Silver Explorer Journal

Silversea's journal of our cruise has been posted on their website.  See it link.

Update

Just to let you all know, I'm on the wait list for an Arctic cruise in 2014 on the same ship.  This time, no portholes.  More amazing animals and beautiful scenery.  Lucky for me I have all the clothes I need.  Just need to get better gloves and glove liners!

Friday, January 27, 2012 34* 6:00am

This has been a day of emotions, of good and bad lasts and of DRAMATIC vistas.

entering the caldera of Deception Island

When Robin, our illustrious leader woke us with his morning wake up call, I felt like I’d been hit with a sledge hammer.  Getting up so many mornings in a row and pushing ourselves to see and experience everything they had to offer us has been somewhat taxing.   Just like we’ve done the past mornings, I automatically rolled out of bed, threw on clothes and got myself up to deck 6 to see what newness Antarctica had to offer me today. 

At 6:30 our ship entered the caldera of Deception Island (sounds like a Survivor season) through the narrow 754 feet wide Neptune’s Bellows.  Our scenery here was so different from any other views we’ve had on this trip.  Deception Island erupted last in 1969.  After entering the center everything was black and white.  Black for all the volcanic pebbles and white from the snow.  Because of the protected bay, this area has been used as research centers by many countries.

On cruises, this island is famous for its Polar Plunge.  Passengers are told that here they can wear their bathing suit under their clothes and at the end of a long trek up the side of the volcano, can return, strip down to their bathing suits and run into the water, take a dip and run out and hop on the zodiac to return to the ship. In the past, expedition teams have been able to dig out and area, like a pool where hot spring waters come up and it makes it much easier for the CRAZY people to dip in the hot springs then towel off and return to the ship.  With the IAATO rules, digging the pool is not permitted anymore.  Even though I only road over on the zodiac, stayed about 30 minutes and returned to the ship, a few of our group took on the challenge.  One in our group, a 14 year old young man, was the first plunger.  His grandfather was there to take the evidential video of it.  Everyone who did the plunge commented that when the water hit their chests it felt like a sharp object in their hearts and the skin began to sting when they got out.  Someone actually had a heart attract in the past couple of weeks here.  You may be happy to hear that I was not one of the plungers!  

After everyone was back on board, the Silver Explorer left the bay to visit another spot on the outside of the island.  Only once a year, we were told, the water is calm enough to visit the largest chinstrp penguin colony in the world at Bailey Head.  With over 130,00 chinstrap pairs, we were able to walk around avoiding the Penguin Highway to watch the daily lives of this cute little birds.  The massive groupings of birds and seeing just how high they do nest on the hills and mountains was just amazing.  The higher the nest the better chance the eggs are to hatch and the chicks are to survive as wetness from snow can hinder the chick from survival.

Clean chested and chubby ready to feed its chick

The Penguin Highway was so fascinating to watch.  Huge numbers of penguins must daily make the trek from their nests, go down to the water’s edge and jump in to fill up with krill, then return to their nests and feed their chicks.  There were lines and lines of penguins, some with clean chests and some very dirty walking back and forth from the water.  Those clean chested ones were returning home filled with krill after getting cleaned in the waters while eating.  The dirty chested ones were on their way to the water ready to do their job to keep their chicks alive.  Seeing those long lines of chicks going in and chicks going out was just amazing.

As I got my life preserver on for the last time and got into the zodiac for the last time and sailed back to the ship, I got teared up thinking no more Antarctica, no more beauty like this, no more cute penguins…..no more.  Those were some of my bad no mores.  My good no mores include: no more long underwear, no more crowded boot room, no more scrapping boots, no more heavy parkas, no more feeling like a huge red butterball.  But definitely the bad no mores outweigh the good no mores.  (I know it sounds backwards, but it made sense to me at the time.)

All of us on this Silver Explorer adventure have said, there is no way possible we can go back home and describe to our friends exactly what we saw and did.  This has truly been my trip of a lifetime, nothing else can ever again surpass these 15 days.  You all know me well enough to know I will continue to travel and I will see amazing wonderful things and go to fabulous places, but Antarctica will stand out as the truly most phenomenal, fantastic, amazing place in the word.  What we saw and did can never be replaced.  With our great weather, our amazing Expedition Team, our fearless captain and outstanding staff of the Silver Explorer, the wonderful locations we experienced, made this the epitome of Antarctic cruises.  

