that John and Lynn
would be by themselves with this family, and would feel isolated. So, Lisa suggested that we
join them at the 4-person booth they’d been offered. After much “we don’t want to impose”
from Lynn, it was agreed. One of the hotel staff happened by at about that time, so the
arrangements were made official. It turned out to be a wonderful decision.
16
We all got along fabulously, and the table, #53, had a lovely view, as it was right next to a
window (which did tend to steam up as the meal progressed—no, no not for that reason, but
because the humidity built up with all the people and hot steaming food). Because it was in
an out-of-the-way place, it was quiet and free of traffic. The group of eight wasn’t rowdy or
loud. I also believe the restaurant management was so grateful it had been resolved, that we
got superior service.
Tonight we started a bottle of the Caliterra 2001 Cabernet Sauvignon—we didn’t finish it
this time, but had them put the remainder in the cellar for later (I do like this service). Lisa
and I both had the Heart of Palms salad. Lisa chose the lamb shank and I had the tenderloin
(it was quite good, though no where near La Estancia’s). For dessert I had the strawberry
and white chocolate mousse (just OK) and Lisa had the fruit tart with a champagne sauce.
After dinner we went to the show. It was the typical song and dance revue using music from
the 30s through the 80s. It was not very good. Only one of the dancers seemed to have any
training and none of the singers were any good. This was to be the last show any of us
attended.
When the show ended, Lisa went to bed and I headed to Raffles to write today’s events in
my journal. At about 10:30 as I was writing this, the seas were getting noticeably rougher,
and a misty rain had been falling most of the evening. I check the TV back in the cabin,
which indicated that at 8:00PM the winds were hitting the ship at an angle from the
starboard side (from the 2 o’clock direction if the bow is 12) at 52kph (~33mph), by the
midnight reading, the wind was a bit stronger and the seas a bit rougher. Tomorrow
Deception Island and the Zodiac cruise at Cuverville Island.
Sunday, January 30
Deception Island
We’re here—the land of ice and penguins. I was up at
4:45AM and out on the back deck by 5:15. It’s cold,
30s, very windy, mostly cloudy, and rough seas. Chris
Wilson is already on deck and there are a lot of birds
about. I saw lots of Cape Petrels (also called Pindato
(painted) because the tops of their wings have a pretty
mottled look which is hard to see in picture at left). Saw
a few Southern Fulmars (also called the Antarctic
Fulmar in some books), Southern Giant Petrel, a young Antarctic Tern and a Black-browed
Albatross. I stayed on deck until 7:00 and went in to the buffet for a quick breakfast. I then
went back to the cabin to get warmer gear and Lisa was still in bed!
Back on deck for the Deception Island cruise-by; no landing here, where Lisa, John and
Lynn joined me. Deception Island is volcanically active. It’s most recent eruptions were in
1967, ’69 and ’70. We were going to cruise inside the old, huge, flooded, collapsed, central
caldera. As we approached the entrance to the caldera we saw our first iceberg and it was a
huge one (see upper-left photo on the cover). This was probably the largest iceberg we saw
clearly. I judge it to be big enough to hold the Astrodome with some room left for parking.
It is a typical tabular iceberg calved from a glacier that has pushed well out into the sea. On
the way back we did see what was probably a much bigger one dimly through the mist on
the horizon. It was the last iceberg we saw.
17
Figure 6. Deception Island in the South Shetlands, Antarctica. Notice the tent at the left
of the lower-left picture.
We entered the flooded caldera through a narrow gap (250 yards wide) in the wall with sheer
cliffs on the starboard side (upper-left picture above). I was expecting the wind to die down
once inside, but that was not to be. It remained very windy, though we didn’t have the big
swells. Ash-covered glaciers and snow-capped mountains surrounded the caldera (upperright picture above). There were several research stations around the inside including the
Chilean one that had to be abandoned in haste during the 1967 eruption. The research staff
had to flee on foot holding pieces of sheet metal over their heads as shields from falling
rocks. Fortunately no one was seriously injured. In some places the new volcanic ash is
several feet thick as illustrated in the stream cut in the lower-left picture above.
There were many terns (probably Antarctic Terns) around the cliffs at the entrance. We
could also see Southern Fur Seals and a few Elephant Seals on the black beaches. They were
too far away to photograph and would have been hard to pick out on the black sand. There
were also flocks of Southern Fulmars. On the way out of the caldera by the same passage we
came closer to the other side. It offered some interesting formations. In the bottom-center
picture above is an eroded cliff of what appears to be many ash layers from past eruptions.
Near the entrance were the rust-red cliffs seen in the bottom-right picture. I’m not sure, but
redness in rock usually means high iron content. By the large amount of scree, it appears to
be very fragile rock, which may mean it too is
mostly volcanic ash.
Back outside the caldera (S 63º 00.362’ W 60º
29.289’) the ship resumed pitching, but the
clouds were breaking up into a beautifully
clear sky. We were heading to Cuverville
Island, one of a chain of islands off the west
coast of the Antarctic Peninsula. Except for
sheer rock faces and occasional scree fans, all
the islands are covered with snow and glaciers.
18
Unlike Alaska where you have to search out tidewater
glaciers, here you have to search out the few ice-free
shores. Most shores here are glacier faces. The
glaciers tend to be very short only going back a
couple of hundred yards to the up thrust mountain.
Because they don’t travel far, they are not laden with
gravel ground off the sides of their path, so they are
all brilliant white with delicately ice blue cracks and
crevasses in their faces (see picture above and on
pages 28 and 36).
As we sailed further south more icebergs were
around. They came in all sizes and interesting shapes. Some of the small ones looked like
floating flower blossoms with petals of ice surrounding a submerged center. Others looked
like ships or birds or even whales. But they are devilishly difficult to photograph in the
varying and frequently poor light. If the light was right you could clearly see some of the
underwater ice. The iceberg above is actually
one berg with its center melted away. I like to
believe the berg in left picture has a series of
luge runs for penguins (though it is too high
and steep for them). Penguins and seals seem
to prefer smaller, flat, low in the water bergs
for rest stops.
After we had a buffet lunch in Raffles with John and Lynn, John and I went back out on
deck. This was billed as a prime whale sighting area. We did see some humpbacks and a
couple breached for us, but all were at quite a distance. There were flocks of Southern
Fulmar and the odd Antarctic Brown Skua (also called just Antarctic Skua in some books).
For the whale fans this cruise fell short of expectations.
Silly Question of the Day: asked by a passenger of one of the dance hosts (as we all
know, noted experts on Antarctic) while pointing to a large iceberg, “What is the name of
that iceberg?” I guess she thought large ones had names like islands do.
Cuverville Island
Chris Wilson gave our afternoon lecture. It was on penguins. As in his previous lecture he
had beautiful pictures and recordings of the rookery sounds, which we’d be experiencing, up
close and personal.
John and I were on deck as we were
approaching Cuverville Island. It was partly
cloudy and the sun was bright. As we were
passing what I thought was an interesting
iceberg, I took a picture. After we passed it,
John noticed that there was a seal on it. I
check the picture I’d taken and had
serendipitously captured the seal. Later on the
Zodiac we were to get a much closer view of
another one. He thought it was a Leopard seal
because we saw what looked like blood on the
19
ice. We speculated that the Leopard seal had just had breakfast. It was a leopard seal, but we
learned later that unlike their namesake, they do not take their prey to their resting place to
eat. They shake the penguin literally out of its skin and eat the carcass leaving the skin, feet
and beak behind. What looked like blood on the ice was really seal poop. The nice thing
about using icebergs as temporary homes, it they melt before they get too messy—sort of
self-flushing.
The first Zodiac cruise started at 3:45PM. The passengers had been divided into five groups,
each with their own colored ID disk. Each color group was divided into three subgroups: A,
B, and C. Lisa and I were Red-B and John and Lynn were Red-C. The red group was
schedule last today with the B subgroup 2nd within the Reds. We would gather in the Polo
Lounge and wait for our group to be called. At the next excursion, the color group that had
been first moved to last and the others moved up one position. There was a similar rotation
in the lettered subgroups. Today we were schedule for 7:55PM, so we went to dinner first.
Dinner was open seating and we shared a table with George and Alyson by chance. George
told us stories of WWII in the UK when all the breweries were closed and used for other
purposes. He’s retired from a company that provides various yeasts to the brewing and other
industries. For dinner, Lisa had the mushroom appetizer and Lamb Curry with kiwi sherbet
for dessert. I had the goat cheese salad and herb roasted chicken (not nearly as good as
Lisa’s) with a peach tart for afters.
After dinner Lisa and I went to the cabin to suit up for our Zodiac cruise. We put on long
underwear pants, thin sock liners, thermal socks, jeans, rain pants, rubber boots, red parkas,
neck gaiter/scarf, caps, gloves and mittens. We put our cameras and binoculars in small carry
bags. I’d clipped my GPS to my jeans with the lanyard fastened to a belt loop. We then
headed to the Polo Lounge to wait our turn.
We got a bit overheated while waiting and took off a few items. When we were called, we
had to be completely suited up including hood so they could put the life jackets over it all.
We were instructed to hold any bag we were taking in our right hand as we approached the
crewmember putting on the life jackets—we just stood there while they did all the clipping
and cinching, then into line to wait for the next Zodiac. When our turn came we went down
a short flight of gangway stairs onto a small floating platform lashed to the side of the ship.
There were crewmembers at the top of the stairs and at the bottom. There were two more
crewmembers that would hoist you bodily into the Zodiac. The driver then told you were to
sit which was on one of the inflated sides. There were ropes you could grab if needed, but
this was seldom necessary. All in all it was a very well organized and smooth process. There
was very little chance of mishap. For this trip, each of the Zodiacs had one of the expedition
team aboard in addition to the driver. We were in luck and got Chris Wilson for our guide,
as most of what we were to see would be birds.
We set off for the shore of the island. Our position was then S 64º 40.691’ W 62º 36.150’ but
we had moved nearly half a mile SE while our Zodiac was loading and would re-dock with
the ship another four tenths of a mile further SE. We cruised along the island watching the
large Gentoo penguin rookery on one of the glacier free shores. In among the hundreds of
penguins were the occasional Snowy Sheathbill (see picture on the next page), Antarctic
Brown Skua, and Antarctic Cormorant. A flying cormorant later in the trip fooled me. It
looks a lot like a goose when seen flying directly overhead. The Antarctic Cormorant is one
of what is now three species that used to be considered one species called the Blue-eyed
20
Shag. This kind of thing happens a lot with bird species. Sometimes what were classified as
separate species are combined; and single species are separated. I’m not sure how this
occurs, but it causes identification problems, as names are different in different books; crossreferencing the scientific names helps with this.
Figure 7. Gentoo Penguins at Cuverville Island. The smaller all white bird in the lower
center of the pictures is a Snowy Sheathbill. The smaller penguins are chicks. The green and orange
colors on the cliff behind are mosses and lichen.
It seemed odd that penguins were nesting very high up the slopes, as it was obviously
difficult for them to get up to their nests from the water where they fed. Chris explained that
the upper areas became snow free earlier than the lower ones and they need it snow-free to
successfully nest. Nesting sooner means a better chance of success.
Next we cruised up close to an iceberg
with a Leopard Seal that was dozing. It
had clearly found it productive to hang
out near a plentiful food source. As
mentioned above, the reddish-brown
color on the ice behind the seal is its feces
not fresh blood. It did raise its head at
one point but I wasn’t able to get this
shot.
21
Figure 8. Zodiac and iceberg near Cuverville Island. The right-hand picture has had its
brightness and contrast adjusted; note the almost cobalt blue in the roof of the tunnel.
