Our first excursion of the day – a zodiac ride around a glacier (the name of which I can never catch – pronunciation!) – has been canceled due to weather. It’s raining, windy and too choppy for the zodiacs. We’re in a 2 day bad weather system. Bummer! I’m taking my Dramamine now, thank you!
The expedition crew has planned for it though – making the most of everything we could when we could. Now, today we can take a little breather and as they say “nap”! Yeah – with this scenery? I don’t think so. We can hang out in our balcony and watch all the scenery – the Captain takes the ship into the bay and then slowly turns around so we see the entire glacier from the comfort – and relatively dry – cabin balcony. There is a trip recap briefing at 10 – then we just hang out – reading and blogging in the main lounge.
A little after noon, we hear the tell tale zodiac sounds. Are we going out? Ed explores, and sure enough, Niko comes on to announce that our tentative plans are to try to make a landing here, at a little island in a pretty bay with a huge glacier behind it. Niko is going to scout at 1:00 and let us know if we can start at 2:00.
We’re off! After a very nice and filling Italian buffet lunch, we are ready to brave the elements and visit Bombay island to see the penguins (of course!) and the Weddell seals, plus whale bones and the skeleton of a ship used to supply the whalers when they were in the bay. We queue up and head out with the first groups. The sky was a little blue – but now the clouds are gathering again. Oh well – we know there’s bad weather – just a matter of if we can avoid it long enough to visit here.
The zodiac ride isn’t that bad – it’s not as cold as we had thought. We have to go a long way around to get to the landing area as there is a huge reef directly between us and the beach – similar to Bermuda. As we are getting off the zodiac, we here a huge crack and sliding sound – Louie – the naturalist helping us out of the zodiac – urgently says “out, out, out now”. Ed plunges into the water – above the knee, filling his boots. I manage to avoid that – but just barely – scooching as far as I could on the zodiac before hitting the water. It was an avalanche right off the bay – and they were afraid of a wave from it. That was cool/scary/exciting/ frightening all at once! No wave materialized – thankfully – but better safe then sorry – that’s for sure.
On the island – we watch a seal wiggle its way across the snow and rocks to the water – videos to be posted later! There are 5 or 6 seals around – all just laying there on the snow in different states of repose. They are resting or sleeping before heading back out into the sea to eat and swim. They spend only a very small portion of their time out of the water – we were lucky to see so many.
After the seal had crossed and hit the water, we followed Rafael around to see the whale bones left on the beach next to the skeleton of the ship. The bones are massive – the jaw bone (and it wasn’t even a whole one) was just immense. There were vertebrae and rib bones all piled in the snow. They are probably from more than one whale, just all dumped together as waste once the whalers were done processing them.
Soon we walk up the hill to see the penguins. The wind is really picking up and it is viciously cold. Niko is at the top with one rookery – we take a few pix – then head to the other side of the little island to see the hut and the other penguins. They are as cute as ever, wandering around, along their little paths, fighting over their nests or something, talking away. Ed walks another penguin – they seem to like him – and I just wander about taking pix of the cute little things!
It’s definitely a slog out here. Even though there have been people around before us – the snow isn’t hard packed everywhere and you definitely need to be careful. We’re sinking in the snow quite frequently, making the walking, and climbing up the hill a little challenging. Plus the wind – it’s gusty to lord knows how many knots – and it will knock you right over. Holding the camera still for pictures is a challenge! We decide it’s time to head back as the wind picks up, and the clouds get denser and darker.
We end up just missing a zodiac and wait for 5 long minutes – made longer by the wind that’s now gusting down here by the beach. Finally, Simon arrives to take us back to the ship. It’s a long cold, windy ride, but he does his best to keep us out of the water as much as possible. I’m only hit with a couple of random sprays today – not so bad!
We get back safe and sound, but honestly? Looking at the wind and the weather? If we weren’t already out there – we’d never have gone now – and there are people still boarding the zodiacs! Glad to be back in the warmth and security of the ship – even if we do have sail into this nastiness tonight. Dramamine regiment has already started.
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