February 1: Is This the Real Life?

Tabular iceberg

From February 1, 2020 (written on this date)

We woke up to tabular icebergs outside our window. And as I write this, I am enjoying a cup of tea while watching penguins swimming in the Antarctic Sound. As Queen so aptly put it: "Is this the real life? Is this just fantasy?" Somebody pinch me.

Morning Excursion: Brown Bluff
It was a very early start for all guests today, with breakfast starting at 6:45 AM in order to get everyone outside by 8:00 AM or so. The original plan for this morning was to do a shore landing onto Brown Bluff; however, floating ice [or "growlers"] along the coastline meant this would not be possible. What to do? We shifted slightly and experienced our first zodiac cruise of the trip, instead!

We were out there for about an hour and a half, drifting amongst icebergs, Adélie penguins… and humpback whales! It’s amazing to be out there, where it’s so quiet, and then suddenly to hear a BLOW in the distance. Based on the whale spotting done by all of us in our zodiac, we saw at least three different humpbacks in the space of 90 minutes. Crazy.

Captured some great photos and video on this excursion, including Adélies giving themselves a bath, panoramas of the iceburgs and bluff, and tail flukes of two of the humpbacks.

One of our first "humpie" sightings

Adélie bath time!

A Note About Clothing
I’ve very quickly learned that it’s best to overdress. On the shore landings we did yesterday, especially when walking around and navigating over rocky terrain, I was definitely too warm. But as soon as we got going on the zodiac, I was the right temperature. For today, since we were just on the zodiacs and not on land at all, I dressed as I did yesterday and was slightly cold, but only towards the end of the trip.

When I was getting ready for this trip, I was worried about over packing - but I’m definitely over that, now.

Speaking of which, I learned yesterday that a checked bag belonging to an older gentleman on this ship did not arrive at all, so he was forced to restock all of his warm clothing from the shop on the boat, which has a very limited selection. Unlike when travelling to a city, for example, it’s not like the airline can get his bag to him while we’re in the middle of the Antarctic Sound, right? Can’t help but feel so bad for him.

Note: this is why I always prefer to carry on, whenever possible. Even for our charter flight from Buenos Aires to Ushuaia, I made sure to pack at least one warm outfit for the excursions, just in case my checked bag went missing. Some folks may think this is overkill, but I don’t see anything wrong with having a little bit of paranoia and/or lack of trust in baggage handlers. Case in point.

Afternoon Excursion: Paulet Island
This was a dual excursion, with half the guests zodiac cruising and the other half landing at Paulet Island, and then both switching after a period of time to do the other.

Saw Weddell Seals, and one of the biggest Adélie penguin colonies in Antarctica - approximately 400,000 adults and chicks all in one place! Chicks were chasing their parents for food, parents were trying to run away from their pestering chicks, and all the while it smelled so bad (ha ha) and it was amazing to be walking amongst all the penguins, and seeing them hanging out on icebergs.

Think we interrupted this guy's afternoon nap

So many Adélies!

The only concern was that the penguins seemed pretty comfortable amongst all the humans. At the bar talk later in the evening, a researcher from Dartmouth College in the United States talked about his time researching at McMurdo Station, mentioning that the Adélies there - a place much less visited by humans - were very skittish around people. Makes one wonder if surges in tourism have habituated these penguins to humans, and whether that should be okay.

Speaking of this, there are researchers on the boat from Monash University in Australia who are working on developing a sustainability and long-time conservation plan for tourism in Antarctica.

Adélie penguins and chicks as far as the eye can see...
and nose can smell

Every day is a bad hair day when you're moulting

Ocean Endeavour from Paulet Island

Random Tourism Facts
There have been so many presentations and things to learn on excursions and from the guides, that it’s been very hard to keep track of it all! Here are some random other facts specifically about tourism that we’ve picked up along the way.

• Antarctic tourism operators are all part of a group called IAATO, to ensure sustainability of the region amidst increasing accessibility and interest in visitors to Antarctica.
• Landing sites are restricted to two ships visiting per day. For example, if other ships had already “booked” a landing on Paulet Island yesterday before us, we would not have been able to - which would have been a real shame, but understandable, given efforts to minimize human interaction with the wildlife and the environment, in general.

Penguin traffic, Paulet Island