January 17, 2008 - Aboard Professor Multanovskiy
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Following an early breakfast we were slated to go Zodiac cruising at 8:15 AM. I was still quite sleepy that I got my left and right wellington boots mixed up. Surprisingly they still fitted on the wrong feet! I set them right before boarding the Zodiac. We had anchored off Argentine Islands and were to cruise here for 2-3 hours in the morning. Although there were lots of icebergs, crabeater seals and penguins around many of us did not even bother to open our camera bags. There is certainly a limit to the extent of the same scenery or the same species of mammals or birds one can take and we most certainly ad reached it.
We stopped to visit another abandoned British research station (WORDIE House). This place (after being abandoned) had been cleaned up by the British (as required by the Antarctic treaty) and is now a museum. The station operated between 1947-1953.
There was a small snow covered hill next to WORDIE house and many folks from our group had already started clambering up to its top. I had decided to give it a pass until the ship´s doctor (who shared my interest in Photography) strongly urged me to do the climb to take in the view. The climb was not at all difficult and the view from the top was truly fantastic as Raymond had said. There were snow covered mountains all around, numerous channels of water dotted with icebergs and a few Yachts as well. Private Yachts can be found in these waters. I wonder how they cope with the Drake Passage!
We also passed by the Ukrainian Research Station VERNADSKY. The folks at this base have apparently been too welcoming of cruise ships and its passengers and the Ukrainian government has not been too happy about this as it takes them away from their research (for which they have been sent here!) We did not visit the station for this reason.
We got back to the ship after 3 hours. I decided to skip the Zodiac landing this afternoon as we were to land on an Island and see the same Mammal and bird species we had seen before! I visit the Penguin store on the ship and purchased some post cards. They also sell stamps issued under the "British Antarctic Territory". The stamps were all $1 (irrespective of where in the world the card was being mailed to). We could mail these cards and stamps when we call at the functioning British station at Port Lockroy (possibly tomorrow). The Penguin store also sells T-Shirts, Coffee Mugs and the usual tourist junk (all made in China!)
As the Bar area was occupied with all the tourist goods, Eva (the bartender) told me to take the Ship´s laptop with me and bring it back whenever I was done with it! I spent the next 2 hours backing up all my memory cards and completing the post cards. I met Tom Nelson (he who is currently travelling with a Mac book) and broached the subject of testing the RAW Images from my Canon 5D using the Adobe Light room software on his Mac Book.
Tom was positively enthusiastic. He gave me his Mac book and went off to shower. I played with it for over an hour and realized that Light room definitely functioned way better on a Mac book than my Windows Machine. I may decide to get one later on (Those reading the Blog can perhaps contribute and get me one!). As I suspected the Zodiac cruisers did not see anything spectacular.
As the weather was quite reasonable, it was decided that the Campers were to Camp at Petermann Island for the night. I did not envy them now as (a) It was not below the Antarctic Circle and (b) It was NOT on the Antarctic Continent. One of the Original campers had dropped out for these very same reasons.
For those staying back on the boat, the night´s entertainment was to be the new James Bond Film CASINO ROYALE! As I had nothing better to do, I watched it a second time! Apart from the opening chase scene and where African did all his stunts himself, there was nothing much to laud about this movie. The movie ended around 11:20 PM. As the ship was Anchored for the night, Antti and I debated about staying up until 1 AM or so and taking a few pictures. We decided that we would go to Sleep and wake up around 12:45 AM and take some pictures around 1 AM. I set my Alarm and we went to bed. We both woke up around 12:45 and went up to the deck in our sandals (too lazy to put on socks and shoes). Antti took 1 picture and went back. I took 3 more pictures. While the experience was similar to what I did at Barrow, Alaska (where the town and buildings provided some backdrop at 1 AM) there was not much backdrop here except a dull grey sky and icebergs that appeared quite flat in this light.
