January 11-12, 2008 - On-board Professor Multanovskiy

January 11, 2008 - On-board Professor Multanovskiy
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I woke up at 5:30 AM. My mouth was dry and my body was aching from staying too long in bed. As I was sharing the Cabin with Mike and Antti and did not want to disturb their sleep, I forced myself back in to bed until 7:30 AM.

I headed for breakfast and took it easy with a few sips of Orange juice at first. I graduated next to a bowl of cereal, followed by toast and even some coffee! The doctor inquired after me and all was well.

After chatting with Mike for a little bit after breakfast, I headed to the showers to awaken myself further. We were asked to attend a mandatory ZODIAC briefing session. ZODIACs are inflatable dinghies used to ferry us from the ship to the shores of the Antarctic. We may also use these Zodiacs to cruise around smaller waterways where the Ship cannot take us.

As I mentioned earlier there were 48 passengers in total for this Voyage. The expedition crew comprises of 6 folks - an expedition leader, a Historian, a Biologist, a Geologist, a naturalist and a Kayak master. The expedition leader was a Swede who is a certified master diver for the Antarctic! The Historian (Jeff Rubin) is the author of the Lonely Planet book on Antarctica, Luke (the Geologist) is an Aussie, Tim (Kayak Master) is an American, Delphine (Biologist) is French and Jaime (the Naturalist) is British. The Ship is operated by an all Russian crew of 12 men. In addition we have 2 argentine chefs for the tourists, a Russian chef for the crew, 2 Russian ladies who serve in the dining room (sisters), 2 Swedish gals - 1 the restaurant manager (Karin) and one a Bar Manager (Eva). We also have 2 ladies to make our beds and clean the cabins. We appear to be carrying close to 75 people in total on board.

I might spent some of my free time today continuing my reading of Bruce Chatwin. Lunch was served at 12:30 and was Risotto with Vegetable soup and fruit compote. Not bad. I did not go hungry. Post Lunch I headed to the Bar area to read Bruce Chatwin. Watched the Kayakers (who paid an optional US$700 to Kayak in the Antarctic) be briefed by Tim and Luke. They were given their Kayaking gear as well - including dry suits. I continued reading Bruce Chatwin for a bit and went to the Bridge to check out the operations as well as the view from there.

Tea time was at 4 PM. Cookies, Tea and Coffee. I helped myself generously to the former. After tea we spotted 2 Humpback Whales (Mother and Calf) swimming. We followed them for a bit and I think I got 1 decent picture from the chase!

We started to see a lot of icebergs. I met the new Indian Cricket Coach´s (and former South African player - Gary Kirsten) father-in-law and mother-in-law (Mike and Carol Cassidy). We agreed to talk cricket a bit later on and brief each other on the goings on in Australia which was playing host to the Indian cricket team.

During dinner it was announced that we would be going out on our first Zodiac landings later this evening. Almost to a person, the dinner table emptied! We all got dressed in our wt pants, Antarctic Parkas, 2 layers of socks and Quark issued Wellington Boots (which keep out the water) and offer a good grip while walking as well.

Our first Zodiac trip was to the aptly named DESOLATION ISLAND! We saw lots of Chinstrap Penguins, Southern and Weddell Seals and the predatory Squa bird. It was indeed quite a thrilling experience for all of us (especially those of us who were in bed all day yesterday during the Drake crossing). We are not yet on the Antarctic Peninsula. We may get there on the 13th of January!

January 12, 2008 - On-board Professor Multanovskiy
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Each night we are provided with a program for the following day. Last night we were provided with our program for today.

We visited Barrientos Island (Part of the Aitcho Island group and located in the centre of the South Shetland Islands) and saw more Chinstrap Penguins, Gentoo Penguins (a new species for us) and Elephant seals (I had seen these in Peninsula Valdes but the proximity of these creatures were far better than at Peninsula Valdes). We had a good hike up a short snow covered hill and came across numerous Whale and Seal skeletal pieces. The Whale Skeletons were certainly from the early whaling days in these places, while the seal skeletons were from death by natural causes. We watched the penguins jumping on and off the ice floes. The Wellington boots are excellent.

The Weather is quite good as well. No wind, No rain, a bit cloudy. 2 out of 3 is not bad.

Post lunch we had a Zodiac landing at Deception Island. Deception Island is an old Whaling Station and still has an active volcano. As a result there are Thermal pools here. We were originally planning to visit these thermal pools and the hardier souls could go for a dip in these waters. But due to some incoming weather patters we visited a different side of the Island called Baily Head that has the Second Largest Colony of Chinstrap Penguins in the world. There were Chinstrap Penguins as far as the eye could see. We could see numerous mothers with their babies and many parents still warming their eggs. I am quite sated with Chinstrap Penguins for now:)

The terrific discovery here was a Black Chinstrap Penguin. Even the expedition staff who have been to these places many times found this species to be unusual and were planning to report this find to Penguin research stations in the Antarctic. Needless to say, the Black Chinstrap Penguins was picked on and harassed by the normal freaks!

During the course of the day, I met and chatted with a lot of people. Some of the Interesting folks were:

Hans Smit - Of Dutch Origin, lives in Perth, Western Australia. Has been to the Theosophical Society in Adyar (Chennai) and cooks Idli and rasam whenever he can in Perth!

Jet Harris and Judith Innes - English Couple. Jet is a retired Geography teacher so is a unique experience for him. They are doing an extended travel for the first time and we chatted on my different travels and what I would recommend next for them (An African Safari or the Galapagos)

Thomas Nelsen - travelling with his French wife, 2 older daughters and a 20-year old granddaughter. We had a great conversation on Photography especially digital photography and post processing in digital photography. Tom is travelling with his Mac Book with Adobe light room software. Before long I may play with it for a bit to help me decide on a Mac for my Photo cataloguing.

I am currently using the Ship´s laptop to copy my memory cards to my hard drives every day. As the laptop is new and has USB 2.0 ports, the copying process takes but a few minutes. I may even decide to write a detailed blog on a word document while on board the ship and upload it when we reach Ushuaia at the end of the Voyage. We shall see.