Day 16: Antarctica

Day 16: Antarctica

Weather: Early it is overcast and cold, mid-morning the clouds clear and it bright sunshine and very cold on deck

Quote of The Day:  Where are we?

The last two hours of sleep were spent trying to keep from rolling out of bed due to non-stop jolts and jerks.  When THB got up, it didn’t take much time for him to lose track of a glass on the bathroom counter and off it went, broken into smaller pieces.

THB must be feeling better, he eats pancakes with yogurt and berries and two rashers of bacon.

Mid-morning we are at Elephant Island at a spot called Point Wild. Shackelton camped out for four months here and there is a monument to him. The glacier is gorgeous, blue ice at the base, and a smattering of penguins that we can’t quite get close enough to identify.

Pics from the morning:

Cape petrel

Elephant Island, Point Wild

Penguins

Shackleton Monument

THB has no idea what they are pointing at

Fin whale spume

Fin whales next to HebSky

Lunch on the deck: brrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr

After lunch, there’s a long break, a lecture on sea ice, and then the HebSky nestles up to a massive tabular iceberg, 22 x 8 nautical miles x 90 feet high. That’s huge…really big…larger than Godzilla on roids. For those of you confused about what a nautical mile is in order to calculate the amount of fresh water in this puppy (and add in a factor for the 7/8 underwater): first you need to be able to convert Celsius to Fahrenheit, secondly you need to be able to convert an imperial gallon to liters and then US gallons, quarts, pints and ounces, and finally you need to have a certificate from an accredited on-line course in plate tectonics.

To help you solve this equation, here are some pictures taken from the bridge:

Sea ice in front of iceberg?

Book Review: Into a Raging Sea; Thirty Three Mariners, One Megastorm, and the Sinking of El Faro, Rachel Slade: THB saved this book to read during our Antarctic cruise. Maybe not an inspired idea as now THB swears the HebSky is headed for the great blue deep every time there’s the slightest bump or swell above 2 feet. THB has compensated, trading a good night’s sleep by wearing a minimum of two (sometimes 3) lifejackets at all times. It’s a bit awkward, especially since every other passenger has a camera (or 2, some have 3) and wants to take THB’s pic over and over again. And the guys in the bridge are more than a bit perturbed. The captain went down with ship; the other 32 mariners didn’t deserve his or her fate. Recommended