As we enter the Drake Passage for our two day ride back to Ushuaia, maybe more thoughts will come to me.  When any of you asked about this trip, I may have a misty, smiling faraway look on my face, but right now I am crying like a baby…. So happy and so sad.

Thursday, January 26, 2012

The Antarctic Peninsula - day 2

Majestic Cape Renard at the mouth of the Le Maire Channel

This day should be told backwards because the ending was just as remarkable as the beginning and the middle.  There is no way words can describe this day.  As we sailed in the Le Maire Channel (C, they call it The Kodak Channel.) the first word that popped in my head was MAJESTIC.  The exquisite snow-covered mountains rose out of the water on both sides of the ship.  We were going through a narrow passage.  Breathtakingly beautiful almost describes what we saw.  As we ended the channel, the water was hardening around the ice and we saw an iceberg with maybe six crabeater seals.  We stopped and looked at them for awhile as they posed and flipped for us.  A large group of gentoo penguins porpoised through the water heading for safe ground.  There must have been 25 in the group all together, so there may have been a predator near by.  One lone gentoo was behind the pace.  Hope it made it safely to the group.  Then we turned around and headed toward Hidden Bay.

Our group was out second this morning and we had Shoshanah as our zodiac driver.  We just love her because she is game for almost anything.  Breydan was our guide and pointed the way we should go.  Our zodiac found the first group of crabeaters this morning resting on a big iceberg.  We watched them for awhile then went closer to land and shallow water.  There we saw another crabeater swimming through the water.  Being so shallow, we could get a really good look at it.  After we round around the area looking at different icebergs, how they tilt and show there former waterline and admire the gorgeous blue color underneath.

crabeater  seal in Neck Harbour

After lunch we were first out for our ride around Neko Harbour.  All the mountains were covered with a thick layer of snow and many on the clouds rested on the mountains so you couldn’t see the tops.  When I returned to the ship, I told Betty they looked like huge wedding cakes with white cotton candy on top.  We had a lovely ride around the harbor, but only saw one penguin and one crabeater seal.  There were many icebergs and one had a hole in it so we could see the zodiac on the other side.  Lots of picture taking…..  Near the end of our ride, Peter, our driver, asked our indulgence to sit perfectly still, with no picture taking and hat removal or putting on.  We sat for over 2 minutes and took in the wonders of the place.  It was still calm with the blue, blue water, the icebergs and the snowy mountains.  Peter told us Antarctica isn’t the Silver Explorer or the food or the staff and crew or the other passengers.  This was Antarctica.  This is what we had come for.  It was truly a special moment that meant a lot to all of us.  I know I loved it and had a smile on my face.

Gentoo family

Our last stop of the day has  a spot by a glacier with a large gentoo colony.  This was the place to take a slide down the hillside.  I thought this would be a lot  of fun and was game.  We had a nice walk around the colony where this time the chicks were a lot younger than we had seen on South Georgia and there were two chicks in each nest.  Mom or Dad had two mouths to feed, but usually only one makes it, especially this late in the season.  We continued our trudge up the hill as we say the slope areas where people had down the slide down to the bottom, from the baby slope to the much more advanced ones.  I continued up the mountain determined to at least take the baby slope.  Did I tell you that earlier in the day when the work Majestic popped in my head that the Arrowsmith song, I Don’t Want To Miss A Thing had also popped in my head? 

Well, as I climbed higher and higher, my feet kept going deeper in the snow and I was losing my footing a lot.  Finally I got to the point that I knew I wasn’t going to be able to make it to the top.  I had done what I could do and today just wasn’t the day I was going to take that slide.  I wasn’t disappointed because I don’t hike up tall mountains in the snow at home. What made me think I could do it in Antarctica?  I turned around and started back down the hill, with other friends close by.  It was a good climb and I had a magnificent view of Neko Harbour, calving glaciers, rolling icebergs and the Silver Explorer in the beautiful blue water.  That was pretty darn special for me.

Now for the end…..  After a delightful dinner with Betty, Linda and Chris, Robin, our fearless leader, announces that we had humpbacks and orcas on the bow and come  forward to view this.  Well, about half the dining room got up and almost ran to the bridge and forward on the ship.  This was one of the best shows we’ve had.  Three humpbacks and two orcas performed the most marvelous show for us.  Humping, tails up and even one very special breaching.  All the camera were on fast speed and we could hear all those shutters opening and closing at fast speed,  On the port side, at 12:00 then on starboard.  All this going on with those snow covered mountains all around.  I can write all this but never give justice to the spectacular images I have burned in my brain.  So I will leave you here for today…..

