There is a contest started for people to guess the time and latitude when we see our first iceberg. We never get a chance to enter our guess. By around 11 am, the first one is sighted. We go up onto the bridge and the deck around it, and take about 17 pictures of this blob of white on the horizon. Something tells us we will be seeing more of this sort of thing closer up before this trip is over, but we take the pictures anyway. We never do get very close to the iceberg, but pass it pretty far to the east. A while later, we see the first penguins, swimming in the sea. (What are they doing way out here in the water? ANSWER from Jacques, the naturalist / bird specialist: A better question is: What are they doing on land? They are basically a water bird, and are on land only to roost and breed.) The penguins are interesting to see swimming, as they use a “porpoise-style”, rapidly rising and submerging as they go. It is hard to get a clear view or a clear picture, they move so fast. We also see lots of birds flying around the boat…. Albatross and petrels, mainly. Then…. Whales! First, we just see the spray from their spouts in the distance, but as we get closer, we can actually see their backs surface and get good views of their dorsal fins. We see Sei, Fin, and Minke whales, some only 50 yards or so out from the ship. Again, many photos. And again, if only we knew what was still to come, we would have not been quite as excited. But this was a great introduction to some of the wildlife, and it gets us really motivated to spend time up on the bridge!
First iceberg sighted! Nothing special about it, except that it was the first. It must have been photographed 500 times by the people on board the Ioffe!
I get a rare moment of complete solitude out on the main deck, and Joan photographs me from above.
The map room. Just behind the bridge, this is where the navigation work is done. A map with our projected course and current position is always out on the desk.
The first whale sighted! Not sure what this one was. As with the first iceberg, many pictures were taken of this guy, people not realizing the photographs that were still to come.
Soon, we see a couple of more icebergs, these much closer to the ship's path, so we are closing in on them and getting really good views. One is a cubically shaped berg, which we learn probably came from an ice shelf off the peninsula. The other is more irregularly shaped, a sign that it probably separated from a glacier that descended down to the shoreline at some point on the peninsula. Then, beyond the bergs, YES! Our first view of land! We are seeing the islands off the Antarctic coast. As we get closer we see the land areas shining bright white…. There are snow-covered slopes, and the underside of the clouds above them are illuminated with reflected light off the snow, making the entire area seem to glow unnaturally. This phenonemen, of bright reflections on the clouds above the land, is known as “Ice Blink”.
Large cubical icebergs most likely broke off from a flat ice field in some body of water further south, and have drifted north.
Irregularly shaped icebergs like this one probably broke off from a glacier that decended down to the water.
We pose on the deck outside the bridge, with an iceberg in the background.
The decks are now filled with passengers, enjoying the views of the icebergs as we pass. In the distance beyond this iceberg, there are two islands providing a good example of "ice blink". This is the reflected light from snow and ice fields that illuminates the underside of cloud layers hanging over the islands. Ice blink can help with navigation -- you can tell here that there is open water between the two islands, in the area where the ice blink is absent.
As we continue, we see smaller ice fragments now, floating in the water, and more land features are becoming visible.
We pass a series of islands, and look in fascination at snow and rock covered land that is part of this 7th continent which has been seen by so few humans, relatively speaking, ever. We navigate around Nelson Island, which is to the southwest side of King George Island, and come in the back side of King George Island and into Maxwell Bay. It is here that we will anchor for the night, and it is on the land that we are looking at right now that we will run the marathon tomorrow. Everyone is on the bridge and the decks now, surveying and evaluating the scene.
First views of King George Island:
The first thing that hits is the utter starkness of this island. It is dark and desolate, almost like a moonscape. Not a sign of vegetation anywhere. Spots are snow covered, but mostly along the shore it is just dark and desolate. There are the research stations, little colored boxes of buildings standing out against this scene. We see the Russian station (Bellingshausen, named for a famous early Russian explorer that was the first to come into this area in the early 1800’s) in front of us, a series of red and silver buildings. Immediately next to it, on the left as we were looking from the bay, is the Chilean station. Chile’s base is relatively large, with many multi-colored, pastel shaded buildings. Turns out that Chile has made this into a little settlement. They’ve brought in a number of families to live here, and have opened up a school, post office, etc. We figure that someday, if the Antarctic Treaty ever falls apart and countries start trying to exercise their territorial claims, Chile will point to this place and claim that they’ve been the only ones to “settle” this land! Far to the left is the Chinese base, the “Great Wall” station, with its distinct bright blue building. And in the other direction far to the right, is the Uruguayan station, another collection of red buildings. And immediately to the right of that is…. Collins Glacier. The glacier that has been publicized in every brochure and article about the Antarctic Marathon, the one we will need to climb, twice, tomorrow. Between the Russian and Uruguayan bases, along the shore, are a series of 6 or 7 cube-shaped boxes that someone guessed was Bellingshausen, but it was a bit too spartan to believe that, and I think ended up being supply sheds. We all take a good long look. This is the spot, in real life, that we have been thinking about and imagining for so long. The landscape was anything but attractive…. But it was fascinating and good to see nevertheless. And it was the focal point now of the Big Event that was immediately in front of us now.
First views from Maxwell Bay of the research stations and the terrain that will be our running route the following day. The Chilean and Russian research stations are next door neighbors. Here, the Chilean station are the buildings on the left of the group visible, the Russion station, Bellingshausen, is the set of buildings to the right.
Collins Glacier. We will have to run part way up this thing tomorrow.
Chilean research station, easily identified by the bright, pastel colored buildings.
Bellingshausen, the Russian station. The Russians were our hosts for this marathon, and it was between the pylons underneath their buildings that we stored our personal belongings during the race.
A small, Russian Orthodox church built on the hillside overlooking Bellingshausen.
The presentations today, which we tried to catch in between seeing the sights mentioned above, were:
-Birds of the Southern Ocean (by Jacques Sirois)
-Photography of Frank Hurley
-A video showing from the 1st Antarctica Marathon
-Zodiac training: how to get in and out of these craft, which would become essential starting tomorrow.
-Antarctic Treaty training: Indoctrination into the do’s and don’t’s in Antarctica, all rules established to try to protect the pristine nature of the place.
These last two presentations were required attendance for everyone. They even took attendance, and checked the names off the passenger list to make sure no one was missed.
A staff member does a training session on the zodiac rafts that we will be using to transport us from the ship to the island in the morning. He covers practical procedures and critical safety information.
Everyone is attentive and serious in these presentations now.
At dinner tonight, Thom Gilligan and some staff from the other boat (the Vavilov) came aboard to talk to us. They’d spent the day laying out the marathon course, and gave us the last minute scoop on what to expect. Bottom line: it was all looking very good! And the weather forecast was too…. Temperature around 32 F, and very calm winds!! (After watching the weather for the last few weeks on the internet and seeing routinely 20-30 mph winds, this was quite amazing and welcomed news.)
Everyone is gearing up now. It is finally getting REAL. There is a light of “runners’ purpose” starting to shine in peoples’ eyes now, as you pass them in the hallways. Joan and I go back to our cabin, and prepare our water bottles with our gatorade mix, put green and red tape on our bottles to help mark them distinctively for ourselves, and lay out and pack into our backpacks what we'll need tomorrow. And then we try to get some sleep.
Our backpacks are packed and ready for the next day. Rocky, of course, is always ready!
Our Evening-Before-Race-Day Photo.
No comments:
Post a Comment