Next we cruised near a large iceberg with a tunnel through it. The left-hand picture above
shows one of the other Zodiacs that happened to be cruising between the berg and us. It
gives a better idea of its size. The right-hand picture shows the same iceberg taken a little
earlier and balanced by Microsoft Photo Editor (which did a prettier job than Photoshop).
Although the both pictures were taken from the same angle the scenery behind the iceberg is
different. It had moved quite a bit between the two shots.
All around the boat we could see penguins swimming and feeding. Regularly, they would
jump out of the water in short arcs called porpoising. Chris said they do this because air
offers less resistance than water so they can go faster with less effort. We also saw a couple
of Chinstrap Penguins mixed in with the Gentoos. It is quite common to have other penguin
species in the same rookery. It causes no more than the normal problems with neighbors.
After we got back and had shed our cold-weather gear, we went to the Polo Lounge for a
nightcap with John, Lynn, George and Alyson and then to bed. The problem I had with all
this evening socializing, is finding time to write up the day’s activities. I did most of it in bed
for as long as I could stay awake, which wasn’t long most nights.
Monday, January 31
Lemaire Channel, not
I slept in this morning until 6:15 when our alarm went off. I actually said, “I’m late” and
immediately got up. When I got on deck about 30 minutes later it was starting to snow and
there was a very low ceiling, almost fog. Visibility was lousy, but there was little wind. We
were at the mouth of the Lemaire Channel for our schedule transit. It’s billed as one of the
scenic wonders of the Peninsula. It was not to be. Firstly, there was too much ice, as there
had been all season, so we would have had to go too slowly to stay on schedule. Even if we
could have made the trip, it wouldn’t have been very scenic because of the poor visibility.
Soon the ship began its turn to take us north to our first landing. I tracked this turn on the
GPS because this would be the farthest south we would get. We reached a hairsbreadth past
S 65º (S 65º 00.363’ W 63º 47.933’ to be precise).
After a quick breakfast in Raffles, I was back on deck (Lisa made an appearance at 7:30). She
finally got to meet with Rich Kirchner and Jim Mastro this morning. She and they had been
missing each other until this morning. We learned that Rich also worked small cruise ships in
Alaska and would be on the Yorktown Clipper this year. We had discussed doing another
22
Alaskan cruise on a smaller ship and had gotten a recommendation for the Clippers from
Lisa’s brother Doug.
In the water we could see the beginning of the
season’s new ice pack as thin rafts of frozen
seawater. The most consolidated parts, called
pancake ice, looked like that shown in the picture.
The only wildlife about was the occasional Skua
and a passing iceberg with about a dozen
penguins riding it. Rich Kirchner figured they
were probably Adelie, but the visibility was to
poor to be sure.
Today I broke down and bought the one and only neck gaiter in the ship’s shop. It is a
lovely electric dark pink that clashes nicely with my fire engine red parka, but it was a good
investment.
Figure 9. Snow Storm. Clockwise from top left: snowy Pool Deck, crew "clearing the decks",
Mickey in Antarctica, Andy and Lisa with snowman.
Because we hadn’t done the Lemaire Channel, we were now ahead of schedule, so the ship
headed out to deep water to wait until it was time to go to Port Lockroy. Rich was
disappointed by the lack of whale sightings. He’d only seen one so far today (I hadn’t seen
it). He thought it was probably a Minke, but again distance and mist prevented confirmation.
23
It was still snowing heavy wet flakes at a good pace. It was covering the deck and those of us
outside (see pictures above). However, it wasn’t terribly cold, around freezing as shown by
Lisa in only a Mickey Mouse sweatshirt (though she didn’t stay out long in this outfit). The
snowman had been built on the forward end of the promenade deck by some of the cruise
staff and passengers.
Port Lockroy
We arrived at Port Lockroy about 11:30. Port Lockroy is a former British research station
that has been converted to a museum. It is operated by the British Antarctic Survey (BAS)
under guidance from the UK Antarctic Heritage Trust. We didn’t have access to the
museum while we were there.
While we were there we saw two other ships.
A relatively small (~40-foot) motor sailer that
was just leaving the area and a bit later the
Saga Rose cruised by. It was on its World
Cruise but does not do landings at Port
Lockroy, though it does at Deception Island,
Half Moon and Waterboat Point in Paradise
Harbor.
When we (John, Lynn, Lisa and I) got chilled,
we’d go inside to Raffles to have coffee or tea.
Figure 10. Port Lockroy
While waiting our turn to go ashore (this time
we were in the second to last color group), we could watch the Gentoo penguins fishing and
porpoising all around the ship. It was usually 1, 2, or 3 of them, but occasionally large groups
of about 30 working a particularly rich food patch. John spotted a seal in the water, which
we think was a Crabeater (they actually don’t eat crabs but the usual krill and squid). It was
far away and we only got short glimpses of it when it surfaced for air so we can’t be certain.
It could have been a Leopard seal. Since all the expedition staff was ashore, there wasn’t
anyone around to ask about it. Around 11:00 we took another warm-up break and had beef
consumé. It was very good.
At around 12:00 Lisa and Lynn went down to the main dining room to see what was on the
menu. It didn’t impress them, so we did the tapas thing again. I believe this was the last time
we even considered the main dining room for lunch. I had beef stir-fry, Creole rice, salad,
and cream spinach soup. For dessert, Lisa got the dulce de leche and chocolate chunk ice
cream. It was very good (I had some the
next day).
After lunch, we went back out. By now,
most of the remaining snow had melted
off the ship. What remained gave the
poolside copper sculpture a white boa
and small forehead patch.
We began looking for whales and were
rewarded with a Humpback that
surfaced about 25 yards from one of the
Zodiacs on its way back from shore
24
loaded with passengers. The driver maneuvered to try to get closer, but the whale moved
away and out of the harbor. It was still snowing, but it wasn’t sticking to the deck so the
temperature must have risen some.
Around 2:00 Lisa and I went back to the room where I dried my hat and mittens. The
convertible mittens worked well, but the didn’t have water shedding exteriors and in the wet
snow they got wet. The only thing worse than no mittens is wet ones. I used the room’s hair
dryer to quick dry them and got a pair of the Walgreens $2 knit gloves to use as replacement
liners. It turned out these were much warmer than the thinner REI liners (and much
cheaper). Then we suited up for our trip to shore. We were to meet in the Polo Lounge at
3:30, but ran into our group already headed to the sally port at 3:25 (Lisa had spotted our tag
color/letter combination). So we joined them and hastily got into the rest of our garb. I
managed to drop one of my glove liners three times in the process. A helpful following
passenger retrieved for me each time.
Figure 11. Gentoo Penguins and chicks, Port Lockroy
Into the Zodiac for the quick, five-minute trip. Here we had a conveniently placed flat rock
formation that served as a dock and stairs. Port Lockroy looked very small and isolated; only
a small bare patch of snow-free land surrounded by huge glaciers that dwarfed the small
research station (see Figure 10 above).
On shore we were restricted to a small area near the landing and buildings to observe the
Gentoo penguins on their nests. Gentoos don’t seem to have a set breeding time like some
animals. There were chicks in all stages of development from small gray fuzz balls to some
25
with most of their adult colors. Many nests had two chicks. Per Chris Wilson, Gentoos lay
up to four eggs. There were even a few penguins still sitting on eggs. According to Chris,
these were probably first year breeders that got a late start. This late in the season the chicks,
if hatched, had little chance of survival.
There were even a few penguins that had started to molt (see
picture at right). Chris said these early molters were probably
unmated or had lost their chick(s) to predators. Penguins molt
every year after fledging their young and must complete it before
the ocean freezes. They and their chick have to be out at sea
during the winter and they cannot swim when they are molting.
We saw a Skua attempt to snatch a chick from the nest but the
parent and three or four neighboring adults repelled it…this time.
It hung around near the nest for several minutes before flying off
in search of an easier meal. While the Skua was near the nest, but
not attacking, the penguins ignored it. Penguins do not get
aggressive until something approaches within about a half body
length of the nest whether it be predator or neighbor.
Skuas hangout near nests waiting for an opportunity like when a parent gets distracted by a
squabble with a neighbor. Sometimes the Skuas work in pairs with one feigning an attack to
distract the adult penguins while the other makes the snatch. Skuas are not nearly as big as
the adult penguins, but they are very aggressive. Chris showed a picture of one attacking a
passenger on the back of the Marco Polo on a previous cruise. It was apparently expecting
to be fed and got angry when there were no treats forthcoming.
We saw penguin parents feeding chicks (picture
later), and adding pebbles to their nests. The ones
I watched did not place the pebbles. They
dropped them on the outside of the nest ring near
the top. If the pebble rolled or slid down, they
reach over, pick it up and drop it again. They’d
repeat this until the pebble caught or rolled out of
reach. I watch one do this 5 or 6 times before the
pebble stuck. Since there is a shortage of pebbles
(because of a shortage of snow-free ground),
penguins are not averse to stealing them from
their neighbor’s nest (see picture).
Chris also pointed out one Adelie penguin on the
top of a distant ridge that could only be made out
through binoculars. In addition to the nesting
penguins, there were also several Antarctic
Cormorant nests in the colony.
By now the snow had turned to a fine misty rain and the ground was slick with guano (the
main reason for the knee high rubber boots). Plus there was a very strong odor. Lisa likened
to the smell outside a bear enclosure at the zoo at 5:00PM on a hot, summer day…only much
worse. It was strong, but the penguins were so interesting to watch, I soon forgot about it.
26
Several penguins crossed through the area set aside for the passengers and we had to back
off until they passed. This could take several minutes, as penguins seem very indecisive.
They set off to the water or their nest in what looks a purposeful way and then suddenly
stop. They look around, preen, look around a bit more and as often as not go back the way
they’d come.
There were some whale bones
on the rocky beach. One
collection was a nearly complete
hip and spine. We learned later
the station staff had arranged it
for tourists.
There was a nearby Kelp Gull
nesting area. Kelp Gulls are the
only sea gulls in Antarctica.
They are opportunists like many
gulls and are also quite
aggressive, though not as much
as Skuas.
Sometime while I was ashore, my red identification disk came unclipped from my parka
pocket. I started looking for it and asking fellow passengers if they’d seen it. One woman
said it had been picked up and given to one of the staff. So, I headed back to the landing
area asking along the way. When I got to the boot wash, they told me to check at the shore
excursions desk when I got back on board. I still had a few more minutes of my allotted
hour left, but my feet were getting cold through the bottom of my boots despite thermal
socks, so I decided to go back. Lisa had already gone back having seen and smelled enough
for her. Being wet, misty and chilly it wasn’t our most pleasant landing.
Before they let you board the Zodiacs they insist on washing your boots. This is necessary
because they are coated with mud, which is mostly guano. They don’t want that on the
Zodiacs to prevent cross contamination of the landing sites not to mention the ship—it is
quite smelly. Back aboard the ship they direct you to the boot-removal area, where a gloved
crewman removes your boots and puts them in a plastic bag to carry back to the cabin.
Though they did a pretty good job of cleaning our boots, we discovered that it wasn’t
perfect. We put our boots in the shower to dry. When I went to put them away later, I
noticed there were some pieces of guano-laden mud on the shower floor. There was also the
unmistakable whiff of guano odor to the cabin. The shower used one of those showerheads
on a hose, which I used to re-wash the soles of our boots. Lisa’s WalMart specials cleaned a
lot easier than my expensive Xtratufs; another reason to take the WalMart boots. After
cleaning the boots we showered and got ready for dinner. Next time we will bring Fabreeze.
