Antarctica is….well let me tell you a story. I don’t know if I had ever come across it before today, (like, really learned about I mean, instead of just hearing about it in a vague sense…) so hopefully it may be a bit of learning opportunity for you as well. If this is old boring news, you’ll still see why I bring it up soon. In 1915, Ernest Shackleton, an Irishman prone to exploration and trying to be the first to do things, was in charge of an Expedition to Antarctica. He’d been beaten to the South Pole by some jerk named Amundsen in 1911, but what they hadn’t done was cross the continent. So Shackleton was like, “Hell yeah, we’ll sail to Antarctica, land, and then we’ll cross on foot across the land mass and meet up with another ship that’ll meet us halfway from Tasmania.” That was the plan. Then as Nature likes to do, she laughed and laughed and laughed and then she decided to spit in his face. What ended up happening is that he sailed to Antarctica, and before he could make landfall, the pack ice, you know, the ice in the water that isn’t quite land but sure as hell can stop a ship as well as land can if it’s not broken up, the pack ice decided it was tired of Shackleton breaking it apart to try and move forward, and it froze his ship in place. He can’t go forward, he can’t go back. Not with his ship. So he heads back the way he came on foot with the lifeboats, and he and his crew make it back to open water, sail their tiny lifeboats to a place called Elephant Island. Oh! That’s where we were heading! Shackleton and his crew made it to Elephant Island, and then he left 22 of them behind to take one of the lifeboats to a whaling station on South George Island to get a rescue ship. Long story short, They all survived. Slightly longer story, every inch of progress was mired in difficulties and ice getting in the way and waves threatening them and I will never experience that horror but there’s something to coming up on this IMPOSING. FUCKING. ISLAND. That makes you go- “Damn. DAMN. And they survived here?” So, that’s where we were today. The island where 22 men were left behind while their captain took one of the few lifeboats and five other guys and they all sailed off to *hopefully* bring back rescue. And how I first saw it was- I woke up at 6am, and I was like….
.
.
.
.
“I think I’m gonna throw up.” .
.
.
.
“No….mm…maybe?....No….” .
.
.
And then at like 7:30, I feel a lurch that basically rockets me out of bed and I rush to our cabin’s balcony and I stick my face in the 30 degree air, no jacket, just pjs and slippers, and I cradle my head in my hands, and then I look to the right. And there’s Elephant Island...
and for a *second* I’m so struck by the sheer nature of this island that I forget for a moment I’m feeling like hell, and then the ship lurched again and my stomach was “WHEE! Somersault!” and then I am white knuckling the railing letting the cool air ease the green around my gills. Don’t worry, I have a mastery over myself that…well you know what, I didn’t throw up. That’s enough mastery for me. The waves have been a constant battle. Even after leaving Penguin Island yesterday, the waves just seemed to get worse and worse. We were supposed to already be at Elephant Island when we woke up this morning, and, yes, I woke up and I could see the island, but we were supposed to be anchored off the coast when we woke up, but instead, we were still heading towards it. And according to our proposed schedule, my group was supposed to depart for the landing at 8:30. At 7:45 I was like, “yeah, pretty sure that’s not happening.” I was still hoping that maybe, *maybe* it would just be delayed until we got closer, but t’was not to be. I think around 8:10 the captain came over the speakers and told us the waves were way too rough and a landing was not possible. In fact, he was struggling with the ship and we’d probably have to get moving again soon, but he’d circle the island in about 30 minutes. Okay, cool. I’ll still get some pictures, but I’m feeling like hot garbage so I’m moving kinda slow, almost ten minutes later – “Ladies and Gentlemen...” we were gonna start moving now. AHHH I want to get to the deck to take pictures but it’s freezing and AHHH So Elephant Island was kicking L’Austral’s butt. I did get up to deck to take pictures. I also forgot a memory card so I had to run back to my room to take pictures, but the way the ship was moving, my balcony could see Elephant Island, and even better! A perfect view of the whole thing. I do end up heading to deck- just provides more room and it’s a bit more social anyways than holing up by myself. It’s going well. I start feeling less like hot garbage and more like chill kinda malaise, and even though I lose feeling in my ears, it’s beautiful up top and the water is this GORGEOUS blue and teal
And then
Whales. Dozens of them. It starts off slow. I’m on the aft deck with only a handful of others- focusing on the island when a woman notices the first whale. We ooh, and ahh, and snap some pictures, but it disappears after a few minutes. Then, a few minutes later, she spots another whale. Two this time. Seriously, this woman spotted every whale on the aft deck, and we’re all happy as clams, and I think about 20 minutes of this where it’s 1-3 whales being spotted when the captain comes over the speaker- there’s A whale off the bow at one o’clock. Then a few minutes later, we hear it again, so the small group of us head to the front and
a.) This is where everyone is.
and
b.) It’s way more than just one whale.