January 18, 2008 - Aboard Professor Multanovskiy
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We had breakfast at 7 AM. We were then told that we would not reach the British research Station - Port LOCKROY until 10:30 AM! We wish they had told us earlier and delayed our breakfasts to 9 AM as me and my Finnish cabin mate could have really used the extra sleep (having been up at 1 AM to take pictures of an Antarctic Sunset that did not happen). I took a shower. Showers in the Ship have always been good. Good hot and cold water (in case anyone needed it) and good water pressure. Lots of handles to hold onto especially if folks were taking showers when the ship encountered heavy swells. I wrote my diary for a bit.
E-mail messages can be sent and received at a cost of $4 per message. The messages are saved by the passengers (wanting to send them) on the ship´s computer and then given to the ship´s radio officer who presumably Morse codes them and any responses to these messages. I am guessing here. One cannot check e-mail messages. One can also make and receive Phone calls. All Calls use the IRIDIUM satellite link and the cost is $4 per minute whether making a call or receiving one. I did call my Parents and spoke to them a few days ago for 4 minutes. I will have a lot of BLOGWORK to catch up on when I get back to South America and cheaper internet rates!
There was a sighting of Humpback Whales but they were too far away even for a 300mm lens to get a decent picture. I still have an hour to go before we reach Port Lockroy. The Scenery outside is quite beautiful. Then again how many snow capped mountains do I want to Photograph ?:)
We anchored shortly thereafter off Port LOCKROY. The port officer came on board our ship and gave a short speech on the activities at the base, the time the researchers typically spend here and so on. He also left a rubber stamp that said Port LOCKROY and gave its Latitude and Longitude and said today´s date and the word Antarctica somewhere. There were few on the ship who did not get their Passport Stamped with this stamp. No, I was not an exception!
We boarded our Zodiacs and went to Port Lockroy. We mailed our cards and visited the small museum there. I bought some nice British Antarctic Territory first day covers as the rest of the souvenirs were too tacky (T-Shirts, baseball caps, and so on).
Port Lockroy also has a good GENTOO penguin colony and a part of the island is marked as off limits to the lay tourist. Research has shown that the Penguins living in the area visited by the tourists breed better! This was attributed to the fact that the tourist traffic scares away the natural predators of the Penguins (the vicious looking SQUA Bird).
Once back on board, we had lunch and I went in for a Siesta. The siesta was rudely interrupted by an announcement of a HUMPBACK Whale sighting. We grabbed our cameras and headed to the outer decks. The paid of Whales was the best sighting so far. They were around us (or we followed them - take your pick) for close to 30 minutes. They swam so close to the bow of the ship that many of us with long lenses got just part of the whale! I think I have a few decent pictures here. 30 minutes after this sighting there was another announcement of MINKE Whale sighting. By the time I got to the deck, I had missed it.
All announcements can be heard in all Cabins. The early morning wake up calls all the worst as you cannot shut the noise out and you are forced to wake up!
Later in the afternoon we anchored off an Argentine research station - ALMIRANTE BROWN and made a 3rd attempt of setting foot on the ANTARCTIC CONTINENT. The research station is used infrequently by the Argentines and it was not in use now. We observed a decent GENTOO Penguin colony here and some of the Penguins came really close to me (whenever I stood still). The rabble went off to climb YET another snow covered hill and slide on the way down. I passed. A light snow had started and I observed that the flakes here were perfectly symmetrical (as one sees in Geography or Geology books).
After the research station visit, we started cruising the waters around the base for an hour. Our Zodiac (driven by the expedition leader Martin) spotted a few Weddell seals lying on land. As the water was too shallow, Martin jumped out and pull the Zodiac close to land and allowed us to land and walk closer to the Seals and Photograph them. I think we still maintained a distance of 10 metres or so from the closest animal. We all got some great close-ups. What this also meant was that the group of us (10) were the only folks who had made 4 landings on the Antarctic Continent! Upon continuing our cruising, we had a lone LEOPARD seal put up a performance for us against a nice iceberg backdrop. Thanks for the memories :)
The post dinner entertainment for today was SIDEWAYS. I watched it again and enjoyed it. Tomorrow may be our final landings before we head back through the DRAKE passage back to Ushuaia, Argentina.
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