We got the Cabernet from the cellar to finish. I had the pumpkin gnocci, cream of vegetable
soup and monkfish with an apple tart for dessert. Lisa’s was pumpkin gnocci, ratatouille
(which she calls Rimini slop, her family’s name for it), osso bucco and no dessert.
After dinner we dropped by the photo gallery to see the ship taken pictures. We bought
three (two came as a set; another way ships jack up the price by making you buy a picture
you don’t want to get one that you do. Ah well, it’s only the kid’s inheritance).
27
I checked with the purser’s desk for my lost red disc and they told me to check with the
excursion desk tomorrow when it opened. Just then Chris Wilson walked through on his
way to turn in a found disk. As luck would have it, it was mine. So I avoided having to
remember to check in the morning.
The four of us then went up a deck to the Charleston Club for drinks and conversation.
George and Alyson were already there as well as another couple. Try as I might, it was very
difficult to beat the Brits to the tab. I did manage to buy one round on the trip but still owe
John a couple of rounds and George at least one. I figure it’s my small way to help balance
the trade deficit. Lisa also danced several times with George, but I didn’t dance tonight.
At 10:30 Lisa went down to bed. I stayed for a quick round of Trivia. Our group didn’t
officially sign up, but we got 18 of the 21 questions right, which would have tied us for first.
This would have gotten us exactly nothing since it was a cruise-long contest with multiple
sessions and this was the only one we happened to be around for.
Tomorrow we go ashore in the morning (weather permitting of course).
Tuesday, February 1
Paradise Harbor, Waterboat Point, Antarctic Mainland
Today I was up at 4:20AM; can you believe it? I could have gone back to sleep, but got up
anyway and was on the back deck before 5:00. I even beat Chris Wilson who showed up a
few minutes after 5:00. Before Chris’ arrival, I saw (and nearly touched) the first wildlife of
the day, a Cape Petrel that flew right over the railing I was standing by. Chris wrote it on the
whiteboard. Next we spotted an Antarctic Minke whale a couple of hundred yards off the
starboard side. The shape and placement of the dorsal fin, and shape of the blow cloud
distinguish it from the Humpback. Anyway, I relied on Chris’ expertise here.
We were sailing north up the Gerlache Strait from open water where we’d spent the night
sailing in circles. Paradise Harbor (S 64º 49.522’ W 62º 52.119’) is only 19 miles due east of
Port Lockroy. So we sailed right passed the entrance to Port Lockroy that morning. It was
snowing again, though not a
hard as the day before and it
wasn’t sticking. Temperature
was about 35ºF.
We arrived in Paradise Harbor
at 7:30. The low clouds and
misty snow/rain caused us to
miss seeing the spectacular
beauty of the place, which
gave it its name (it sure wasn’t
the climate). Even so, I could
appreciate how beautiful it
could be, by what I did see.
There were high ice cliffs on
all sides backed by tall stark
mountains. The area was full
of penguins fishing in the
iceberg-strewn waters and we
Figure 12. Glacier face, Paradise Harbor. Note the
penguins for scale.
28
had several whale sightings. The poor visibility and missing the Lemaire Channel were the
only two disappointments on this cruise and they were minor compared to what we could
have missed.
The part of the harbor where we stopped was really a channel between Waterboat Point on
the peninsula mainland and a medium-sized, glacier covered island to the west. The channel
was too deep, the bottom ill suited to an anchor, and the currents were too strong and
variable for the ship to anchor. Instead it drifted for a while and then used its props to bring
it back into position.
Did breakfast in Raffles as usual about 7:00, which was when Lisa put in her appearance. I
commented on the cold seeping through my boots and she suggested using the insoles from
my extra pair of tennis shoes. Not only did they fit perfectly, they did the trick and my feet
stayed warmer. Thanks Lisa.
Figure 13. Chilean station at Waterboat Point, Paradise Harbor (Lisa)
We were scheduled to go ashore at 10:35 today having moved up to the third color group.
This is a Chilean station and it had a number of
bright orange buildings, a small dock, a “gift shop”
and lots of Gentoo penguins. As you can see by the
picture it was still overcast with lots a variable fog
about. There is a huge glacier and mountains of the
Antarctic Peninsula behind the station that are
obscured by the fog. It started snowing as we
approached the landing, but soon let up or changed
to misty rain--all in all a yucky day. The presence of
a research station didn’t seem to bother the
29
penguins as they were nesting right next to the
buildings. This may have helped by cutting off
Skua approaches.
We had made it to the mainland of Antarctica
at Waterboat Point, S 64º 49.449’ W 62º
51.455’. The picture at the left was taken from
the tip of the point back toward the ship with
an iceberg in between. It gives you an idea of
how misty and foggy it was at times.
Despite the bad weather we spent our full
hour here. The insoles in my boots made the
difference for
Figure 14. Antarctic mainland
me. I was able
to observe more of the penguin behavior here. I stood with
Chris Wilson for a time and got to see the returning parent
take over nest duties while the other adult headed out to feed.
In a minute or so, the parent that had just returned fed the
chick. I was able to get a good picture of this (the white
flecks are snow). Chris and I also saw two Snowy Sheathbills
together on the base of the antenna and one was grooming
the other. Chris said that this was the first time he’d seen this
behavior in Sheathbills. This pleased him a lot since he has
had a special interest in the species. For all their pure white
appearance, Snowy
Sheathbills have an
interesting diet. Their primary food source is spilled
penguin chick food (which the parent regurgitates
directly into the chicks mouth) and select bits of
undigested food it finds in the guano. One of the
expedition team later told me that he likes to believe
that Sheathbills are reincarnated Nazis. Note that the
slop that the Sheathbill is walking in is mostly guano.
Chris also told me that he had once seen a Sheathbill
wait until the parent
had started to
Figure 16. Snowy Sheathbill
regurgitate for the
chick and then knocked the chick out of the way so it could
get the spilled food. This was also a new behavior for
Sheathbills. This why Chris keeps coming back; he gets to see
behaviors never before reported.
Figure 15. Antarctic
Brown Skua
I was lucky to be by Chris when he pointed out a South Polar
Skua flying over. It is distinguished from the Antarctic Brown
Skua by having a lighter body where the Antarctic has
uniformly dark brown wings and body like the one in the
picture. Chris said that the one we saw was at least 90%
30
South Polar, but since both types interbreed regularly, there are all shades in between. He
wasn’t convinced that the two populations should be classified as separate species.
Before I got to shore someone had seen a leucistic Gentoo Penguin swimming, but none had
been sighted on shore today. This is a relatively rare genetic variation where the penguin
lacks most of its black coloration, but they are not albinos because they do have some light
brown and the eyes are not pink. They don’t seem to have any problems finding mates.
Earlier in the season six of them had been seen nesting here.
Lisa took a look in the “gift” shop. We’d brought a few dollars with us thinking we could get
a fridge magnet or key chain just to say we’d bought it in Antarctica. But, they only had a few
crappy clothing items and a book. The least expensive items were $20 US, so she didn’t get
anything and besides we hadn’t brought that much money with us.
Though technically part of the
mainland, Waterboat Point
becomes an island at high tide,
as it was when we were there.
At low tide there is a rocky
causeway that connects it to
the rest of the glacier-covered
peninsula. In the picture the
causeway would extend from
the penguin-covered, snowfree spit in the right to the
rocky beach on the left. You
can see part of it as a string of
stones in the center of the
picture. One might quibble about whether we’d actually been on the mainland. Guess we’ll
just have to go back then and hope for low tide or go to a different landing place.
After our hour was up we took the Zodiac back to the ship and I washed the boots in the
shower again to remove the stray bits of guano. I had also forgotten to tuck my rain pants
into my boot tops and had to wash the bottoms a little. You’re supposed to wear your rain
pants outside your boots for the Zodiac ride to prevent any spray from running down inside
them. Once you get to shore, you’re suppose to tuck them into your boots to prevent them
from picking up guano.
Up to Raffles for another tapas lunch. I had a salad, weinersnitchel, rice, sea perch and
pumpkin soup with dulce de leche ice cream for dessert. The pork kebabs they were grilling
on deck were reportedly wonderful, as was the pasta dish of the day.
After lunch John and I got into our parkas and returned to the pool deck. Here I finally saw
and clearly identified the Wilson’s Storm Petrel. It flew by the ship close to the water and I
was able to clearly see its markings. I don’t see how anyone can identify it out in open ocean.
At 7 inches long, it’s slightly smaller than a robin and uniformly dark except for a u-shaped
white splash at the base of its tail.
We watched hundreds of Gentoo fishing, porpoising and playing what looked like followthe-leader. The water was clear enough that you could see them swimming underwater. Man,
are they fast swimmers. Now and again you’d see small groups pop out onto an iceberg,
31
large groups feeding as a pack, or rolling over and over in the water washing themselves with
their flippers. They would come out on icebergs to rest and warm up. Although it seemed
cold to us, the air was actually warmer than the water and didn’t siphon off body heat as fast.
Watching penguins get back into the water is an amusing spectacle. Going into the water is
when they are most vulnerable to predation by Leopard Seals. Because of this, they seem to
take forever to make a decision about jumping in. In some cases, an impatient one boots off
whichever one is near the edge. I actually got to see this. There were only three penguins in
the group and the front one got booted off by his “buddy.” Fortunately for him, he didn’t
get eaten and the other followed very quickly. We were told in the lecture that if the one
pushed off gets eaten, the others wait a while and shove another one off. Lisa calls this the
ultimate in “Taking one for the team.”
In another instance there were about a dozen penguins on a larger iceberg. Initially, two of
them began the lengthy process of deciding to go into the water. They started on one side of
the berg where it was about a ten-foot sheer drop to the water. One would peer over the
edge, first with one eye then the other. It would turn to its companion and seemed to discuss
the situation. It would look again and confer again. Deciding this wasn’t a good spot they
waddled along the edge for a few feet and repeat the process. Shortly a third penguin that
had been holding back joined the other two (didn’t want to be the one shoved off maybe).
They repeated this process down one side of the berg and then along another side, gradually
working their way toward the lowest corner. Here the adventurous one sidled out a ridge and
finally jumped in the water. He wasn’t eaten so the other two and a latecomer quickly
followed. By this time, there were over a dozen passengers watching and they spontaneously
broke into applause when they finally jumped in. This is the one time I wish I’d had the
video camera with me on deck; it would have made a great short.
It was here at Paradise Harbor I also got to see, albeit dimly, one of the glaciers calve. It
occurred on the island across from Waterboat Point. I happened to be standing in the right
place and looked at the right point on shore when a nearby passenger shouted. It was a
good-sized chunk, but it fell in
shallow water and mostly broke up
and piled up in place. I kept watching
throughout the trip, but never saw
another one.
On of the other distractions was
watching the Zodiac drivers push
small icebergs away from the
debarkation dock. Occasionally the
ship also had to shove one away.
Good thing the hull is ice-rated.
We also saw several Antarctic Minke
Whales feeding in the harbor along with the Antarctic Brown Skuas, Kelp Gulls and the
occasional Antarctic Cormorant. One passenger pointed to a Kelp Gull in the distance and
asked, “Are there Bald Eagles here?” I could understand his mistake because they are large
gulls, with all white heads and black wings. At a distance they could trick someone with little
bird knowledge.
32
While we were watching the Minke whales, another couple asked if the whales ate penguins.
I explained that they didn’t. That they were baleen whales that sieved mouthfuls of water for
krill. Rich Kirchner overheard me, and jokingly asked me if I was trying to steal his job. I
replied, “No, just auditioning.” He then offered to let me focus the slide projector at Jim
Mastro’s upcoming lecture and attend a cocktail party at 5:30 for him so he could stay
outside looking for whales.
