Finally – the Antarctic Peninsula. We spent two weeks on the ship the Ocean Nova building to this point. And we’ve spent almost two weeks here on the blog talking about how the first parts of our cruise went.
If you remember, the weather on South Georgia had been up-and-down; some landings were easy, others had heavy winds, driving snow, and 10-foot waves crashing on the beach. Our ship pushed hard into a 15-MPH headwind for two days while traveling the 800 miles from South Georgia; the headwind slowed us down enough to cause us to skip the South Orkney Islands, which were to be our only research base landing.
But we’re here now. And when we first arrived at the Peninsula, we were having a rough time. The weather didn’t agree with us, either. We had a heavy mist at our first landing, Gourdin Island. Since it was late in the season, and since it’s known for supporting 3 different species of penguins, we were treated to the delightful sensory experience of an entire island covered in penguin guano. I don’t know how much experience you have with this stuff, but trust me, it doesn’t smell good. We did get to see most of our penguins though, including a few really interesting ones (both photos link to the rest of our photos from Gourdin):
Adelie Penguins
A Gentoo Penguin with a broken foot:
In the afternoon, we continued to Astrolabe Island, which we circled in zodiacs (intentionally as part of a zodiac cruise). We saw some of our first icebergs off of the Antarctic Peninsula here:
The next morning, we went to Mikkelsen Harbour, site of an abandoned Argentine research station. Here, we fought 40MPH winds and sideways sleet to walk around the island for a few hours. We weren’t the only ones, however – someone (we don’t know who) actually sailed a sailboat down to Mikkelsen!
Wow. But then, in the afternoon, the situation changed. We arrived at Portal Point, to be our only continental landing. Basically, most of the places we visited were islands, and some people who go to Antarctica go specifically to step foot on the continent, so they can confidently say that they have been to all 7 continents (Stef and I have each only been to 4 – the same 4, actually!). Brandon (our awesome expedition leader), expected our visit to Portal Point to last about 15 minutes on land, because he figured that the weather wouldn’t be great. However, it turned out to be incredible! We spent easily over an hour at the spot on land, hiking up and down, and shooting tons of photos. Here are two – check out the rest as well by clicking through:
Our final stop happened the next morning. We went to the Melchior Islands, and had amazing weather. Bright sun, blue skies, blue ice, white snow, no wind, no rain – it was incredible. Needless to say, everyone loved it. The kayaking group went out for one last paddle – we had an awesome time (I’ll put up photos from that expedition at some point later on this year). Here are some photos from the Melchior Islands:
At the end of the landing, a last-minute announcement explained that we would be able to do a “Polar Plunge” into the Antarctic Ocean. Needless to say, I jumped at the chance. Here’s one of the photos, taken by our friend Jochem.
That’s it for the moment. In case you’re curious, I shot about 2200 photos during our three weeks on the ship, of which about 400 were worth keeping. Right now (since we’re still traveling), I’ve only posted the 40 or 50 best. But don’t worry, we’ll keep them coming later on…
Matt and Steph, I’m loving your stories and pictures. Thanks for sharing. Joan