Traveling with Storys

November 27, 2024 – Wednesday Day 63 of this journey

Explore Antarctica – Day 2 – Damoy Point

We didn’t have to move the ship very far last night. We are scheduled to have landings today. The landing site is near a large penguin rookery. Normally, these penguins would not be nesting yet. But eggs have been reported.

There are groups that go out starting about 8:00 am. We can see the people on shore. Then the wind came up and continued to build. Around 9:30, when the gusts were 30-35 knots, operations were put on hold, hoping the wind would calm down. At about 10:20, the decision was made to hold operations until afternoon. It took quite a bit of time for all the guests that had gone ashore to be retrieved, but it did look a bit nasty out there.

At 12:30 pm, Pablo (Expedition Leader) was on the PA saying that weather conditions were not improving, and the afternoon activities will not be going forward. We are a little bummed that we won’t get to see the penguins on their nests, but we also weren’t looking forward to being in a zodiac with 30 knot winds blowing spray into our faces. They will try to move the ship into a more protected area.

This type of event doesn’t just happen in the Antarctic. We had it happen on several occasions on other cruises as well.

We attended the lecture at 2:00 pm. One of the general naturalists on board loves whales. She talked to us about blue whales, then orcas, then finally a little on humpbacks. Very interesting. And she is a hoot.

5:15 pm brought the evening briefing. Weather for tomorrow doesn’t look much better in this area, so the plan has changed. We are going to Paradise Harbor where it is very protected, and we will have a landing. A landing on the “continent” of Antarctica. So far, we’ve been visiting islands just off the coast. And we haven’t “landed” anywhere.

Just before heading to bed, it begins to snow. Enough to accumulate.

And here are a few photos to document the day.