It’s not quite the dozens we’ll see in about 30 minutes, but it’s 1-2 here, 1-2 there, 1-2 there too! 1-2 oh it’s close! These spots are punctuated by a minute or two, before they’re in the next spot and the crew says we can head to deck 7 (the highest deck for us). Only a handful of us go up- I wondered why, but I think people were reluctant to go up because one of the guides was on deck 6, pointing out what they were seeing and etc. I do end up grabbing a hat to warm up my poor ears, and when I return, I’m a little crowded at a side railing, but it’s cool. There’s a whale spout almost every 30 seconds in a different direction. The teal parts of the water are the upwellings where the krill from the dark blue part of the water that is getting forced to the surface and it’s like, BWoosh!
Bwoosh! Bwoosh!
Pick a direction, a whale will show up. There were like 5 on my side anyways. But, this woman next to me, she notices something else. (Different woman than the whale woman) .
She says she sees penguins in the water.
I don’t say this (luckily cause I would have been a double ass) but I think she’s mistaking one of the Albatrosses or Petrols for a penguin….but no! In the water is a group of Gentoo Penguins surfacing.
I only got the one pic, but seeing them porpoise in the open ocean so far from land (I know we could see it, but it still felt so far!) was amazing.
Honestly, it was more exciting than the whales for some reason.
But all things must end, and the captain told us we had to move on, and let them feed in peace, and we needed to get to our next destination. Since the waves and wind are so bad, we’d need the extra time to make it.
So the rest of the day was the open ocean and lectures. Lectures galore! On Penguin life cycles, on The Shackleton Expedition, on the cultural impact of Solar Eclipses, on what to expect during a solar eclipse, on The Eddington Experiment (seeing curved spacetime during a solar eclipse). Lotta lectures. It’s all fascinating stuff, but I’m not going to pretend I didn’t doze. I’m going to blame it on feeling bad, but after the 2nd lecture, a woman offered to let me have some extra wrist bands that help with seasickness. (Shout out to Jaying! Thank you!) I’ve been wearing them since and I think they’ve helped. The ship is definitely testing them. We moved our glasses and mugs in the room to our drawers so they don’t fall off our little counter. But I think they helped, and I was able to enjoy dinner with one of the Professors from Colorado College (Shane Burns) and Jaying and her husband Jack and another couple we’ve spent some time talking to this trip, Matt and Becky. I even had some wine at dinner so I’m really testing them out. I totally forgot- we saw a whale outside the window at lunch too. We went to eat late with a new friend of ours, Andy and we had been having tea/hot chocolate after a quick trivia game and music lounge and while none of us were hungry, we decided to try to eat something. That’s when Jaying offered the bands actually. So we’re chatting and a wave splashes against the window so we all look out, and then like…I said 100 m at dinner, but maybe it was more like 50 m, we saw a Fin Whale surface. We all freaked out appropriately and it was my last whale of the day. Back to dinner. Jaying tells us about her attempt at working out (one of the treadmills starting sliding back on one of the waves before the staff asked if she could leave – yeah, the treadmill is moving on its own, that doesn’t feel safe.) And we all have these stories of all the little things (or large things) sliding on the floor as the ship rocks back and forth on these waves. We’re doing Antarctica in style though. How the hell did the other explorers do this? We’re gonna try for another landing tomorrow (8 am!) at Coronation Island, but honestly, I’m a little skeptical based off the fact that I have been bouncing between like, 30 and 180 degrees on my bed since I started typing. But, there’s hopefully a chance in the afternoon. If that doesn’t work out (I have higher hopes for that based off the map) then we won’t try again until after the Solar Eclipse on the 4th. The seas are rough, but we can be tougher! Right? (Maybe start sending some good luck vibes my way, just in case?)
Comments