Land HO!

9th January 2009

Well, I woke up this morning feeling no sea sickness and have made through the day. Many of the boat members were worried about me, some even thought I wasn't going to make it. But, I am tougher than I look:)

We crossed the convergence this morning which means I am officially in the Antarctic. The temperature is relatively warmer than I was expected-the sun is even showing.

***What bodies of water come together to make the Antarctic Convergence?****

After breakfast I headed outside to do some birding. I saw the Black Browed albatross and the Giant Petrel again, along with the Cape Petrel. I also got to see the Soft Plumage Petrel and the Antarctic Prion (there are actually three species but they are very hard to identify). While I was outside another Fin whale was seen blowing in the distance. I am so impressed with the maneuvering of the boat to allow us to have better glimpses of the whales. I think the captain has a soft spot for whales.
After lunch we had a debriefing on how to use the zodiac boats which will be bringing us to land all week. We also went over guidelines that need to be obeyed in order to respect the
environment.


****Can you think of some guidelines that tourists have to do while on land in order not to harm
wildlife or the environment?***

After the debriefing I went in for a short nap and awoke to the voice of our expedition leader, Bud, over the intercom saying land has been spotted. I jumped out of bed and through on warm clothes and ran up 3 floors to get that first glimpse of the Antarctic Peninsula. The first thing I noticed was the smell . It was the smell of rotting fish which I knew meant penguin colonies. It was amazing! We were traveling through the South Shetland islands which were covered in glaciers and wait Penguins!!!! The islands were full of Gentoo penguins and some even were swimming by our boat. I can't describe my excitement seeing the gentoos swimming by the boat, hopping out of the water with such speed and grace. They were feeding on krill, small crustaceans similar to shrimp. The krill is at the bottom of the food chain in Antarctica. Everything depends on them-good thing there seems to be an endless supply. In fact if you collected all of these tiny animals and weighed then they would weigh more than the entire human population! Good thing, since baleen whales spend their entire summer scooping up massive amounts of krill. Blue whales have been known to eat 4tons of krill in one day! This was also the first time I saw a South Polar Skua which is a fierce predator in Antarctica feeding on penguin chicks, fish and are also scavengers.

The ocean also contained several small icebergs. More icebergs of greater size will appear tomorrow when we are closer to the mainland. As I was admiring the penguins, we notice two Humpback whales breaching. These animals are like the entertainers of the sea, showing off their tails every chance they get. Actually, when these whales dive and show their tail they are circling the krill to force them to the surface so the whales can easily scoop them up.

Tomorrow will be our first landing on shore. We will disembark at Brown Bluff. We will have 4 hours to hike and take in the penguin colonies, see some fur seals and possibly elephant seals. We also learned today that we will get a truly unique opportunity to visit the USA Palmer Research station at Anvers island. Only 12 permits are given per year to allow visits and this boat got one since there are two couples whose son and daughter is working there. I am not sure yet when this will happen, but I am very excited to see what this station is studying.