Silly Question of the Day #1: asked of one of the expedition staff on deck at Paradise
Harbor, “Do we (mankind) provide any protection of the penguins from predators here?”
Like what, underwater nets to keep Leopard seals out? Again the answer is “no.”
Enroute to Half Moon
We sailed from Paradise Harbor at about 3:00 for Half Moon Island. On the way out John
and I saw a couple of penguins and a seal on an iceberg, but not clearly enough to identify.
At 4:00 we went in for Jim Mastro’s lecture: “Antarctic Marine Mammals.” Jim did a nice
overview of whales and seals of Antarctica and the Southern Ocean. In the Q&A afterwards
he got:
Silly Question of the Day #2: “What side of the ship will the whales be on?” Jim paused
and then pointed to both sides and said, “both.”
After the lecture, I went back to the
cabin to shower and change for dinner.
In the evening I usually wore slacks and
a golf-type shirt. I then went up to
raffles to write in the journal, it’d been
hard finding time to do it. However, a
humpback sighting and the stunning
scenery distracted me. I went back and
got my camera to photograph today’s
wildlife sighting list and some passing
icebergs. My favorite was this one that I
also put on the cover. It’s looks a little
art deco. I also like the contrast between
the stark white and grays and blue grays
of the water and sky.
The snow had stopped and the sun was breaking through now and again highlighting the
snow and glaciers on the distant island shore, revealing incredible subtle shades of blue,
bright white and the black of rock out-croppings. Low clouds, no more than 200-300 feet
up, divided the land into shore line and mountain tops. It was spectacular and cannot be
captured by an amateur picture shooter like me; perhaps not even by a skill photographer.
I had to force myself to go back inside for dinner. John told me he’d been watching out his
window looking for birds with his binoculars and had an Orca (Killer Whale) surface right in
his field of view.
For dinner Lisa and I both had the calamari (it was a little rubbery), beef broth and strip
steaks. Lynn had had the steak the night before. She had requested it rare and gotten one
closer to medium-well. So, we asked for rare too, even though we prefer medium, and got
them cooked the same as hers. They were not very good steaks, thin and overcooked and a
33
little tough (especially with the memories of La Estancia still fresh). Hate to think what you’d
get if you requested medium much less well done.
Lisa passed on dessert again and I had the meringue thingy—it was light and sweet but not
much flavor. We started a bottle of pinot noir (I forgot to note which one though).
After dinner we went up to the Charleston Club and met with the rest of the Brits. Lisa had
invited Jim Mastro to join us and he did a little later. Lisa and I did a waltz, which was tough
in rubber-soled shoes. Then Jim and Lisa danced a couple of times. We learned that he’d
been a dance teacher in a former life. I saw a flock of Cape Petrels and a Blue Petrel with
them out the window.
Figure 17. Early morning at Moon Bay
Wednesday, February 2, Half Moon Island
I slept in this morning. Didn’t get up until 5:30, on deck by 6:00. We’ll be getting off early
today, 7:55, so I we got an early breakfast and then went back to the room to suit up one last
time.
Back on deck to look for wild life and at the scenery. The weather is mostly cloudy, but it’s a
little warmer, maybe 40º, with little wind and no precipitation. John and I saw a few
Chinstrap Penguins swimming and several Antarctic Brown Skuas.
Today’s Zodiac ride was much longer than the previous two landings, about 10-15 minutes.
The water was not rough, so it was a smooth ride but the wind of passage was cold. This was
a beach landing. The Zodiac was nosed onto the black pebble beach. The beachmaster,
Capt. Dick Taylor, held the boat against the surf while the passenger got off. The two people
closest to the front would swing their legs over the side and step into a few inches of water,
34
then the next two would slide forward and repeat the process. There were two crew people
to keep anyone from slipping or falling.
Figure 18. Chinstrap Rookery, Half Moon Island
The rookery is on a small, crescent-shaped island called Half Moon Island in the much larger
Moon Bay, which like Deception Island is an old collapsed caldera. The main island is
Livingston Island. This was a smaller rookery than the others we’d seen. Here there were
probably a few hundred pairs were the Gentoo rookeries
probably had over 1000 pairs each. From the beach it was a
short uphill walk to the Chinstrap Penguin colony viewing
area. Chinstraps get their name for the thin black line under
their chins. There were also Skua and Kelp Gull nesting
areas here.
Figure 19. Kelp Gull on nest
While we were on
shore, the weather
steadily improved. The
clouds started to break
up and the sun came
out. It also warmed up.
All the expedition staff
seemed to be enjoying
this shore excursion far more than the others. I suspect
that the improved weather and cleaner ground
conditions helped their mood. I noticed that Rich didn’t
offer to let me do his shore duty here.
35
There were a few Southern Fur Seals on the beach and one that was pretty close, but it
wasn’t very photogenic being a sleeping dark brown seal against dark gray rocks. There were
some nice rock formations like the left one in the picture above. If you squint just right, it
almost looks like one of the stone statues on Easter Island. This is where we saw the
Antarctic grass shown in the picture on page 15. Dr. Nev Jones was enthusiastically showing
his springtails and mites, and had found a rock with a group of the tiny crustaceans on its
bottom side. The expedition geologist, Dr. Marco Traviani was expounding on the local
rocks.
I spent several minutes with Rich Kirchner discussing whale sighting and glacier calving. He
was hoping to see the latter. We saw a humpback far out in the bay near the ship and later I
heard that there had been several of them in the narrow channel between Half Moon Island
and the main island. Allen Morgan pointed out a Kelp Gull chick to me. He also inducted
me as an Antarctic wildlife ‘expert.’ He told me to raise my right hand and repeat after him,
“Kelp Gull, Kelp Gull, Kelp Gull.”
Figure 20. Lucia's Studio, Half Moon Island
The expedition artist, Lucia deLeiris, had set up her easel and was doing a watercolor here.
The pale blues on the glacier faces across the channel were from recent calving events. There
was also evidence of modern-day volcanic activity on the far side of the bay. How recent, I
never learned. Or, it could have been wind-eroded basalt from an old volcano’s core (see
picture on the bottom of the next page).
After our hour was up we headed back to the boot washing station. This consisted of some
plastic deck chairs wedged firmly in the rocks that you held onto while presenting the
bottom of one boot and then the other for washing in the surf. Despite a thorough brushing
and wading in the surf until the Zodiac arrived (or at least as much as could be tolerated—
36
that water was cold!), it took me more than 15 minutes in the cabin to get the remaining
mud and guano out of the boot treads. I had to use a wooden coffee stir stick to dislodge
some of it. This batch had a lot of fiber in it that prevented it from washing out easily.
Figure 21. Another stunning view at Half Moon from the ship
John and I went back on deck where we watched for wildlife and calving glaciers, but little
was happening though the scenery was still awesome in the ever-changing light. At 11:00 the
four of us took another bouillon break and around 12:15 we took a break for lunch. We ate
outside on deck. It was OK out of the wind, but too cold in it. We tried to find a spot inside,
but all the tables were taken, so we went to another table near the grill that wasn’t too bad.
For the first time, I’d gotten really chilled through.
All morning on the deck, an hour ashore, two cold
Zodiac rides and lunch outside did it despite the
warmer temperature. I headed back to the cabin to
warm up and have a short nap.
One interesting thing we saw was a small group of
passengers and crew with one Zodiac land at the
Chilean research station further down the little
island from where we’d landed. John and Lynn had
heard that the owner of Norwegian Cruise Line was
taking the cruise with us. They think they were on
their flight to Ushuaia because a couple of the
passengers were given a limo ride to the ship rather
than taking the bus with the rest of us. Jim Mastro
confirmed this later.
37
We also saw what looked like reddish-brown seaweed in the water next to the ship and had
seen small bits of it on the beach. The next day I asked Nev Jones what it was. He said it
might have been mats of small mostly transparent jellyfish-like animals called salps. I did
some research on the Internet, but was unable to confirm or refute this.
The lecture this afternoon was given by the expedition artist, Lucia deLeiris. John and I were
pleasantly surprised. It was very interesting. It was a nice mixture of art, science and life at an
Antarctic research station. She told one story (with pictures) of one of the female researchers
who’d spent two summers sitting quietly near a nesting Southern Giant Petrel. In the second
summer she was allowed to pickup, measure and weigh the chick; something no one had
ever done before. Giant Petrels are very big birds, about 3 feet long—that’s bigger than a
Bald Eagle. It could do some serious damage if it didn’t like you.
Lucia spent several austral summers in Antarctica working closely with the research staff at
various stations. She has illustrated several books (see Appendix B for more details). You
can see samples of her artwork at her web site: http://www.luciadeleiris.com/. After the
cruise we purchased two copies of the Antarctic Journal, which is a children’s book that she
illustrated. We gave one copy to our ‘adopted’ grandchildren (our dance coaches two
daughters), and kept the other one for ourselves. The illustrations are very authentic based
on what we saw.
Lisa and Lynn stayed for the second talk given by the ship’s captain and I’ll leave it to Lisa
tell about that:
Well, I honestly can say I don’t remember too much from it except that he is very tall (6 feet 5
inches, is my guess) and very good at talking to the passengers. He’s from Croatia, has had his
Master’s License for 13 years and looks like he’s maybe 25 but has to be on the far side of 40.
He’s very excited to be the Master of the Marco Polo and it’s seemed very clear to me that the
staff liked and respected him. Every day, at noon, he would do the announcement from the
bridge. Usually the navigator or someone else does this report and it generally includes the
weather, location of the ship, how fast we are going and other bits of innocuous information
mumbled by someone with only a smattering of English. This guy was terrific! In addition to the
usual stuff, he always ended the announcement with the day’s Pasta! What a great bit!
The “Meet the Captain” chat was much the same. The cruise director, Mike Witte, asked
questions and moderated the Q&As from the passengers. The Captain did a wonderful job. He
told us his history, that he’s from Croatia, and that he’s excited and nervous about the cruise this
summer on the Marco Polo where he will be guiding the ship into the harbor at Split, his home
town.
Otherwise, I can’t remember a word he said. We did see him around the ship occasionally (unlike
some passengers who we saw on the last day for the first time), and he would walk thru Raffles
looking for lunch sometimes.
After the Captain’s talk, the ladies picked up our passports that had been taken before we
boarded. Lisa also met with the Future Cruise lady and got us locked into a good deal for a
future cruise on Marco Polo.
John and I went back outside to look for wildlife while we began our trip back to the Drake
Passage and Ushuaia. We saw another flock of Cape Petrels and the odd Black-browed
Albatross and Southern Giant Petrel. As we reentered the Drake Passage the seas started to
get rougher—not “Master and Commander” rough, but the ship had a pretty good pitch
going and the wind was whipping the tops off the whitecaps. Winds were blowing about
75kph (~45mph).
38
Went down at 5:00 to get ready for dinner and watch bits of “The Apartment” with Jack
Lemon. Tonight is the Captain’s farewell dinner, so we were doing jackets and ties again. For
dinner I had salad, borscht, and prime rib that I requested medium and it came well. Lisa
skipped the salad, also had borscht and Lobster tail. She had to send the Lobster tail back
and get another one without the scallop sauce to which she is deathly allergic. We finished
the bottle of Pinot Noir. They had the traditional waiter’s parade and Baked Antarctica
(Baked Alaska really), which I had for dessert (actually I had a couple of them as Lynn didn’t
eat hers).
