2017 Patagonia - Antarctica Part 6: Gonzalez Videla & Port Lockroy

SATURDAY February 11, 2017

Gonzalez Videla & Port Lockroy

We started this morning at the Chilean Gonzalez Videla research station in beautiful Paradise Bay. It seems the icebergs get more immense and astonishing every day. Many today were so large that they were grounded on the bottom of the bay. 

 

 

The research station was built in the 1930s and is manned December-March by nine Chilean navy and air force men. It includes a small museum where they sell a few(expensive) souvenirs, a housing building with up to date conveniences including internet, modern kitchen and a flat screen tv, and some outbuildings. It is a marked improvement from the 1990s preserved British hut we saw at Demoy Point two days ago.

Argentina, Chile and Great Britain all have claims on the Antarctic Peninsula going back several decades. Although the treaty governs the continent for now, they are all careful to maintain a presence here.

 

 

 

The penguins were everywhere. And so were their feathers and other bits. We saw lots of coexisting Snowy Sheathbills, (also known as snowy shitbills, as they eat penguin poop) but obviously there weren't enough of them to keep up with the penguins output. Our boots and rain pants were such a mess that they hosed us off on the tender loading platform before we could even approach the boot disinfecting equipment.

I'm not even beginning to be tired of watching penguins yet, but despite our best efforts to keep things clean, our stateroom has a acquired a faint essence of eau de guano.

Snowy Sheathbills, slacking at their jobs.

 

It can be quite balmy in Antarctica this time of year. 

 

More fantastical scenic photos from our afternoon cruise in the tenders.

MS Midnatsol visible through the gap in the iceberg

 

 

Flat on its back, crab eater seal catching some rays.

 

Grinch

 

In the afternoon, we cruised to Port Lockroy, a British research station, where we picked up some visitors who gave a presentation on the UK Antarctic Heritage Trust and their research station. They also, at the request of Greg and Charley, brought a special yellow box aboard. It was Greg's 5000th geocache! We'd better start brainstorming now to find someplace even more unique for his 10,000th.

 

Port Lockroy has the southernmost post office in the world, so we mailed some postcards from there. As winds were low and visibility good, making it safer to negotiate around ice, we spent the remaining daylight hours cruising through scenic channels. Weather determines everything here.

 

2017 Patagonia - Antarctica Part 5: Neko Harbor

FRIDAY February 10

NEKO HARBOR

Our arrival in Neko Harbor this morning was a little delayed. Last night there were winds of 55-63 mph (10 on the Beaufort scale, and considered a storm) and as there is a lot of ice here this time of year, the captain took the ship to Andvord Bay where we could safely stay overnight. We were oblivious to the whole thing, but had it occurred while on the Drake Passage, we would have been miserable. This morning the winds had subsided to mere gale force (8 on the Beaufort scale), and they weren't sure if they would attempt the landings. Things improved quickly, though, and they were able to run all the activities despite a very fine drizzle. We are spending tonight in Paradise Bay, and the sea is like glass. Go figure.

The Neko Harbor landing site is a small tongue of stone surrounded by glacier-covered mountains. Unlike our previous two landings, it's on the continent itself so now the visit is official. 

At our briefing yesterday, we were instructed to move higher up the beach as soon as we were off the tenders. A few years ago, the adjacent glacier calved and within a minute, a 6 foot tsunami washed up on the beach and took all the landing equipment. They didn't address if anyone was hurt, but we were sufficiently intimidated so that no one dawdled.

 

Landing site is 1/3 in from the right.

 

The penguins are really good at locating their rookeries in safe places, so we hiked up the hill to check them out.  As usual, the penguins got the best route.

 

Penguin highways in the center. Clumsy humanoids on the right.

 

A close-up of the glacier of concern. We were hoping to witness the birth of an iceberg. Not today!

 

 

The Gentoos are very vocal, and there's a constant chatter of parents braying for their young, chicks chirping for their parents, and random sounds like a loud cat's purr...or a Wookie. They are so entertaining! I hope I can upload the videos to this blog after we get home. 

 

Many of the chicks were congregated near the water. One of our naturalists explained that they were taking their first dips in the sea. As social animals that instinctively find safety in numbers, a few of them would approach the water together and wait for one to get brave enough to go first. The others would follow immediately. They quickly got the hang of it and started throwing themselves into the air as they torpedoed around. It must be amazing and liberating for them to discover that they aren't so awkward after all. So cute!

