December 1, 2024 -

December 1, 2024 – Sunday                           Day 67 of this journey 

Explore Antarctica – Day 6 – Astrolabe Island 

Another change in our location today. Our very first stop in Antarctica went as planned. Since then, I don’t think any of our stops has been what was initially planned. This is not an issue at all, it is part of exploring Antarctica. And we are beginning to get used to it. That is kind of a shame. We have only one more day in Antarctica after today. 

Today we are at Astrolabe Island. We are toward the northern end of the Antarctica Peninsula. We hope to do a landing today to sea more penguins, and some seals. 

As we progress towards our destination, we see huge icebergs floating by. These are not interesting chunks of ice. These are huge pieces of Tabular Ice. They are the size of several square city blocks.

These can be 50-100 feet thick

Just above the horizon, you can see the outline of our destination

We arrive at the island, and it appears to our very inexperienced eye that there is way too much ice in this bay to allow for landings. We’ve also got a significant swell going on that is really rocking the boat. We’ve got an early morning SOB ride, and our landing is supposed to be this afternoon. 

These rocks off the coast of the Peninsula remind me of French Polynesia. A totally different color palette for sure, but much the same feel.

Shortly after arrival, Pedro announces that there is too much ice to do the landing, but they will be substituting zodiac rides for the landings and the other activities will go on as planned. 

We report to the gathering area for SOB rides and learn that there is too much swell for safely loading the SOB. They have never loaded the SOBs from Deck A before, but they are going to give that a try. When it is our turn, we march to Deck A. Deck A has a bit of a back-up already since it is taking longer than normal to load the zodiacs due to the swell. 

Finally, it is our turn and the usual loading crew for the SOB is there. They are so good, so efficient. They have a really good grip on you and wait until the swell moves the SOB into the right position and then hand you over to the SOB. They talk you through the whole thing. I am always so impressed with these guys and how competent they are. 

We putter around for awhile with Valeria as our guide. Her QuietVox transmitter isn’t working but she’s got a voice that really doesn’t need it. She describes how these islands were formed by the movement of the tectonic plates meeting in this area. We also pass near an island that is a rookery for Chinstrap Penguins. There are also Antarctic Cormorants here and Giant Petrels. Along with Snowy Shearwaters. Snowy Shearwaters stay close to the Penguins and clean up after them. The Chinstraps’ nests are way up near the top of this island. That is a long walk from the ocean.

Icebergs are like snowflakes. No two are the same

There is a pond in the middle of this berg

The island with the chinstrap penguins. The Giant Petrels nest at 
the very top.

Our time is about up, and we head back to the ship, but can see that there are several zodiacs waiting to offload guests as well as the other SOB. Adding the SOBs to this loading location, has really complicated things. Rather than just sit at idle until it is our turn, we head back out to look around. We see several icebergs with small groups of Penguins on them. And we just continue to explore. But it is very cold. The temperature is 29 or 30 degrees and its windy. It is as cold as we have been.

Gentoo Penguins on an iceberg

By the time we are off the SOB and back on the boat, we’ve had enough. We cancelled our afternoon zodiac ride. 

Turns out to be a good decision. The wind is up even more in the afternoon and it is snowing. 

We had dinner at the World Café this evening and enjoyed the sushi. Then we went to a Martini tasting event in The Hide. It was a different approach. They had 4 different stations set up with the ingredients for a specific martini. You could choose any one (or all). Then go to that station and mix your own martini. We chose a chocolate martini. Those could be dangerous!

 

A nice way to end our day.