Sam's Christmas

It's Boxing Day and I've been slack on the blog posts, taking the easy route with FB posts while the WiFi works - which has surprisingly been pretty much always, so far. I'm in my toasty bed watching a lecture that's being broadcast to my room, as we cruise through the Antarctic Sound and I struggle to close my eyes for an afternoon kip because of the parade of spectacular icebergs and the general landscape passing my window.

But I should catch up those of you who take the time to read this blog (my thanks added to Linda's), on my Christmas and Boxing days, because they've been outstanding. I'm going to go backwards, because, well, today I went snorkelling 😊. 

So we arrive in the Weddel Sea early in the morning, following sailing through the Antarctic Sound which is a feast for the eyes and makes it difficult for us to go to bed early. Mario, our expedition leader, tells us not all of the expeditions make it here because it can be quite unpredictable. The crew get excited if they make it to our destined landing site once in a season. Yay for us!! 

Our outing starts with a landing at Devil's Island, which is spectacular (sorry, I know I'm using that word a lot!) - full of relatively small icebergs of a wide variety of shapes and hues; and host to a substantial Adelie penguin colony. Our landing footprint is about 50sqm if that, because we're surrounded by the penguins and there's rules about proximity. They do get a bit close on occasion but it's our job to move out of the way if it's safe to do so. They get a little bit frantic when it looks like they're boxed in, which appears quite comical but no doubt is very stressful for them. Pics below courtesy of South Georgia Snork Adrian.

Because of the limited space we're doing short landings of 10-15 minutes so everyone gets a chance to spend some time with the penguins without overwhelming them. It's an absolutely delightful experience. We watch as they waddle around in what seems to be organised chaos, getting involved in a range of activities. A group will huddle at the shoreline, and the chatter increases as they ready themselves to enter the water. I imagine them to be saying 'it's too cold, I'm not going first, you go'.

I feel like this might even be validated when one makes the sacrifice, and the rest start piling in and then, halfway through, a bunch of them come running back out - no way! It's far too cold in there!!

[Insert delightful video here when we work out how to]

Those who stay in swim off and we enjoy some penguin porpoising all about the place, and some fun attempts to launch onto icebergs. The other noteworthy collective reaction is whenever an iceberg carves some ice, which is quite noisy. All the penguins get into a flap and run up the beach together in the opposite direction from the noise - some look at us as though they suspect we are the cause of this fearsome disruption. When our time is up we cruise around the bay in the Zodiac for a while, weaving through and admiring the ice, and occasionally killing the engine to let some penguins swim by. 

 

We arrive at our destination and finish the last ditch kitting up. I'm a little smug as I turn on my heated vest 😏. I'm very happy with the investment - I'm wearing ultra thick thermals, the vest, a fleece, a puffer jacket, ski pants, 2 pairs of thick woollen socks and my dry suit. I'm very comfortable from my wrists to my feet. My face is frozen below my mask, my lips in particular. We occasionally pop our heads out to talk to each other and I feel like I've been to the dentist - my lips feel swollen and numb. I have a few moments of brain freeze throughout the snorkel - but the worst thing for me is my fingers. They hurt they're so cold, and unlike my face they won't go numb. Our snorkel guide Ana gives us tips for tomorrow about pouring warm water into the gloves before we put them on, to warm them up. Noted.

The tide goes out surprisingly quickly so its shallower than expected, but as its a checkout snorkel it's fine and we doodle about inspecting krill shooting about, studying the kelp and molluscs, and I spend quite a bit of time studying the main find of the day - a submerged penguin carcass. It's head, flippers and feet are intact and it's body is flayed but still has most of its mass including some organs. We all agree - well ok, some of us agree, after the snorkel that it was the highlight, and an unexpected opportunity for a closer look at a penguin. 

It's quite the exercise getting out of all that gear and by the end my fingers are still frozen and my feet are cold too. I grab a hot coffee and sit in my bathroom with my feet on the heated floor and my hands wrapped around my coffee mug before I have a hot shower and spend the afternoon watching the icebergs pass by my window. Tomorrow we snorkel on the other side of the peninsula. I can't wait to see what that brings.