ANTARCTICA....

MERRY CHRISTMAS AND HAPPY NEW YEARS….

First off I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas and I also hope you all have a great New Years.

As for me I just spent the last 3 days in Antarctica, which was by far the most amazing place I have ever seen. We arrived to the Antarctic Peninsula on Dec. 23 and spent till Christmas day cruising the archipelago. If you look on a map at South America the “arm” of Antarctica that extends from the main continent is the Antarctica Peninsula and that’s where we were. Ask yourself what you think of when you think of Antarctica. Do things like snow, ice, icebergs, penguins, cold, etc come to mind? Well it should, because that’s what it is, but more then that it is probably the most beautiful place I have ever visited. I hate to say it but it makes Alaska look like child’s play. There are many similarities between the two but also a lot of differences.

On our first day we encountered 30 degree weather encompassing fog, snow, and even some sun in the late afternoon and late evening. The thing about this time of year, which is the “summer”, is that it stays light out all day and night. The sun disappears around 9pm but there is constant light out. Pretty amazing and kind of weird if you have never seen this before. On this day we had scientists from the U.S. base camp Palmer Station come aboard and give some presentations to the passengers. While watching one of these I missed a mother Orca whale and her two babies playing outside the ship. I’m bummed I didn’t get to see them but there are pictures that I can get. Other wildlife we saw are many species of birds and of course everyone’s favorite, Penguins. Types that we encountered on this trip were Adele, Chinstrap, Macaroni and Gentoo penguins. Antarctica is home to most of the species that exist in the world today with some becoming close to extinction. Not being able to get to close the penguins looked like crushed pepper on a white table cloth, only they moved around and could swim. Also impressive was the scenery, including many islands consisting of snow and mountains and then some with snow just a couple feet over the water. Moving the ship through narrow channels is difficult for a couple reasons. One being all the drift ice coming up from the Wendell Sea, which has a huge sheet of pack ice. One these “Ice Bergs,” break off they will float for a long time. Of course they always win in a collision so the best way is to stay away from them. Sometimes they block opening to channels so the ice pilot and captain decide on other routes. The other reason is other smaller excursion ships that also are in the area. These are passenger ships or research vessels. They always have the right of way cause unlike our ship; they can make landings onto the land. The excursion vessels carry a smaller amount of passengers and take small rubber zodiac’s to get to land. The rest of this day we cruised around different areas and took in the extreme nature it has to offer.

On Christmas Eve we did the same thing cruising into different area to witness the wildlife and scenery. The great thing about today was that is was absolutely gorgeous out with 100% sun. Some clouds in the sky provided awesome pictures being in the backdrop of glaciers, mountains, and the water. The weather again was in the low 30’s. Making it colder was the wind sweeping over the ship. We cruised past some bases that are stationed in the area and saw some more vessels cruising around. As for the evening we had one of our production shows to do and then took part in the international choir for the passengers. This took place in the lounge and had a packed house. There were Indonesian, Filipino, and English speaking sections and turned out very nice. After this Kristen and I went to midnight mass, and then went to sleep because Christmas was fast approaching.

Christmas morning I woke to a phone call from Kristen telling me to get out on deck because there were thousands of penguins. We had arrived at Esperanza Island. I suited up in my many layers and snow jacket and then headed outside. To my surprise we were just off an island that was home to a penguin rookery. I’m not sure but I think the penguins were again Adele’s or Chinstraps. Again you could se their tiny bodies on the land, and also hear them. As small chunks of ice floated by some penguins were hulling themselves out and then jumped into the water as our huge ship went by. I was able to capture many pictures of groups of them swimming to shore. Every second they would jump out of the water and then dive under only to leave the water at an astonishing speed. We spent about an hour and a half here and then continued on to other islands. The main island we were heading too was Elephant Island, which was discovered in 1819 by British sailors who were blown off course while rounding Cape Horn. It got its name from the abundance of Elephant Seals that were on the island at one time. We were not going to get there till around 7pm, so as we were cruising we saw some of the most incredible icebergs I could have ever imagined seeing. Some of these we were told today were probably 2 and half square miles and measuring 70 to 110 feet tall. So, this means that it probably weighed around 400 MILLION TONS!!!! This is no joke and is pretty astonishing. Who says water is light. Some of them are so deep in the water they are standing on the bottom of the sea floor. To believe this you have to see them, which I will show because I got some pictures. : ) The crew then had a Christmas dinner in the Lido Dining Room and both Kristen and I had the Surf and Turf (filet and lobster tail), not to mention the three desserts I had just because. The rest of the night was a party as usual.

As of right now we are on a course to arrive into the Falkland Islands tomorrow morning. This island is also known for having a large number of penguin colonies. Unfortunately I have to stay onboard so I will not be able to explore this time. That is okay as we might not even stop at this island due to huge swells and the possibility of the weather changing so fast. This is typical of the area as is Antarctica.

I hope sometime everyone will get the chance to visit Antarctica. It truly is a gem of a place to go to, and only can be seen to be believed. Let me know if you have any questions about Antarctica. I would have written in more detail but this would have turned into a thesis paper. Hahahah However, I do not mind if you ask as many questions as you want. Our ship will be venturing back to Antarctica twice more this season so I will have a more things to report on in the near future. For now have a great New Years and write back when you can. Miss all of you sooooooo much.

Danny