I cut yesterday a little short because I wanted to be able to just enjoy the evening without having to rush upstairs to do my blogging, but I feel that it was so amazing that I have to do a little recap first before I get into today’s adventures. We had a fabulous dinner of lobster tail appetizer followed by a traditional turkey dinner and champagne for Nichole’s birthday. It was a great dinner filled with good company and lots of laughs! That has definitely been a theme of this trip; laughter! I am so lucky to be travelling with people who like to laugh and have probably been in tears at least a half dozen times each day. The night only got better as we shifted to the lounge where the “spice boys” serenaded us with a variety of karaoke type songs and all the guests had a great time dancing. Fortunately the ship was anchored otherwise things could have gotten verrrry interesting.
This morning we woke up in Neko harbor (one of the places that a glacier cam was set up by James Ballog) and I spent about half an hour in the quiet of the bow of the ship, taking in all of the glaciers and enjoying the near silence. Taking a moment to reflect in this land of ice and sea was the perfect way to start the day.
I think it’s been the experience of many guests on board the ship that it seems like each day is the best and you don’t know how they could possibly top it. And then the next day comes and they find a way. Well today held true to form and was by far my “highlight moment” for the trip. Alberto, the undersea dive specialist found me and said that he was going out in a zodiac with the ROV (remotely operated vehicle) if I wanted to join him. Of course I couldn’t pass up that chance and I strapped a go pro to my chest and headed towards the dive locker. The zodiac is outfitted with a metal enclosed structure in which all of the computer equipment has to be loaded. We quickly loaded up the equipment and were ready to head off in search of a good place to launch the ROV. It can dive to about 1000ft, but it was recommended that we don’t go below ~800ft in case of complications.
Shortly after we launched the ROV we had an unexpected (well sort of expected) visitor; a Minke Whale decided to come and investigate our boat!!!! He literally swam so close that I could probably stick my hand out and touch him! And he didn’t just do it once! For a couple of minutes he just kept circulating each time coming around for a look at us and putting on a show. Needless to say it was awesome!
This morning we woke up in Neko harbor (one of the places that a glacier cam was set up by James Ballog) and I spent about half an hour in the quiet of the bow of the ship, taking in all of the glaciers and enjoying the near silence. Taking a moment to reflect in this land of ice and sea was the perfect way to start the day.
I think it’s been the experience of many guests on board the ship that it seems like each day is the best and you don’t know how they could possibly top it. And then the next day comes and they find a way. Well today held true to form and was by far my “highlight moment” for the trip. Alberto, the undersea dive specialist found me and said that he was going out in a zodiac with the ROV (remotely operated vehicle) if I wanted to join him. Of course I couldn’t pass up that chance and I strapped a go pro to my chest and headed towards the dive locker. The zodiac is outfitted with a metal enclosed structure in which all of the computer equipment has to be loaded. We quickly loaded up the equipment and were ready to head off in search of a good place to launch the ROV. It can dive to about 1000ft, but it was recommended that we don’t go below ~800ft in case of complications.
Shortly after we launched the ROV we had an unexpected (well sort of expected) visitor; a Minke Whale decided to come and investigate our boat!!!! He literally swam so close that I could probably stick my hand out and touch him! And he didn’t just do it once! For a couple of minutes he just kept circulating each time coming around for a look at us and putting on a show. Needless to say it was awesome!
After he had moved on, we also chose to move to a site with a little shallower waters, and started the decent once again. I got to sit in the “cabin” holding joystick that controls the thrusters down, while Alberto and the zodiac pilot unwound the cable attached to the ROV. We hit bottom at 79m (but eventually made it down to 81m) and got our first view of the bottom. Right away we could see sea stars, brittle stars, sea anemones, sponges, tunicates, sea cucumbers and sun stars. I couldn’t help but think of my students in Canada and I can’t wait for them to see the footage as it’s everything that we’ve been talking about for the last couple of months! The best part was that Alberto was letting me drive the ROV! It was by far the best video game I’ve ever played. My first attempt at controlling it wasn’t so great as I had to learn how to fine tune the movements. Once I learned that I only needed to move the joystick a small amount, my attempt at getting useable footage was much more successful. It’s no surprise that the best footage came from Alberto, but I certainly collected some useable stuff. It was fascinating to see all of the organisms (we also saw shrimp and fish) as well as the color changes that occurred as you moved up through the water column; from inky black near the bottom, to a green created by plankton where light could penetrate and eventually icy blue as we neared the top.
When we got back to the ship we loaded the footage from both the ROV and the go-pro onto the screen and found that we actually had some useable stuff. I hung out with Alberto for a while to watch the process but didn’t get to see the finished product until a little bit later and it was FABULOUS! Definitely something I’m going to be able to use in my classroom and will post once I have reliable Internet. Alberto may even use it for future expedition to teach people the basic idea of the ROV. Tonight at the daily recap he presented it to everyone on board and people seemed to really enjoy it! Obviously I was pleased!
This afternoon was a landing at Dorian Bay, the site of the landing strip for Port Lockroy. In addition to the penguin rookery (they are everywhere in Antarctica, you see bare rock and there will be a penguin rookery) there was also a couple of huts. Both the British one that had been used to wait for airplanes when weather was bad and the Argentinian one were stocked, and the British one could be toured.
This afternoon felt like the Antarctica that I had imagined. There was wind and driving snow and visibility was way down. I was very appreciative of our faux fur collars! While standing and watching the penguins, I had an opportunity to talk to Stephanie (assistant expedition leader) about the effects of climate change on penguin populations and one particular point she made stands out in my memory as I write this. Antarctica is a cold dessert and therefor the precipitation levels are typically very low. As the climate changes there are seeing more days like today where there is precipitation in the form of snow. Baby penguins start their life with a downy layer of feathers to help keep them warm. However much like down sleeping bags, as soon as they are wet the feathers loose their ability to retain heat. She says that as summer goes on, if there are many more days like today that the mortality rate for the babies will be quite high.
This afternoon was a landing at Dorian Bay, the site of the landing strip for Port Lockroy. In addition to the penguin rookery (they are everywhere in Antarctica, you see bare rock and there will be a penguin rookery) there was also a couple of huts. Both the British one that had been used to wait for airplanes when weather was bad and the Argentinian one were stocked, and the British one could be toured.
This afternoon felt like the Antarctica that I had imagined. There was wind and driving snow and visibility was way down. I was very appreciative of our faux fur collars! While standing and watching the penguins, I had an opportunity to talk to Stephanie (assistant expedition leader) about the effects of climate change on penguin populations and one particular point she made stands out in my memory as I write this. Antarctica is a cold dessert and therefor the precipitation levels are typically very low. As the climate changes there are seeing more days like today where there is precipitation in the form of snow. Baby penguins start their life with a downy layer of feathers to help keep them warm. However much like down sleeping bags, as soon as they are wet the feathers loose their ability to retain heat. She says that as summer goes on, if there are many more days like today that the mortality rate for the babies will be quite high.
After a dinner once again full of laughter we have retired to the lounge and are now watching South 80, a film made from the footage that Frank Hurley took during the time that that the Shakelton expedition was marooned, first in the Weddell sea and then on Elephant Island. The fact that all the men, let alone the video footage survived is an absolute miracle.
Happy Boxing day everyone!
Happy Boxing day everyone!