It was now time for the repeater’s cocktail party. Most cruise lines offer this to passengers
that have cruised with the line before. We hadn’t cruised with Orient Lines, but our prior
cruises with Norwegian Cruise Lines, the parent company, counted. John, Lynn, George and
Alyson were also repeaters (John and Lynn’s only other cruise had been on the Marco Polo
in the Baltic). Probably close to 80% of the passenger qualified for this as Marco Polo’s
varied itinerary attracts a lot of repeat cruisers.
After the cocktail party, we repaired to the Charleston Club for evening drinks and
conversation with the usual bunch including Jim Mastro. There was little dancing tonight
because of the pitching and rolling. Jim seemed to enjoy our groups company. He told us
that on one cruise they had stopped at the Chilean station that has families resident. The
captain invited the children aboard for lunch. Jim said it was strange having all those kids on
board. If there were any children on our cruise, I never noticed them. Having year around
families resident in Antarctica is one of Chile’s ploys to establish their claim to the Peninsula
if ever the Antarctic Treaty should come undone.
And so to bed.
Thursday, February 3
Drake Passage Revisited
Today is at sea and a rough one at that. I woke up at 3:20, but managed to doze until 6:00. I
was on deck a little after 6:30. Weather is cold (40ish), drizzly and windy, but no white caps
(yet). It was ideal whale watching conditions once the drizzle stopped and the clouds broke
up a little, but, alas, none were seen. There were still some good-sized swells, which had been
there all night. It remained mostly overcast the entire day with occasional drizzle.
There weren’t many birds about. Before breakfast, I saw a couple of Black-browed
Albatrosses and was treated to two small parcels of Macaroni Penguins. Yes, parcel is one of
the correct terms for a group of penguins. (How do you serve Macaroni Penguins…with
cheese, of course.) Chris Wilson identified these for us. He said that out here it was a 98%
chance they were Macaronis. If it’d been up to me, we’d never have known.
I had a quick buffet breakfast as usual and got back on deck just in time to see a Wandering
Albatross (the one with the more than 10-foot wingspan). I tried for a picture, but it didn’t
hang around long enough for a good shot—rats! We also saw White-chinned and Giant
Petrels.
John joined me at 7:30 or 8:00. Around 8:30, my feet were getting cold, so I went to the
cabin to put on my thermal socks. When standing on a cold wet deck (or rocks) the heat gets
sucked out of your feet quickly. By holding onto a railing and lifting first one then the other
foot off the deck for a bit seemed to help because air doesn’t conduct heat as quickly as
39
water. I suspect this is why some water birds stand on one leg. Makes you look like a
competitor in the silly walk contest.
At 9:30 we went to Captain Dick Taylor’s lecture, “Ships on Ice.” Capt. Taylor was our
beachmaster and is retired US Coast Guard. He served for 28 years, a lot of it on icebreakers
in the Arctic, Great Lakes and Antarctic. After retiring, he commanded icebreakers in the
Antarctic for many years in support of research stations (see Appendix B for more details).
His lecture covered what icebreakers do and how they do it. The Marco Polo was not an
icebreaker as some think. It is ice rated for sailing among some amount of loose pack ice. It
has a double hull so can tolerate bumping into small icebergs.
Except for the usual tapas lunch in Raffles, John and I were on the back deck until the
afternoon lectures. The weather was about the same, the swells seemed a little less severe but
the wind had picked up so there were some white caps. Lisa and Lynn were “volunteered
army style” to attend the mandatory debarkation lecture at 10:30.
Figure 22. Black-browed Albatross, Drake Passage
There wasn’t much wildlife about: the occasional Giant Petrel, Black-browed Albatross, and
a couple of Wandering Albatrosses. One Black-browed Albatross drafted the ship for about
an hour. At first I thought we had another Yellow-nosed Albatross because of all the white
under its wings (see upper left picture above). Chris Wilson was just finishing lunch when I
went in to ask him about it. He immediately came out to look and confirmed it was a Blackbrowed, which my pictures later also supported. He did think it had too much white. He
speculated that perhaps it was molting. Little is known of these reclusive birds.
Because it was there so long, it allowed me to get several decent pictures (see Figure 22
above). This montage was done by cropping out about 95% of four pictures taken at full 10x
40
optical zoom, expanding the result and piecing the 4 frames together with Photoshop
Essentials. I used this technique on some of the following pictures.
There were two lectures in the afternoon. The first was “Fisheries of the Southern Ocean”
given by Emma Jones. She’s a marine scientist who spent 7 years working as a scientific
observer for the Falkland Island Fisheries Department on both the Falklands and South
Georgia (no, not Valdosta or Jekyll Island). Her job was to ensure that the commercial
fishing vessels conformed to the laws when fishing in waters controlled by the Falkland
Islands and South Georgia. It seemed an unusual career choice for a young woman (see
Appendix B for more details). She told stories of her adventures boarding commercial
vessels to check their gear and the language problems because many of the crews were
Korean or Vietnamese. Once she was required to stay onboard, alone, without a toothbrush
or change of clothes for several days while the offending vessel sailed into Stanley to pay its
fine. However, the captain and crew showed her every possible courtesy. After that
experience, she carried a toothbrush and fresh underwear when she boarded a ship for
inspection.
The main commercial catch are Patagonian Toothfish (aka Chilean Sea Bass), krill, squid and
three kinds of ice fish. Ice fish are unique in that they don’t have hemoglobin in their blood
(so it is clear), which helps them tolerate the subfreezing waters. She also touched on the
Convention on the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources (CCAMLR) an
international agreement about using marine resources below the Antarctic Convergence.
This is part of the Antarctic Treaty System that deals with various ecological, resource and
commercial aspects of Antarctica and the Southern Ocean.
More information about CCAMLR and the Antarctic Treaty can be found at these web sites:
•
•
CCAMLR: http://www.ccamlr.org/pu/e/gen-intro.htm
Antarctic Treaty: http://www.scar.org/treaty/.
The next, and last, lecture was “Managing Antarctica” by Dr. Nev Jones. It covered the
Antarctic Treaty and its results and issues. This was followed by a Q&A session with the
entire scientific staff as the panel. For the most part the questions were very good. But there
were a couple of special ones. One guy asked about the conflict between the NSF and some
other 3-letter organization he’d read about in Antarctica a novel by Kim Stanley Robinson,
who is a science fiction author. He wanted to know what the two organizations were. The
NSF is the National Science Foundation, but no one knew of the other one. Jim Mastro
ventured that it was just a fictional organization created by the author. The other question
came from a man who I judged had money riding on the answer:
Silly Question of the Day: “Are penguins mammals or birds?”
There were clearly some passengers that needed to have been put off on ice floes. I suspect
there was a hand full of spouses that had been dragged along because their other half wanted
to go. However, most of them probably never went outside nor attended the lectures. They
had bingo for them. On the other hand, there were some couples that didn’t have a clue. I
suspect they were on this cruise so they could brag about it at the country club, or bridge
club, or whatever. They clearly hadn’t done the least amount of reading or research, they
didn’t pay attention to what they were being told, and they didn’t have sense enough to keep
quiet and hide their ignorance.
41
After the lecture, we had a discussion with Allen Morgan and Rich Krichner about the
impact of tourism on Antarctica that had prompted several of the audience’s questions. I
had read that even though tourists greatly out number the scientists and staff, they represent
far fewer man-hours on land, as they, like our group, make only a few short visits, which
require no supplies or waste remove (the port-a-potty issue aside). Allen told the story of a
French tour group whose passengers he observed and photographed walking right through
the penguin nesting areas, not keeping the 15-foot distance. Allen reported this to IAATO
and it got escalated to the US State Department, UN and French government.
The French group also took pictures of the Allen’s passengers, but they were carefully
framed telephoto shots to make it look like Allen’s group was doing the same thing.
Fortunately, Allen had taken normal pictures of his own group as well, which disproved the
French group’s counter claim. The upshot was the French tour group’s staff got fired. The
French government never answered the charges, surprise, surprise.
Figure 23. Cape Horn, best picture possible (and it has been enhanced)
Cape Horn…Dimly
Back on deck for the Cape Horn sail by. We passed to the south and then east of Cape Horn
about 5:30. It was now very rough—20-foot seas and 50mph winds with lots of mist, drizzle
and fog. George and Alyson had tried to walk around the promenade deck and were nearly
blown overboard when they reached the front of the ship where the wind was strongest at
over 60mph relative to the deck (wind speed + ship speed)
At best Cape Horn was a slightly darker smug through the clouds on the horizon. Perhaps
you can make out the darker gray above the gray water in the picture above, that’s Cape
Horn Island at our closest approach, about 3 miles. We got a much better view last year.
After we got a little past Cape Horn, the winds abated and the seas became much calmer for
the last run to the Beagle Channel.
A Wandering Albatross put in a short appearance, but I was unable to get a picture due to
moving deck, moving bird and digital camera delay. Too bad as they are magnificent birds.
Going back to the cabin at about 6:00, I encountered a woman who asked if there was
anything worth taking a picture of out there (I assume she meant Cape Horn). I told her we
were well past it now and it was out of view. Just then a couple asked me, pointing to some
land outside, if that was Cape Horn. I told them no, it wasn’t, as we were now more than 40
42
miles past it. I also told them that they hadn’t missed much
and showed them one of the pictures I’d taken. I’m not sure
what they expected Cape Horn to be, but clearly they didn’t
know that it is just a small group of islands.
Along these lines, this is a picture of the latest in Antarctic
fashions worn by the woman we called “Yeti Lady.” Please
note the big fuzzy boots (definitely not suited for landings)
and the expensive Norwegian wool coat. This picture was
taken on our big snow day at Lemaire Channel near the
snowman. There was also another woman seen on Half
Moon Island with a complete white fox skin hat and her red
parka that I called the rare Red-breasted Yeti.
At tonight’s dinner, John and Lynn bought the wine for the
table. I was a very nice Burgundy, Nuits Saint-George Les
Marnpettes 2000. It was nicely crisp pinot noir with tart fruit
flavors like apple. I had the tomato brucetti, peppered bisque
and Pheasant. The brucetti and bisque were very good, the
pheasant not so good. Lisa had the mixed greens and pasta
dish. Lynn told us that in England all pheasant has to be shot
out of the air to be legally sold. This gives the gentry some
purpose I guess. I had vanilla ice cream for dessert.
Figure 24. Yeti Lady
After dinner we adjourned to the Charleston Club for a little dancing and drinks. We’d
turned into the Beagle Channel and there was no more ship rocking. From the lounge we
saw Imperial Cormorants (another Blue-eyed Shag variant), and what was later identified on
the official list as Peale’s Dolphins. Everyone faded early, between 9:30 and 10:00. I got my
iPod and went up to Raffles to write in my journal, only to get ousted. They were going to
steam-clean the place tonight. I moved to Le Bar near the casino with my coffee.
Sometime during the evening, I lost the cheap plastic business card case with our cards in it
plus an emergency $20 bill. I checked at reception a couple of times, once that night and
once the next morning, but it didn’t turn up. So some crewmember got a nice $20 tip. I sure
he needed it more than I did and I didn’t need any more business cards this trip.
I didn’t stay up to see us dock.
Friday, February 4
Ushuaia
We had docked sometime between 1:30AM and 3:30AM. At 1:30 I had to go knock on the
door of the next cabin to get the woman to turn down her TV. I think she fell asleep with it
on judging by how long it took her to come to the door. At 3:30 I had a bathroom call and
despite the fact we were stock still, I stumbled around in the dark like the ship was still
moving. These post-voyage wobbles affected us all to some degree. For me it was worse at
night in the dark without clear visual references.
