|
|
|||||||
|
January 29, 2000 |
|
bright bright sunshiny day |
|||||
|
|
|
|
|||||
|
Position: King George Island Devil Island Keltie Head Sunrise: 0418 Today's Bird Sightings: Mammal Sightings: Today's Reading: The Voyage of the Beagle by Charles Darwin
Copyright © 2000, Janet I. Egan |
|
The Explorer entered the Antarctic Sound early
this morning. The scenery has to be seen to be believed.
Antarctic Sound is named for a ship, not for the
continent. The sound took us into the Erebus and Terror Gulf, also
named after ships, H.M.S. Erebus and H.M.S.
Terror, used by James Clark Ross in exploring these
waters in Like I said, the scenery has to be seen to be believed.
We've been cruising through an area full of huge tabular
icebergs. They're flat enough on top that you could probably
land an airplane on them. Not that you'd want to. Big white
pills At midmorning we went ashore at Devil Island, home to a
large colony of Adelie penguins - something like 15,000
pairs, so let's see that's 30,000 adults and if each pair is
raising one chick that brings the population at the moment
to about I really want to get a picture of penguins swimming, they're so cool looking when they swim - far more graceful than when they waddle. I was watching a couple of them swimming among the ice floes and as I was trying to set up the perfect shot, two Adelie penguins splashed out of the water right at my feet. They splashed me good. I couldn't help laughing.
Later in the afternoon, the captain maneuvered the ship close to the Keltie Head waterfall on Vega Island. Real close. He offered a prize to anybody who could fill a cup with water from the waterfall. People went out on deck and took cold showers under the waterfall. It was silly but a lot of people enjoyed it, and it's nice to know the captain is so good at his job. I've heard his nickname is "Centimeter". More spectacular scenery as we cruised through the Prince Gustav Channel and Herbert Sound. No idea whether these bodies of water are name after ships. These waters only became ice free enough to be accessible to ships in recent years. Our mission was to keep our eyes peeled for any possible sight of the emperor penguin. Apparently there's some evidence suggesting an undiscovered emperor penguin colony to the south of James Ross Island, and some, but not many, sightings have been reported. I don't think anybody really expected we'd find one - a lone emperor penguin swimming in the vast Weddell Sea - but I was still a little disappointed that we didn't. We did, however, see orcas and leopard seals and crab eater seals as promised. |
|||||
Pinch
me, I must be dreaming. Wait, I said that yesterday. The
beauty all around me is overwhelming. "Fantastic" doesn't
even begin to cover it. The sun is out, the sea is calm, the
icebergs are spectacular, and the wildlife is abundant.
Antarctic was the ship that carried the 1901-03
Swedish expedition to Antarctica. She was the first ship to
pass through this particular sound. Hence the name.
1842-43.
Hmm, everything is name after ships - wonder where the
Little Red Ship Channel is? :-) This area does not show up
on the list of most visited sites and our daily schedule
sheet says this area is "little visited by tourists" but
doesn't say why.
the size of Rhode Island. The sheer white sides have some
streaks of blue and the occasional crack. Sometimes we pass
smaller ice floes with penguins sitting on them or leopard
seals hauled out sunbathing on them. Crab eater seals too
sometimes. Even saw a few ice floes with both a penguin and
a leopard seal keeping a respectable distance.
45,000 Adelies. This is the most spectacular place we have
visited yet.
We
cruised among the icebergs in the Zodiac, checking out the
fantastic shapes and the deep blue color along with the
penguins and seals. It was magical. I felt like I'd entered
a mysterious blue wonderland.