Wednesday, January 26, 2012

Brown Bluff, Antarctica 5:30am 31* and glorious sunshine

<This entry was written four days after the fact.>

This is it, this is the day most of us have been waiting for since we booked this cruise.  Stepping foot on the Antarctic continent…..  Some people came just want to check it off a list.  That is not why I came.  I am here to experience Antarctica, not just say, “Been here, done that.”

A glorious sunrise on Antarctica

At 3:30am, my inner alarm clock woke me up.  Robin, our Expedition Leader, told us the night before that 3:50am was sunrise and if our luck continued a magnificent sight to see.  I threw on my clothes and my parka, grabbed my camera and climbed the stairs to deck 6.  There were maybe 50-60 passengers all clammered on the front deck to experience the wonderful colors of an orange sunrise on the pristine white snow-covered mountains, glaciers and blue waters.  It was definitely worth it.  Hard to describe colors painted the sky, hillsides and glistening Antarctic Sound. After enjoying my wondrous first views this morning had to offer, I went back down to my suite, returned to my jammies and rested a few more hours until our 5:00am wakeup call from Robin.

We were in the second group, so when we got our 7:00 call, all of group #2 were anxiously packed at Reception for our zodiac ride.  With great anticipation each of us took our first steps on Antarctica.  We were first greeted by the Adeiles all around us.  These cute little penguins have a quite different personality than any others.  Hundreds of them were all lined up at the water’s edge, waiting, waiting for the high pitched call from one and then the first adventurous one would jump in.  Then 50 or 60 would follow.  

<Sorry,  this is my last blog entry to complete.  It will be short and not as descriptive as the other posts.>

  

Adelies, Adelies all around

The adelie penguins were the stars of the day.  With their white eyeliner and long, long lines of them at the shoreline waiting for the waves, you would hear a yell, the leader would hit the waves then 50 or so others would follow.  A few penguins would jump back up on shore as they wave just wasn’t right for them and they would wait for the next wave and the yell would begin and the penguins would jump in again.  Such an amazing humorous site to see!! Also fun to see was the huge number of adelies porpoising through the water.  Just so fun to see.

 My friend, And, really had fun here on Brown Bluff.  She plopped down on the beach and a gentoo chick, that cute fluffy bundle of fur, came up and took a nap between her legs.  Seeing that baby enjoy its rest like Andi’s child was just something to see.  The chick woke up and just explored Andi’s pants zipper, seams and the front of her pants.  The chicks of all penguin species were inquisitive.  They just loved picking and poking at anything new and different…. Just like any child!!

When we got back on board the ship, I started asking friends, girls only, if they wanted to participate in a celebration of landing on Antarctica… my 7^th continent.  So, at 11am, we were going to meet on the pool deck in our bathing suits, get into the hot tub and enjoy a glass of champagne to celebrate this glorious accomplishment.  More on this later…..

After leaving Brown Bluff we had the tabular iceberg field in the Antarctic Sound to enjoy.  With glorious sunshine, most of us, cameras in hand, headed on deck.  I went to deck 4 and was on the lowest level to enjoy this special treat.  Our expert captain maneuvered the ship through a number of icebergs with flat table tops just floating in the sound.  We got very close and just enjoyed the beauty of the morning and remembrances of stepping foot on the continent.

Linda, Beth and Andrea

Now for “Hot Chicks in Cool Places”……  At the appointed hour, I was dressed in my bathing suit and bathrobe from the suite, I made my way for the pool deck.  There was a good crowd of clothed people enjoying the sun and scenery around us and kind of laughed at me for being there in my attire.  After about what seemed like 15 minutes, Linda showed up and we took the plunge.  OOOHHHHH was it darn cold.  We threw off our robes and ran to the hot tub.  Andrea showed up and Ray, the bartender brought us our flutes of Heidsieck Champagne. We toasted us, our accomplishment and the fun of being crazy people.  After our toast, my Colombian friend, Manuela joined us and we had another glass of champagne.  What fun to do something a little crazy to remember a momentous day!