Shingle Cove. Coronation Island. Currently the Crowning Achievement of the trip. Another instance where we wake up, and there is no land in sight. I begin to look for the remote to the tv. I don’t know if I’ve mentioned, but there’s a tv in our room. I turn it on pretty frequently, and my two favorite channels are…
BOW CAMERA 01
And
ITINERARY
Bow camera is as it sounds- it is a live feed of the bow, streamed to our room.
Itinerary is actually less itinerary, and more map, annnnd current weather conditions.
So, with no land in sight, I check to see if we’re actually supposed to be somewhat close and I should get dressed to get on deck (because we only have the port side of the ship- if anything is off the bow or the starboard side, I wouldn’t know without walking around but….then I’d have to change out of my pjs….) But sometime in the night, the waves have caused the remote to disappear and it feels important because if we *are* surprisingly close to land, then maybe, MAYBE, we’ll actually make landfall today, and if we’re going to make landfall, my group is going first, then that means I need to get dressed a certain way instead of just wearing pants. So I’m frantically looking for the remote at…..7:40 in the morning? Eventually I do find it, and I swear, not even a minute later, that captain comes on. We’re this far from land, and we won’t be doing our first landing expedition, but we’ll see land soon and we’ll be turning into like a channel between two islands and it’ll be great. And we do start to see land around 8 am (and I am dressed and on deck around this time cause I wanted to take pictures of the first sight of land.) And we turn into a channel between two islands and the seas are you know, what I thought were pretty bad still, but we’re reassured that in the channel, we’ll find safe harbor and seas we can launch from. Okay. I leave the expectations to the experts. At least about these things. So it’s a morning taking pictures of Shingle Cove and Coronation island, and on Deck 3, they’ve laid out the mats that we walk on to get to the launching….zone…so we’re feeling optimistic. Or, we sense the optimism of the expedition teams. And sometime during pictures of the island and breakfast, we get the news. We’re going to try for a landing. *gasp!* You see, L’Austral, which is …. Owned? Run? Whatever? It’s affiliated with a company called Ponant. Ponant has logos all over the ship. Slippers, windows, signage, etc,
ANYWAYS, I digress…
L’Austral has a sister ship.
Le Lyrial. Le Lyrial, is ANCHORED off the shore of Coronation Island and they’ve been launching morning expeditions! So we’re gonna do-si-do with them and they’re going to head off into the great Big Blue and we’re going to take their anchorage and try and launch afternoon expeditions. (It’s like when you see someone heading towards their car in a parking lot with grocery bags- you can take their spot if you wait for them.)
So I take some pics of Le Lyrial from deck 6, skip the lecture for today (it’s the first one I have skipped – it was about Pinnipeds. I felt like I might have a significant enough background to skip it.)
I ended up taking pictures from the balcony of my room instead because I saw Penguins! In the water! Porposing! And this time I spot them all by myself.
And after the penguins, and waving goodbye to Le Lyrial (I had to because I 2 degree removed know someone on it) it was an early lunch, then, time to get bundled up. It’s expedition time. Except….I get dressed, and I pack my gear, and even though the excitement is mounting with every step towards the Zodiak boat, I feel like, *something* is gonna happen. I mean, a group the other day got all the way on the boats, only to turn around with land in sight. Could happen to us. But I still was giddy as we disinfected our boots, climbed in the boat, and motored towards the island. And the water was cold spray, and freezing winds, salty air and my hair was in my eye and the headband supposed to keep my hair back slipped and my hands are freezing because to keep my gloves warm I said I could handle 5 minutes of no gloves
And it was great.
The water as we approached was crystal clear, and teal and there was a glacier to our right and the mountains soared above us to our left, and there was a penguin on a rock at 1 o’clock as we approached
And I was the first to disembark our boat. We were like, boat 3 or something for today, but still. And I didn’t mess up, and I landed in the waters of Antarctica, and I had made it. Despite rough seas and numerous setbacks, I managed to land ashore.
We landed in Antarctica.
(The South Orkneys specifically, but the scientists say it counts so!) And immediately, there are elephant seals, and penguins, and this lichen and moss that is surprisingly colorful, bright green and brighter orange! And one of the Elephant seals started test fighting with another, (definitely half-hearted sorta things) and another was bellowing. Then there are penguins in the nearby area, and a colony a short walk from the landing zone. We had to avoid stepping on the moss and lichen and walk on a pretty narrow path and hop from stone to stone in some cases. The walk to the colony was short, and I’d consider fairly easy….if I could have walked where the path was possible, but the plants were in the way. So it was a little more difficult, a little more steep in some places, but, and they told us this later- the moss can take 100 years to grow 1cm so. The least we can do is be polite to the locals. We also saw Skuas and some other birds besides penguins. Skuas are *large*. And the colony of penguins was Adelie penguins, but there was a Gentoo here or there. At the risk of being a bummer, Gentoo penguins, due to Climate Change, are beginning to encroach on Adelie colonies, taking prime nesting spots earlier in the season and threatening Adelie over resources. This time of the year, it’s fine, but it’s a thing apparently.
