Day 4 - The Seventh Continent

We made it!  We woke up to our daily morning announcement letting us know that we had arrived in Antarctica and our first excursion would be stepping foot onto the Antarctic continent at Portal Point.  As there are 200 of us on the ship, we have been divided into 4 groups to stagger departures - we are the "humpback" group.  Seemed better than the krill group, but that's just one gal's opinion.  

The first two groups headed to land while the rest of us rode around in zodiacs looking for wildlife.  We had no idea what to expect weather-wise and were just told to layer up.  And layer up I did.  From bottom up - muck books, wool socks, long underwear, fleece pants, Gortex pants, wool long sleeve shirt, heated vest and the monster 3-in-1 parka they gave us.  Plus, wind resistant neck gator, hat, mittens and hand and foot warmers stashed in my pockets just in case.  And sunglasses.  Yes, seems like overkill, but as I’ve learned in the past “being cold is a choice” and I choose to not be cold.   

It is difficult to describe what the scenery looks like and pictures just don’t do it any bit of justice as they portray the area as kind of an ugly gray when, in fact, it is actually a really beautiful landscape that happens to be shades of white and gray.  Starting with the water, which appears almost charcoal gray.  But, when you look down, you can see that the water is actually completely clear.  The sky was cloudy and we had some mist and low hanging clouds – I’m guessing the water was reflecting the sky and I am dying to know what the water will look like if we get a blue sky. 

Surrounding us, there are massive floating icebergs everywhere you look, plus “bergy bits” (smaller than a bus) and ice chunks of every size and shape.  The land around us is mountainous and covered in snow.  Between the snow, mist and clouds, (oh yeah, it was also snowing out), everything is shades of white and gray with the occasional blue light reflected in the icebergs and our bright colored jackets.  The only thing that has surprised me so far is that in some places, you can see the rocks/mountains under the snow – I was expecting solid ice and snow everywhere but there are mountains visible under the snow and ice in many places.

I think the monochrome coloring everywhere is what makes this place so other-worldly.  We cruised around in our zodiacs for a little over an hour looking for wildlife – we could see other zodiacs plus kayakers and paddle boarders in the water and we could see the first 2 groups on land - bright yellow jackets in stark contrast to the white and gray everywhere else.  Everyone was having a different experience.  We spent a lot of time looking at glaciers and waiting (hoping) that we would see some calving (when chunks fall into the water).  We found a seal sleeping on a chunk of ice with something bloody in the background and hung there for a while.  We could see whales in the distance, but they were by the boat and the paddle boarders.  Would I have wanted to be a paddle boarder with a pod of bubble feeding humpbacks spittin’ distance?  I’m thinking no on that one.

At the halfway point in our morning excursion, we swapped with the land folk and they hit the water while we hit the land.  Side note - the Antarctic peninsula is the northernmost piece of land you can hit and still be on the AA continent.  The peninsula also has tons of little islands all around it.  One might say that you cannot cross "visit the 7th continent" off your bucket list unless/until you actually step foot on the continent, so I'm pleased to say that our very first foot on land was, in fact, on the continent.  So, it should go without saying, we all had to take the obligatory 7^th Continent photo – we were actually standing on the Antarctic continent.  

We hiked up a snowy hill with every yellow jacket standing out so vibrantly against the snow.  The snow is a strange consistency – much more like large sugar granules than powder, and it is pure WHITE, almost a blueish white.  And as you walked, it was not uncommon to have one foot just sink down unexpectedly a foot or more into the snow.  I opted for walking poles as my coordination is not stellar even on solid ground.

The view from higher up was astounding no matter which direction you looked.  (See video on Facebook) We heard (and saw) Weddle Seals singing – they don’t croak like other types of seals, but they sing.  We saw some other types of seals (I think crabeater) lounging in the snow and on the ice; we also saw our first Gentoo penguin (expecting to see millions of these guys over the coming days) - the first one is always the most exciting!  Eventually we made our way back to the ship extremely pleased with our morning.