43
I got up at 6:00 and was on the back deck
by about 6:30. It was cold and gray with
drizzle or mist. On the Pool Deck were
several Dolphin Gulls attempting and
sometimes succeeding in snatching pastries
from the array under a salad-bar-like glass
shielded serving station. We tried several
tactics to dissuade them, but they were very
persistent.
This morning Lisa and I had breakfast
together for a change. At breakfast we
Figure 25. Dolphin Gull
talked about taking another cruise to the
New Zealand sub-Antarctic islands. Lisa went over to Allen Morgan’s at a nearby table to
see if he had any recommendations. He recommended an outfit called Peregrine Adventures,
which we looked into when we got back. I turns out that Peregrine didn’t have this cruise on
their list, but several other outfits did. They all use the same ship, the 48-passenger Spirit of
Enderby. Peregrine does have an interesting cruise called South Georgia in Depth that I’d
like to do one day.
Around 9:00 the four of us headed into town to do a little shopping. John and Lynn hadn’t
gone into town before the cruise like we had, so it was their first exposure to downtown
Ushuaia. Even though I know this is in Argentina, I keep being surprised that everyone
speaks Spanish. Ushuaia looks and feels so much like a western U. S. or Alaskan town that I
subconsciously assume they’ll be speaking English.
At the base of the dock, John and I saw what was surely a European Starling—they’re
everywhere. We also saw the Roufous-collared Sparrow. This was the same species that John
had seen in Buenos Aires.
Lisa had gotten the location of a supermarket so we headed there first to check out everyday
prices. This is a good way to learn about a place. It was at the west end of the main shopping
street, San Martin. Local wine was cheap here too, some as low as $1.00 US. Norton Classico
was only 5.99 pesos for 750ml (about $2 US).
As we head back up San Martin (literally up hill), I decided I should go back to the ship to
get our Argentine pesos that we’d forgotten to bring. We were not used to carrying money,
as we hadn’t needed to on the cruise. There was a bit of confusion about where we were to
meet up, but it got sorted out quickly with the help of Jim Mastro who we’d both run into
on the street.
While I was away, Lisa had bought a bottle of a Norton Malbec for 30 pesos (~$10 US) and
John had purchased two bottles of wine to take back. They’d bought it at a small kiosk-like
liquor/convenience store.
Our next stop was Ushuaia Chocolates for coffee and a nosh. Actually more like brunch. Jim
Mastro and Rich Kirchner were already there when we arrived and graciously gave up their
4-top for us and took a 2-top by the wall. The place quickly filled up with passengers and
cruise staff including Allen Morgan, Nev Jones, the social hostess and the chief engineer.
44
I ordered one of the little pizzas and Lisa got the ham and cheese primavera plus a coffee
each. The sandwiches came recommended by Jim. Lisa shared her sandwich with Jim and
me, as it was too much for her. I let her have a small piece of my pizza.
While we were eating Lisa got into a conversation with three young ladies at the next table.
They were all from the UK on an extended expedition around South America during their
“gap” year. They recommended having dinner at Tanté Nina Restaurant. This turned out to
be the same restaurant that had been recommended to Lisa by the future cruises lady, April,
but she did know its name.
After brunch, we browsed in several shops. I bought an Antarctica pin. Lisa got some
inexpensive lapis earrings that she is having reset. I also looked for convertible mittens with
water repellent outers, but was unsuccessful. We then headed back to the ship to get ready
for the Beagle Channel catamaran tour.
Beagle Channel Catamaran Tour
The catamaran was only short distance from the ship on the same pier. John and I went up
top and Lynn and Lisa sat inside on the lower deck. It was very nice out now: sunny with the
temperature in the high 50s and very little wind in the harbor.
As we left the dock, we nearly ran down
a White-chinned Petrel that seemed very
unconcerned about our presence. On
the way out we saw the usual birds:
South American Terns, Kelp Gulls,
Petrels, and a couple of Black-browed
Albatrosses. First, we passed the site of
the first European settler. At this point
John and I were beginning to think we
were on another “cultural cruise” rather
Figure 26. Southern Fur Seals
than one focused on nature, but this soon changed.
We headed across the Beagle Channel toward a chain
of three small rocky islets. One of them had a small
navigation lighthouse on it. In the distance they
appeared to be covered with snow. When the sun
shone on them their tops, they were very white. This
turned out to be bird guano.
Figure 27. Rock Cormorants
Our first stop was a small Southern Fur Seal colony.
They weren’t very active while we were there as you
can see in the picture. There were a few in the water
and some pups. John and I also noticed an all white
goose in the water. I surprised myself by
remembering that it was a Kelp Goose. The only
other one I’d seen before now was in the Falklands
last year. We would see more.
45
We moved to the next small isle in the chain. It contained a colony of Rock Cormorants.
They have a dark red blaze from their bills back to around the eye. The one in the picture
above with the mottled breast is a chick that is nearly ready to fledge.
The next stop was a couple of miles west along the channel. We were sailing into the wind at
about 11 knots and it was getting quite chilly topsides. We donned our gloves and watch
caps and zipped up our jackets. This was turning into a great nature tour.
Figure 28. King Cormorant rookery and Kelp Goose family
Our third stop brought us to a King Cormorant rookery. We couldn’t get as close to this one
as it was a bigger island and there were rocks. Both rookeries had Skuas hanging around
hoping to snatch a chick for dinner. There was also a White-chinned Petrel swimming
nearby hoping for scraps.
This was also where we got to see more Kelp Geese including a pair with five goslings (see
right picture above). The two goslings next to the water’s edge are hard to see because they
are right next to each other with their heads down and their color blends well with the rocks.
In the other pair one is directly behind the other.
The tour guide did a good job of identifying the major species of mammals and birds we
were seeing. Nonetheless, at this stop John or I was asked at least six times, “What are those
white birds?” But this doesn’t even make the A list of silly questions for the day (see below).
A short hop away was a Southern Sea
Lion colony. We approached from
downwind so we got the added sense of
smell. Reminded me of the penguin
rookeries though not as strong. Lisa
thought it was about the same. Here we
got to see many of the typical sea lion
behaviors, just like watching a nature
program.
One of the bulls came out of the water
and had to pass near or through several
other bulls’ territories on his way back to
Figure 29. Sea Lion bull and harem
his. He had to endure lunges and verbal
assaults. In another case, a young male attempted to encroach on the harem of a powerful
young bull (see picture). There was a brief shoving match. The young male got pushed off a
46
12-foot cliff into the water. He fell on several other sea lions that were cooling off and had
to suffer further abuse.
Silly Question of the Day #1: “Why do the seals have to go in the water?”
Silly Question of the Day #2: “Why are some of the seals brown and fluffy and others
black and shinny?” Lisa felt the appropriate answer to this question is, “Because the
brown, fluffy ones are the mammals and the black shinny ones are the birds☺”
On the way to our last wildlife stop John and I
saw what I called a feeding frenzy over and on the
water where many terns were circling and diving.
This behavior attracted other birds to the
location: more terns, cormorants, gulls and
petrels. I took this picture of a South American
Tern returning to its rookery, and got lucky
because it’s carrying a small fish in its beak. The
quality is not very good because I had to enlarge it
quite a lot in addition to the 10x optical zoom of
the camera. This picture is less than 1% of the full
picture.
As we approached the South American Tern
colony we could see adults coming and going
constantly. There was always a swirl
of birds over the island. On the
ground they were shoulder to
shoulder. There were very few
juveniles or chicks to be seen from
the catamaran. The inset in the
picture is from a different shot
because the main picture doesn’t
have any visible in it. What may
seem surprising is that the rookery
was less than a mile from the end of
the airport runway.
We then returned to the dock and
the end of the trip. Total distance
traveled was about 22 miles and at
Figure 30. Tern Rookery with juvenile in inset
no time were we more than 10 miles
from Ushuaia. So one doesn’t have to travel far to see a wide variety of wildlife.
Lisa and Lynn went down to the leather kiosk on the pier to buy a handbag. Lisa had seen
one earlier in the day and decided to get it. It was $100 US. John and I were assigned the task
of picking up our airplane boarding passes and locking them in our respective cabin safes.
We did this smoothly and efficiently despite the apparent misgivings of our wives.
Tanté Nina for Dinner
We all met up and headed out for dinner at Tanté Nina Restaurant, which you’ll recall had
been recommended by two separate sources. Lisa was very peckish because she hadn’t eaten
47
since our morning brunch at 10:30. We got to the restaurant only to learn that it wasn’t open
yet. Argentines like to eat late, usually after 9:00PM. Lisa got the attention of one of the staff
through the window and, using signs, determined that the restaurant would open at 7:00.
What to do until it opened? We wandered up and down the main drag looking at the menus
for some of the parrillas. Lisa was noting the names of some of the local travel agencies for a
friend of ours. We decide we needed to find a place to get a drink while we waited. We
spotted an Irish Pub, which is a chain the John and Lynn were familiar with. According to
them it is nothing like a real Irish pub, but it would meet our immediate needs. We went in,
got a table by the window, and ordered four Quilimes Cerveza (you should all know this is
beer; some think the only Spanish one needs is “Una cerveza por favor”). We spent a
pleasant 45 minutes chatting, mostly about travel and our fellow passengers.
At 7:00 we headed back to Tanté Nina. As we entered Lisa noticed that there was a long
table set up for a group. She asked to be seated in the other section. It was empty and most
of the tables had “reserved” signs. They were still empty when we left nearly two hours later
(it was still before 9:00). Most of the other diners were tourists, cruise passenger and cruise
staff. We soon saw that long table had been set up for a group of the Chinese passengers
from our cruise.
We started with a bottle of Norton Malbec D.O.C. 2002 (30 pesos) and two bottles of water.
I ordered the rabas (squid) for an appetizer; it was quite good but there wasn’t any dipping
sauce. Lisa and Lynn had the shrimp in garlic and olive oil. John had the King Crab. This
was a large crab shell over-filled with chopped crabmeat. It was the most expensive food
item on the menu at 48 pesos (over $16 US). Lisa and I split a salad. John, Lisa and I ordered
the sirloin but it looked more like two nice sized filet mignons. We also ordered a couple of
plates of papa frita. Lynn ordered the pepper steak, which came with small potato halves,
lightly baked in a cream and butter sauce that she shared. They were especially yummy.
Our table had a view of the entrance that we came in. All through dinner we saw a stream of
kitchen staff bringing in supplies of food: potatoes, lettuce, King crab, etc. We had noticed
that there was some major construction above the 2nd floor restaurant. Apparently, this had
blocked the rear entrance to the kitchen.
We all passed on coffee and dessert. We split the tab and
our half came to 127 pesos plus a generous 15-peso tip
(about $50 US). Even considering the added appetizers
and higher cost of the wine, it still wasn’t much of a
bargain when compared to Buenos Aires. Though good,
it didn’t quite measure up to La Estancia.
Back aboard John and Lynn made an early night of it.
They were both feeling a little sniffly. Lisa and I finished
packing the bags. I had a shower and then we headed up
to the Charleston Club to meet Jim Mastro. George,
Alyson and another Scots couple were already there and
Jim soon joined us. Lisa had a mineral water and I had a
brandy. Shortly after Jim arrived, the Scots left to finish
packing, but we stayed for a while and did some dancing.
It is much easier when the ships not moving.
Figure 31. The Europa
48
We asked him about the old (1911) 3-masted sailing ship we’d seen at the pier (see above
picture). He told us that it actually sails to Antarctica, but he’d never sail on that “rust
bucket” down there. He agreed with Lynn’s earlier comment, “Twice around the bay at
sunset…with an ice cream,” was all she’d risk. We had also seen a woman with two walking
canes board it. We figured they’d have to lash her to a mast for the Drake Passage crossing.