But we saw Adelie penguins and their antics- nesting, flapping flippers, hopping over rocks to get to their Very Important Places. Elephant seals mostly napping, and there was one that was sleeping in a pool of water on the beach, and several tourists were like, “Are they dead???” and no, no she was just sleeping. Seriously, I have a picture of this Seal just scratching herself, closing her eyes again and drifting off to sleep with her nose half out of the water.
We got to stay for….I think 2ish hours? And I did just sit and enjoy it. As much as I pretend to be a photographer, I do try and put the camera down. The pictures I take end up mostly being for me, and while I love them, being able to enjoy the moment in person is better.
But we had to be back by 3:40, and by god did we take as long as we could. We were over by the colony…until 3:10? Then the guides were like, “You gotta go!” So we all start heading back- this massive parade of red jackets trekking our little hike, avoid moss and lichen, trying not to disturb the penguins and moving past the seals sleeping by the shore. I think I was getting in the boat by 3:40. We also saw the 2 flowering plants that grow in Antarctica, and I got one phone pic! The naturalist who pointed it out gets all the credit of course, but he also pointed it out after I packed my bag to go back on the boat….so I didn’t have my camera. Thus the phone pic. I had actually packed it back at the colony so I could balance better because that kinda sucked on the way over, holding my camera and watching my feet as well. So the naturalist pointed out the plant to the line of people, and according to someone I chat with frequently on the boat (Andy I think?) he had noticed the plant, knew what it was, then *literally* a minute later, saw it bloom. Literally literally. One minute, “Oh hey, it’s this plant, I should point it out that it can bloom.” Next minute, “IT DID BLOOM.” I got to see the flowers, so I missed the magical transition, but I liked the story, even if it’s not mine to tell. Another story that isn’t mine is my roommate’s Cricket. She was farther ahead of me in the line back to the boats, and at one point by the beach, a penguin gets out of the water, and suddenly, there is no way forward. It just came out of the water so it doesn’t want to go there, but in front of it is a line of red who, a minute ago, was unaware of this penguin and is trying to leave. Remember how I said the path was kinda narrow? Well, the people are perplexed as to where to go, and they can’t push forward to give the Penguin space to move through them because then they’d be stepping on the moss or getting too close to the seals. So there was a minute where they just had to wait until the line moved up on the beach and then a gap formed with a naturalist holding the group back.
So the gap forms, and the Penguin doesn’t move at first- it’s still upset/ thinking about complaining and Cricket is trying to help the poor guy out. So she asks the naturalist, “Which way should I move for the penguin?” cause it was either Up, or Below.
She goes Up and after a few more people follow, the penguin sees this new gap she formed and zhoop! Waddles quickly through the crowd to it’s Very Important Place.
The line moves, and before you know it, we’re back on the beach, getting into the boat to head to the ship.
I once again forewent gloves (which now that it’s been a few days…I wonder if I had a sunburn on them? My hands I mean? Or if holding onto the safety line of the boat caused abrasion to occur? All I know is, my skin was kinda red and hurt and there’s definitely a scratch on my right hand that’s odd but maybe it’s just dried out and I needed lotion….) and the boat back was so much better. Less waves splashing us, easier ride. Then we’re back too quickly, cold but happy, a little damp, but we clean our boots and inside we’re greeted with a hot beverage of Ginger and Anise…tea? Infused water? Whatever you called it, that was the flavor, and the flavor was delicious.
I carried it back to my room with amazing focus because I still had all my gear to carry and now tea, and we are on a ship that even anchored is still swaying and I’m carrying my boots instead of wearing them, half wearing my regular shoes…Cricket had gotten back sooner than me and was coming down the stairs as I was heading up and at first I didn’t notice it was her, and she saw the *laser*.*focus*. I had going on so she didn’t say anything and by the time I realized I passed her I was like, “Can’t talk. Can’t. spill. Drink.” I had planned to take the drink to my room to enjoy by myself and then have a shower, but after getting out of the gear, I ended up being social and having the drink in the lounge with a few others. When I did make it back to shower, I ended up taking a nap before our recap and plan for tomorrow, the day of the eclipse. Which I still had to be woken up from during the latter half because my brain was still nap mode. Then dinner, where I got to sit with Dr. Richard Binzel and his wife Michelle, but Dr. Binzel was actually busy speaking with the captain of the boat for most of dinner! He is the Eclipse guy on board (and has the best French of the other Drs/Professors) so he and the Captain were planning for the eclipse – where to sail to for the best viewing. When he did join us for dinner….it wasn’t inspiring news. When the landings had been done for the day, we had started to leave Shingle Cove and head to the path of totality. Technically we were already in it, but we were going for longer totality, better weather….
Except there was no better weather. Not on the radar. Dr. Binzel was nervous about it, but he was going to be on the Bridge with the captain all night so there was nothing for us to do but see what the next day brought.
So, dinner over, I headed to bed. The eclipse was supposed to start at like, 3:18 am, so I was going to be up at 3. I was cutting it a bit close, but I prepped by charging all my cameras, getting my memory cards…
I was going to be ready when morning came. (That’s also why I skipped the blog.) So I slept.
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