 

 

Some fluffy chicks still have to molt into their big-boy feathers before they can join the fun.

 

The penguins carefully build their nests of stones and twigs, which gradually get flattened and scattered after the chicks hatch. We saw a couple of intact nests which had eggs under the brooding parents. The parents are young and arrived after the other penguins were no longer incubating, so they didn't learn by observation that their egg had to be turned regularly in order for the embryo to develop. 

 

 

 

Part of that massive glacier again..

 

After we left Neko Harbor, the ship did some scenic cruising through Errera Channel. The icebergs this far south are complex, large and beautiful. Many of them must be close to 100 feet high, as they are at or above eye level when we're on the top deck. 

 

 

There was a group of crabeater seals playing around the base of one. I showed the photo to one of the expedition team to find out what they were. Our boat group is crabeater seal, so at least now we know they are a real critter.

 

 

2017 Patagonia - Antarctica Part 4: Damoy Point

THURSDAY February 9

DAMOY POINT

This morning found us still further south, at Damoy Point on Wiencke Island. We weren't scheduled for anything until 11 so we were going to sleep in this morning, but I woke up at 6 and peeked out the curtain to see we were in a narrow channel with glaciers as far as I could see. I threw on some jeans, a jacket and sandals and headed outside to take photos. (Yes, sandals were not the best choice, but they were accessible and easy to put on in the dark.) Neumeyer Channel was like the Antarctica I'd expected, though all day today we've been seeing big icebergs and steep mountains with icefields running down to the water.  Behind the mountains were even bigger mountains, with their tops catching the sunlight. Eventually my toes cried, "Enough!", and I headed back to bed.

 

 

 

We reached Damoy Point around 8 and had a leisurely morning until our boat number was called for cruising.

 

We cruised around huge icebergs and parallel to the glacier face. No luck with witnessing calving, but it was still an adventure seeing the walls up close.  Greg said my lips were going to get chapped on the inside if I didn't stop smiling all the time. I guess it shows that I love being here. There is so much to take in and we're so removed from our usual environment.

 

 

 

 MS Midnatsol in the background.

 

We could also see where others from our ship were trekking and the tell-tale pink snow of a penguin rookery.  (All that krill has to end up somewhere!)

 

After a quick lunch on board, it was time to tender over to the landing site to do our own exploring.  Gentoo penguins and their archenemies, skuas, are the main summer residents here. Some of the nesting sites are a good distance from the sea, but the little Gentoos have tramped down their pathways and busily go about their business.

Penguin highway, with rookery atop the hill.

 

We walked across the point to see the Argentine supply hut (off limits to us) and the British transit hut. The transit hut was built in 1975 at a rendezvous point where men and supplies could be delivered by aircraft, then transferred by boat to the British Antarctic Survey's bases at the southern end off the Antarctic Peninsula. By 1994, direct flights could be made to the Survey's bases from the Falklands and the transit hut was no longer needed. It was subsequently turned into a kind of museum so visitors could see how the men lived back in the day.

 

 

Argentine supply hut, and the sailboat of someone who must have taken a huge wrong turn when they left Tahiti.

 

We hiked up the hill behind the huts until I sat down to take a picture of a pair of skuas standing on the snow. The birds promptly flew over to me. I was a little nervous as they can be aggressive and attack people if they feel threatened. But they were far more interested in my walking pole than in me. One kept trying to fly away with it, though I don't think it would have worked well in a nest. Charley suggested they could use it to break penguin eggs, one of their dietary staples. Whatever their motivation, it was an interesting close encounter.

 

 

 

 

 

Halfway up (or down) the hill.

 

Kathy, Charley & Greg

 

Meanwhile, back at the rookeries, the Gentoos continued being cute. 

 

There were lots of chicks bugging their parents for food. The adults would try to get away from the incessant poking and pecking, eventually running down the rocks while the dejected chicks, unable to keep up, hung their heads and turned back. But this mama came back and did feed its poor, malnourished baby.

 

2017 Patagonia - Antarctica: Penguin Poll

Pick your favorite and note it in the comments section:

King

 

Gentoo

Gentoo mama and chick

 

Chinstrap

 

Magellanic 

 

Cavorting Gentoo

 

Vote early and often, More species will be added if we see them. 🐧