Weather wise – I think it was probably in the low 30’s and we had a light snow on and off all day.  My 47 layers were perfect for the zodiac but hiking on land worked up a sweat and we could easily peel off layers.  The other crazy thing – you must wear sunglasses always to be able to see – the whites are so bright that it is hard to keep your eyes open without them.  Hoping this run of good weather continues!

Back on the ship, we had lunch while the ship re-positioned to another inlet for more zodiac cruising.  The weather changed and it was much foggier making for an even more surreal experience.  When I was going through my pictures, I thought that I had somehow turned on black and white or sepia on my iPhone, but then realized that you can ever so slightly make out the blue coloring in the iceberg.  

We cruised around but didn’t see much wildlife – we spent a lot of time viewing scenery and admiring the glacier walls close up. 

On our way back to the ship, we found 2 penguins toying with our boat – they were just leaping in and out of the water – they look like they are flying.  Damon managed to capture them both above and below the surface. 

Back on the boat, we had some relaxing time before the 6pm recap which is the highlight of the day.  During the re-cap, we hear about what the different groups experienced, see the "picture of the day" (we can all submit our best pictures and a "winner" is chosen"), and find out what is on the agenda for tomorrow as well as expected weather.  Then we all headed in for dinner.

When one is on a once in a lifetime experience like this, the idea is to spend as much time as possible outside looking for wildlife.  The craziest thing about this cruise is that you don’t even have to go outside!  We are sitting at dinner and you just look out the windows and the wildlife is everywhere – we spotted multiple humpback wales and tons of penguins swimming/flying, and playing on icebergs.  You couldn’t go five minutes without seeing something happening out the window!  With that in mind, Damon and I headed back to the room to get our jackets so we could hang on the deck.  As we were heading back to our room, an announcement came on that everyone should get outside because there was a whale of a show going on.  Literally.

We were surrounded by whales – a pod of killer whales (orcas) plus a handful of humpbacks.  Apparently killer whales are not as common of a sighting and we had at least 20 swimming around.  Our captain deftly turned our massive ship around so we could enjoy them for as long as possible.  For a while, they were all off in the distance but then they swam closer and closer to us until they were maybe 3 feet from the hull.  With the water so clear, even from the top deck (deck 9), we could see them swimming underwater near the ship.  It was amazing.  The show continued for about 20-30 minutes before they all finally swam away.  At a later briefing, our on-board whale expert had been going over footage taken of the orcas and showed us zoomed in screen shots of two orcas going at it.  And as proof, she zoomed in on the very obviously exposed male parts.  Now that is something you just don’t see everyday…

During this time outside, we also spotted the most awesome penguin swimming pool on an iceberg.  About 10 little penguins jumping in and out of a bright blue pool of glacial melt on top of an iceberg.  They would jump into the pool, swim around, and then climb to the top of the glacier, then waddle/slide back into the pool and do it again.  It was hilarious.

Side note... it stays light outside nearly 24 hours a day – I woke up at 3am last night and it was still daylight bright out.  So far, that hasn’t affected our sleep patterns since we have great light blocking curtains.  But you do tend to lose some sense of time when the light doesn’t reflect time at all.  We haven’t seen true darkness since we left Chicago – we go to sleep and it is light, we wake up and it is light, and if I ever get up in the middle of the night, I’ll look and it has always been light out.

Our evening activity was movie night in one of the lounges – it was a documentary on penguins following three different types of penguins through their mating season.  The researchers have robotic penguin cameras, rock cameras and egg cameras.  The robotic penguins look just like the real thing so they can blend in.  It was hilarious to watch.  The robot penguins were equipped to lay a robot camera egg that would roll around and get views from inside the penguin colonies.  There were also some funny scenes with penguins trying to mate with the robots!  I can’t wait until we get to the penguin colonies where we can just sit among them and observe.

Went to sleep around midnight – our first night in 3 nights where we were not rolling out of bed – it was downright luxurious.