We learned that Jim was going home after the next cruise. He’s not real fond of cruising in
heavy seas and figured crossing the Drake Passage 10 times in one year was more than
enough. We told him to call us when he passed through Atlanta if he got stuck or had a long
layover. When he learned that Lisa would be teaching a class in Portsmouth, NH he invited
her to dinner. However, the timing was bad as he wouldn’t be home until after she was
there. Later, it turned out the class was postponed because of weather.
After a pleasant evening of dancing and conversation, we went back to the room, stuffed in
a few more items in our luggage and put it out for pick up. We didn’t see it again until we
got to Buenos Aires.
Figure 32. I liked the color in this one at the Rock Cormorant rookery
For wildlife viewing this trip was a great success. Of the 61 species of birds listed as seen on
the cruise, I saw 33 of them including all but one of the penguin species. The penguin
species I didn’t see, Magellanic, I saw on the previous trip down here. In addition I saw
seven other bird species before or after the cruise. I saw 9 of the 11 species of mammal plus
the brown rabbits. Most of these were the first time I’d seen this species. See Appendix A
for a complete list.
49
Going Home
Figure 33. Beagle Channel in grays
Saturday-Sunday, February 5-6
This morning I got up at 6:00. For a change Lisa was up ahead of me and had already
showered. We packed up the overnight stuff in our new roll-aboard. Up on the back deck to
find high, cold winds and off and on rain, but this changed to a warm, sunny day, though the
winds remained high in the channel.
We went back to the cabin to get our carry bags and returned to Raffles for breakfast. John
and Lynn joined us a little later. After eating, we all moved to the show/lecture lounge to
wait our turn to debark and take the complementary tour. We were called by the color of our
luggage tags, a common technique used to manage crowds. We were on the same flight but
had different colored tags as they were going to spend a night in Buenos Aires before flying
back to England. I asked the staff person if we could stay together for the tour, but she
wasn’t at all helpful in this saying, “I just announce the colors.”
Tierra del Fuego National Park Tour
Instead of going when our color was called, we waited until John and Lynn’s color was called
and we all went out together…problem solved. There was a queue at the gangway and
another one to get on the tour bus. We would see a lot more before the day was over.
We figured this tour was just going to be a long bus ride to the airport. They didn’t want to
turn the passengers loose for 4 or 5 hours until the planes left because surely several would
have missed the flight, so they put us on this tour. However, we were pleasantly surprised as
it was a nice tour.
50
The ride to the park was the same route we’d taken last year when we did the “Train at the
End of the World” tour. In fact we passed both the start and end of the line. The first bird I
saw was a Rufous-tailed Hawk that I’d seen on last year’s trip, but I couldn’t remember its
name and had packed all the bird books, though I did have my binoculars. They would come
in handy later.
Our first stop was at Bahia Ensenada
(Ensenada Bay). We had stopped here on
last year’s tour. It’s a pretty little bay on the
Beagle Channel with a pebble beach and a
small wooden pier. We strolled the beach
with several other busloads of passengers.
Only saw a couple of Black-browed
Albatrosses out over the water for wildlife.
While we were there one of the touring
catamarans pulled into the dock with a load
of sightseers. I then overheard a woman
tourist from another group, that I presume
was taking a pre-cruise tour, ask:
Figure 34. Bahia Ensenada
Silly Question of the Day: “Is this where we get on the ship?”
The next stop on our tour was Lago Boca (Lake
Boca). It is located a mile or so inland from the
channel and is drained by a short river. The bus
dropped us off for a short, 10-minute walk up the
shore of the lake and river to a small coffee &
souvenir shop complex This was a very pretty area
with the lake and mountains. On the walk to the
coffee shop, I lagged behind the others. I was more
interested in the wildlife spotting opportunities than
coffee and trinkets.
At the start of the walk, I watched a Great Grebe
fishing. When I got to the beginning of the river I
noticed a large bird land on the other side that looked
like a kingfisher. I was able to get a good view with
my binoculars and later identified it as a Ringed
Kingfisher. It is slightly bigger than a crow. I also saw
a hawk-sized bird flying back and forth across the
river. I’m pretty sure it was a Crested Caracara. The
guide told us to look for Chimango Caracaras, but I didn’t see any of these. There were also
brown rabbits hopping around the area.
At the coffee shop Lisa had gotten a hot chocolate that she shared with me. It was pretty
good. They were starting to grill some sausage links on a grill that smelled good, but we
didn’t feel like risking it with a long travel day and night facing us. There was nothing worth
buying in the gift shop. There was a brief period after we’d gotten on the bus when there
was some question about whether it would start. The driver tinkered with the engine and got
it restarted in about 5 minutes.
51
On the way to our last stop we went down some very narrow roads. It would have been
tough to get a car down them much less a full-sized bus, but our driver managed it. Along
the way the guide pointed out several goose families along the road. She called some of them
South American Geese and others Upland Geese. After reviewing the bird book later, I
concluded that she used these terms interchangeably, or there was a language issue. We also
got to see a Great Grebe in its floating nest. She said it’s the only bird that builds floating
nests.
We stopped for the last time at Bahia
Lapatai, another wind-swept bay on
the Beagle Channel. This was near the
southern end of the Pan-American
Highway and it had a sign indicating
the distance to Alaska at the other
end, 17,818 kilometers (about 11,136
miles). There was a boardwalk that led
out to an overlook, but we didn’t go
all the way out…it was crowded and
very windy.
Figure 35. Andy near end of Pan-American
Highway (Lisa)
The boardwalk crossed a pretty little creek that was
on its last leg to the bay. I saw several pink stones in
the creek. I thought that perhaps they were
Rhodochrosite that is a semiprecious gem used to
make lots of carved, over-priced stone souvenirs.
However, later research suggests this is unlikely, so it
was probably just pink quartz.
On the way back to the bus I noticed a group of
tourists had walked down to a quiet inlet where there
was a Upland Goose family. They were taking
pictures; so I headed down to do the same thing.
Before I got there, the other tourists, having gotten
their pictures, walked right toward the geese who had
to flee into the water, spoiling it for others.
The path down to the inlet was just grass. When I got near the shore, the ground became a
group of tussocks separated by little channels. Walking on these was like walking on a
mattress—soft and squishy.
52
Figure 36. Farewell Tierra del Fuego
It was time to head for the airport and our flights home. On the trip back we got a box
lunch and the standard flora talk. This included: the only trees, all false beech: short, tall, and
evergreen; Old Man’s Beard (like Spanish moss) a semi-parasitic plant that proves that there
is no air pollution here (supposedly won’t live if there is any pollution); false mistletoe, a
round green plant seen in trees, called Japanese Lantern locally; an infectious fungus that
causes nodes to form on the trees which are used to make gaudy souvenirs (think small
Cyprus clock), and the Calienté berry that if eaten is suppose to cause one to return to
Ushuaia. We didn’t eat any last time and we still came back and probably will be back again.
Airports and Flights
We arrived at the airport a few minutes early and had to wait for other buses to leave before
we could get off the bus. Once off we got into a long line for security (though it wasn’t as
long as the one on the way down…only 15 minutes or so). As we waited, the next batch of
cruisers arrived. One guy was videoing everything including the sign over the door. Another
older couple seemed very baffled. Thankfully, Orient Lines will take good care of them. I
also noticed that there was an airport tax line, but Orient had paid the tax for this leg.
After clearing security we went upstairs to the waiting lounge with a bar/sandwich shop and
a couple of pathetic gift shops. While we waited we ordered some pisco sours, but they
weren’t very good…too much alcohol. When they announced our flight, hordes of
passengers jumped up and formed three lines that had to merge into one. We decided to
wait until the lines had gotten much shorter. After all, we had reserved seats.
53
We boarded without incident. It was another A340 (maybe the same one). The movie was I
< Huckabees. I tried watching it, but it was too weird. We had a snack and an uneventful
flight to Buenos Aires.
We had to do the short bus ride again from the international gate and baggage claim (about
20 yards). What a zoo baggage claim was; a plane load of passenger all trying to get luggage
off one conveyor belt. Somewhere in the melee, I dropped the nice jacket I’d gotten on the
ship, but it was quickly recovered. This is where we said goodbye to John and Lynn and told
them we’d see them in June when we came to England.
Baggage claim wasn’t connected to the rest of the terminal. So, after getting our luggage, we
had to drag it outside about ¾ mile to the departure terminal where we had been before. We
had about 4 hours until our flight, but would need more than half of that to get through all
the processing. On our previous South American trip I detailed the 20 lines we went through
before getting home from Buenos Aires. There weren’t quite as many this trip (16 including
those in Ushuaia), but they took longer because nearly all of the 550 passengers needed to be
processed at once.
There were three long lines, one for each airline, for checked luggage screening. I heard later
that some folks were in the American Airlines line for over two hours. They take the
proforma questions very seriously here. Our number also came up for the full luggage
search, which added to the time. I put the bags on the table and removed the twist-ties we
used for locks; the lady did her search; and Lisa re-closed them—quite a chore considering
how stuffed they were. After this the checker had to wait with us until we got to the check-in
counter to ensure we wouldn’t stick any contraband into our checked luggage.
After we checked in we went to pay our airport taxes. It would have been nice if one of us
could have done the check-in and the other pay the taxes, but you have to have your
boarding pass before paying the taxes. Taxes are $18 US each. This year they would also take
Visa, but we paid in US cash; it’s easier. You get a barcode sticker on the back of your
boarding pass, which is scanned before they let you through to security and emigration
(three more lines). Between boarding pass scan and security there was a place where you
could get the VAT refunded on some purchases. For our small purchases, it just wasn’t
worth it to wait in another line.
Now we were in the no-man’s-land of duty-free shopping. We got a bite to eat at the kiosk
café. I had a ham & cheese sandwich. The ham was more like prosciutto and the bread was
too flourly for my taste. Lisa had a smaller sandwich and a bottle of water; 29 pesos
altogether. We shared a table with another couple from the cruise.
We wandered over to the gate area and stood around for 10 minutes or so and then passed
into the gate waiting area. It was the same gate as last year. However, we didn’t have to go
through security scanning again like last year.
Our seats were in the back of the plane, which was boarded front to back so we were in the
last group to board. We settled in and shortly after take-off Lisa took a sleeping pill as she
had decided to forego the meal. When she didn’t drop right off, she started to look at the
menu, but well before the meal service started, she was sound asleep. I also took a pill and
skipped the meal, but wasn’t so lucky about getting to sleep. I watched the movie, “Sky
Captain;” interesting special effects but lame story. For me story is far more important than
effects. Viewing it on the poor quality, small screen hanging over the aisle probably didn’t
help my opinion of it either.
54
We landed on time at 7:00AM in Atlanta after the 10-hour flight. Got through immigration,
customs and luggage pick-up without incident (other than I left the rollie behind once—not
my time of day). The limo was waiting for us and had another pleasant driver. We got home
around 8:30. I turned on the water and other things that had been shut down and started
unpacking. I had a nice hot shower but still wasn’t ready to sleep. Lisa started the laundry.
We went to Publix for supplies. It was crowded with people doing last minute shopping for
the Super Bowl. I listened to the game while I uploaded and started sorting through my
pictures.
Epilog
Two days after getting back Lisa came down with a terrible cold. She was in bed for the
better part of seven days. She even went to the doctor who checked to see if it was
pneumonia—it wasn’t. She had bad reactions to the two different antibiotics the doctor
prescribed, which didn’t help. But she’s all recovered now.
John and Lynn, Lisa and Andy will adventure again together: Alaska in September 2006 is
already booked. We are also listed for the Spirit of Enderby’s “Forgotten Islands of the South
Pacific” cruise to the New Zealand sub-Antarctic islands in January 2007.
It was a great trip and I [Lisa] would do it again. Loved the ice, ship, people and new friends.
Most of the photos in this report plus many more are available on Ofoto at the following
link:
http://www.ofoto.com/I.jsp?c=cp2wzzr.b0b0zk97&x=1&y=aewrvd
55
Appendix A: Wildlife Sightings
28 January to 4 February 2005 Antarctic Peninsula Cruise
Birds
Great Grebe
Wandering Albatross
Southern Giant Petrel (+ white morph)
Northern Giant Petrel
Black-browed Albatross
Grey-headed Albatross
Yellow-nosed Albatross
Chimango Caracara
Turkey Vulture
American Kestrel
Southern Lapwing
Magellanic Oystercatcher
Blackish Oystercatcher
Common Snipe
Antarctic Brown Skua
White-chinned Petrel
Cape Petrel
or just Antarctic Skua
South Polar Skua
Snow Petrel
Blue Petrel
Antarctic Prion
Southern Fulmar
Wilson’s Storm Petrel
Chilean Skua
Southern Black-backed Gull
aka Kelp Gull, Dominican Gull
Dolphin Gull
Black-bellied Storm Petrel
Common Diving Petrel
Gentoo Penguin (+ leucistic individuals)
Chinstrap Penguin
Macaroni Penguin
Adelie Penguin
Magellanic Penguin
Snowy Sheathbill
Antarctic Cormorant
Imperial Cormorant
Rock Cormorant
Black-crowned Night-heron
Kelp Goose
Upland Goose
Patagonian Crested Duck
Flightless Steamer-Duck
Flying Steamer Duck
Antarctic Tern (+ flying juvenile)
South American Tern
Elegant Tern
Feral Pigeon
Austral Parakeet
Thorn-tailed Rayadito
Chilean Swallow
Dark-bellied Cinclodes
Bar-winged Cinclodes
Blue-and-white Swallow
Southern House Wren
Austral Negrito
Austral Thrush
Patagonian Sierra-Finch
Rufous-collared Sparrow
House Sparrow
Black-chinned Siskin
Crested Caracara
Birds Seen Before or After Cruise
Monk Parakeet (Buenos Aires)
Chalk-browed Mockingbird (Delta Tour)
Rufous-tailed Hawk (T del F Park)
Ringed Kingfisher (T del F Park)
European Starling (Ushuaia)
King Cormorant (Catamaran Cruise)
Great Egret (Delta Tour)
aka Common Egret in North Amer.
Olivaceous Cormorant (Delta Tour)
Mammals
Minke Whale
Humpbacked Whale (69 on 2/1)
Killer Whale
Peale’s Dolphin
Antarctic Fur Seal
South American Fur Seal
South American Sea Lion
Weddell Seal
Crabeater Seal
Elephant Seal
Leopard Seal
Bold entries were seen by Andy. Those in italics were his first sighting.
56
Appendix B: Expedition Staff Biographical Sketches
The following was scanned in from a document provided by the ship, so I take no
responsibility for it’s content or consistency. However, I made a few minor spelling
corrections and hope I caught all the OCR mistakes.
Captain Dick Taylor, Beachmaster & Lecturer
Dick served over 28 years in the U.S. Coast Guard until his retirement in 1989. He served on
weather ships, icebreakers, and in several shore units. For nearly 12 years, he was assigned to
icebreakers in the Antarctic, Arctic, and Great Lakes. This included command of the
GLACIER and POLAR STAR in the polar regions and MACKINAW in the Great Lakes.
For three years he served on the U.S. Navy Antarctic staff (Operation Deep Freeze), as Ship
Operations Officer, at Port Hueneme, CA and at McMurdo Antarctica. From 1990-94, Dick
was an Environmental Observer for the Antarctic Cruise Ship Observer Program
representing the U.S. National Science Foundation’s Office of Polar Programs. He was the
Observer on MARCO POLO during her inaugural season, 1993-94. Dick has been with the
MARCO POLO as a lecturer and beachmaster since 1995. He has made every MARCO
POLO Antarctic sailing except for one. This season will mark his 22nd in Antarctica and his
10th with MARCO POLO.
Lucia deLeiris, Artist
Lucia deLeiris is a wildlife and landscape artist with a degree in zoology from the University
of Maryland. She has received three grants from the National Science Foundation’s Artist
and Writer’s Program, which allowed her to work alongside scientists at McMurdo and
Palmer Stations and at field camps. She lived in Antarctica for a total of 12 months. She also
received a Smithsonian Research Grant to assist in behavioral research of Pere David’s Deer,
which culminated in the illustration of a book and documentary film.
Lucia has illustrated several books on Antarctic science, including Natural History of the
Antarctic Peninsula, (Moss, Columbia University Press, 1988), Antarctic Journal (Hooper,
National Geographic Publications 2000), The Adelie Penguin: Bellwether of Climate Change
(Ainley, Columbia University Press, 2002), and The Island That Moved (Hooper, Viking Press
2004). She has also illustrated many other natural history books and articles, including
articles in Smithsonian Magazines National Geographic Traveler, and Cruising World Magazine. She is
author of the cover painting and feature article about Antarctica: The Frontier of Survival (Bird
Watcher’s Digest, April 2000).
Lucia’s solo exhibitions of Antarctic paintings have been showcased at many galleries and
museums, including the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History, Washington, DC, Harvard
Museum of Natural History, Cambridge MA, and the Newport Art Museum, Newport, RI.
This is Lucia’s fourth year as lecturer/artist aboard the Antarctic cruises of the Marco Polo.
Dr. Marco Taviani, Geologist
Marco Taviani, PhD, born in Rome and living in Bologna, is a marine geologist and
paleontologist at the Italian National Research Council in Bologna, Italy. His recent research
is focused upon Antarctic paleoclimatology, sea-level changes, and the evolution of polar
ecosystems through time. Has participated to 8 Antarctic expeditions (1988-2004), including
four oceanographic missions in the Ross Sea and Antarctic Peninsula aboard Italian and US
57
research vessels, and one season with the Marco Polo. He spent three consecutive seasons at
McMurdo Station, joining an international team of geologists drilling the longest sediment
cores ever collected in Antarctica. Has also carried out scientific SCUBA diving exploration
in the Ross Sea. Marco was awarded the U.S. Antarctic Service Medal in 1994.
Dr. Taviani has participated in over 40 oceanographic missions in the world’s oceans,
including submersible dives in the Gulf of Mexico and off the Norwegian coast. He has
authored or coauthored more than 160 scientific papers and book chapters and has also
worked as on-ice reporter in Antarctica for Italian newspapers and has released interviews to
the A.P. and US, European, and Australasian radio, Dr. Taviani has also appeared in
scientific documentaries (including National Geographic-New Zealand). He has produced
stories and educational videos for Italian TV on various subjects, including Antarctic geology
and paleontology, the exploration of Antarctica, life in the polar bases, and the natural
history of Antarctica.
Christopher J Wilson, Ornithologist
Christopher J. Wilson is a great nephew of Dr. Edward A. Wilson, who died with Captain
Robert Scott and his party on their return from the South Pole in 1912. He is widely
traveled, having spent time on all the continents of the world. Currently he is Warden of
Ireland’s Premier Wildfowl Reserve, ‘Wexford Wildfowl Reserve’. A highly respected
ornithologist with over twenty-five years of bird ringing (banding) experience, in Ireland, UK
and Australia, he includes in his scientific accolades the organization of staff and volunteers
in numerous ornithological surveys of national and international importance. He regularly
contributes to a wide number of wildlife magazines, makes radio and television programs,
has a weekly radio program and has been the subject of a television documentary.
Publications include: High Skies—Low Lands, An Anthology of The Wexford Slobs and Harbour;
Wildlife—A Guide to Irish Wildlife and Wildlife Quiz and Amazing Facts Book - currently enjoying
a second edition. Christopher, who lectures extensively on birds and wildlife, states that birds
and wildlife have always been of major interest to him and, in fact, more a love, a passion
and a way of life.
Dr. Nev Jones, Ecologist
Born and educated in Wales, Nev has a Bachelor’s degree in Zoology and a doctoral degree
in Entomology. He spent two years in Antarctica during the post-heroic era (before the
modern era) as a Meteorologist/Biologist with the British Antarctic Survey. His first
Antarctic winter was spent on King George Island in the South Shetlands and his second
was at Signy Island in the South Orkneys. In between, he spent a summer in South Georgia
participating in a botanical survey of the island. His Antarctic research involved the biology
of the Snowy Sheathbill and the collection of insects and other terrestrial organisms.
On return to the UK, he became a lecturer in Zoology at the University of Hull (Yorkshire),
where he taught for 35 years. He retained an interest in Antarctic matters but his research
efforts were predominately in the ecology and management of temperate estuaries. Nev has
published over 60 scientific papers and edited five other volumes. He held several senior
posts at the University, including Dean of School of Life Sciences and Head of Biological
Sciences. He is currently on his 3rd season with Marco Polo and describes this role as being
recycled after retirement!
58
Emma Jones, Marine Scientist
A graduate Applied Marine Biologist from Scotland, Emma has spent 7 years working in the
Falkland Islands and South Georgia. She began in 1997 as a Scientific Fishery observer for
the Falkland Island Fisheries Department. In 2000, she provided 4 months relief for the
Marine Officer, the South Georgia Government’s representative on the island. The role of
Marine Officer encompasses several roles, including Harbour Master, Licensing Officer,
Customs & Immigration Officer, Fishery Officer, and Sub-Post Mistress. Her final job in the
Falklands was as a Fishery Protection Officer, which she did for three years. She retired to
Scotland in June 2004. This is her third season as a lecturer aboard the Marco Polo.
Jim Mastro, Historian and Marine Mammalogist
Jim Mastro has a Bachelor of Science in Zoology and a Master of Arts in English. For 18
years he held a variety of biological research and research support positions, most of which
involved studying the behavior and physiology of marine mammals. He worked for Scripps
Institution of Oceanography, the Naval Ocean Systems Center, the National Marine
Fisheries Service, and UC Santa Cruz. Jim also spent a season on Bird Island, collaborating
with the British Antarctic Survey in a study of Antarctic fur seals. In all, Jim has spent nearly
six years in Antarctica. For three summers and two winters he was assistant manager of the
McMurdo Station biology laboratory. For five summer seasons, Jim managed all scientific
diving operations for the U.S. Antarctic Program. His final season on the Ice was spent as
lead collector and dive team leader for a project studying bottom dwelling invertebrates.
Jim has written four books on Antarctica: Antarctica. A Year at the Bottom of the World, a photo
memoir; Antarctic Ice, a children’s book with photographer Norbert Wu; and Under Antarctic
Ice, a natural history and photo essay on the McMurdo Sound ecosystem, again with
photographer Norbert Wu. Jim is also the primary author of the Antarctic Scientific Diving
Manual, the official procedures manual for diving under the auspices of the U.S. Antarctic
Program, and he has served on advisory boards for the National Science Foundations Office
of Polar Programs. Jim hails from San Diego but currently lives in New Hampshire with his
wife and son, where he works as a college professor and writer. This is his first season as a
lecturer aboard the Marco Polo.
59
Appendix C: Route Maps
Figure 37. Approximate Antarctic Peninsula route
60
Figure 38. Inset from previous figure
61

Lisa and Andy`s Antarctica Cruise

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