Antarctica . . .and so it ends

We survived Drake Passage and Cape Horn. On Tues night (Jan 30), the ship's passengers , the expedition team and ship's crew shared mutual congratulations and we saw a wonderful slide show commemorating our 10 day trip.

The captain shared that we would get to Ushuaia by 2AM Wed (Jan 31) morning which would give us plenty of time to make our 9:50AM flight. Tuesday night we had a wonderful final dinner with the Ansari's and Nazem's and then set about our final packing.

We awoke Wed morning and were not docked in Ushuaia! It seems there was a Ugandan military ship in our way. That made for an exciting morning whereby we (along with other passengers) got taxi'd from The World to Ushuaia via the ship's life boat. We barely made our flight to Buenos Aires, but did make it. We had an authentic lunch at an Argentinian steakhouse in Buenos Aires and then made our way to the international airport for our redeye flight back to Atlanta. Needless to say today (Thur Feb 1) is a recovery day.

What a trip. We landed on the most remote of Earth's continents. We saw animals in their natural habitats and vistas (water, glaciers, icebergs, mountains, etc) that were just incredible. We made new friends from all over the U.S. All in all, it was a great vacation and an even better experience.

Drake Passage and Cape Horn

Just trying to catch up on our last few days. On Sunday (Jan 28), soon after seeing the humpback whales we lost sight of Antarctica as we made our way to the Drake Passage. We had had such good success (ie not rough water) on the way there and we were hoping for a similar experience on the way back. Well, we woke on Monday (Jan 29) to not the worst the Drake Passage had to offer, but we did have 20 foot swells which was plenty to drain the energy of many folks on board the ship. However, Dad did happen to see an exciting sight out our window. Three killer whales were feeding off the port side of the ship around 10AM on Monday morning. It was a quick sighting but very fun.

The rest of the day Mom and Dad spent in lectures on the history of whaling and global warming and Courtney, Lauren, Abby and Dallas caught up on journals and watched movies.

On Tuesday (Jan 30) we arrived at Cape Horn. Cape Horn is at the bottom of Chile in Tierra del Fuego. Many, many sailors have lost their lives trying to make the trek from the Atlantic to Pacific Ocean. The weather was iffy (wind and rain) but they did let us make a landing.

Picture of the lighthouse at Cape Horn.

An Albatross memorial to commemorate the lost sailors.
Courtney and Lauren made the landing. They're sitting on the memorial with Cape Horn in the background.
It was very windy. Guessing that we had 70 mph gusts.

Humpback Whales

Paradise Bay was a lot of fun. We pulled anchor and started our way back through the Gerlache Strait. While there we found 2 Humpback Whales (a Mom and her baby). They were feeding. Humpback's grow to 50 feet and can weigh as much as 40 tons.

Paradise Bay

Sunday (Jan 28) we arrived to Paradise Bay via the Lemaire Channel. Our hope was to see a Leopard seal but that didn’t happen. We did zodiac around in a beautiful iceberg filled bay.

A couple of crabeater seals. They weren't too concerned about their new visitors.
Close up.
The icebergs in Paradise Bay had a very deep blue.
We got to climb up on another glacier. We remembered that this was the first time Dallas had ever seen snow.
Another snowball fight ensued!

Penguin Party

Been having some internet difficulties.

Saturday night (Jan 27)after our excursion to Neko Harbour, The World had a special screening of March of the Penguins. Everyone got dressed up in their Black and White. Abby and Dallas got a little crazy.

Glacier and Polar Plunge

Ther're telling us that today is our last Zodiac ride and landing on the continent of Antarctica. Very sad. We've had such a good time in this beautiful place. Yesterday, the big event was the Polar Plunge . . . and yes four members of the family made the team. Courtney led the way, followed by Abby, then Lauren and then Dad. The temperature was 33 degrees. Very cold. We then went on Zodiac ride and landed in Andvord Bay.
Picture during our cruise through Lemaire Channel.

Gentoo penguins at Neko Harbour. The vistas just keep getting better.
We're really enjoying ourselves.
We got to climb up a glacier and slide down. Lauren didn't like it at all!!

Relative Size

Just in case you can't tell the relative size of these mountains, mountains of snow, icebergs, etc here are some pictures that show our boats.

This is the scout boat showing the way for The World so as to insure we have safe passge.
Here are pictures of our Zodics in and amongst the icebergs.
Another picture of a Zodiac against the mountain background.
A picture of The World wrapped in snow!!

Icebergs

The icebergs we saw were just amazing. We sat outside or at the ship's helm and just watched in amazement all day.

The Antarctic Circle and Seals

Yesterday was an amazing day. We crossed south of the Antarctic Circle (Latitude 66.33 degrees). Our entire trip has been exploring channels, icebergs, wildlife, etc along the Antarctic Peninsula which juts out toward South America. The Antarctic Circle boundary splits the peninsula in half. After having gone south of the Circle we realized that Courtney, Abby, Lauren and Dallas are but just a handful of kids who have ever traveled that far south. The day was so nice that the captain decided to take The World farther south than it had ever been. We went south along Adelaide Island and saw some amazing icebergs.

For dinner, our group was joined by several member of the expedition team. We had a great time learning their various stories and asking questions about the Antarctic.
It was a day of seals and icebergs. We saw three different species of seals, the Crabeater, the Weddell and the Leopard. Seals are different than Sea Lions in that Sea Lions have flaps over their ears and Seal have just holes for ears. Also, Sea Lions are able to move with both their front flippers and rear tail. A Seal typically moves on land with just their front flippers.

These seals have the best views!!

Teenage Penguins

It's amazing how on many occasions the animal world mimics the human world.

The teenage Gentoo penguin had made some kind of mistake and Mom was getting on to her "explaining" what she had done wrong.
They realized that they were being watched and while they were a little embarrassed . . .
there was still a lesson to be given.
Once the lesson was over Mom had stuff she had to get done. The teenager was still smarting over the "lecture" and obviously gave Mom a "look".

Here, the teenager leaves very satisfied that she has one upped her Mom!!

Young'in Penguins

A Gentoo penguin with two chicks.
The nests are made with small pebbles and rocks. Sometimes penguins "borrow" pebbles from their neighbors.

As the penguins chicks get older they eat everything!
And they keep eating such that before they lose their baby down fur, which is replaced with the tight, water proof feathers of a mature penguin, they weigh more than Mom or Dad.

Port Lockroy and Finback Whale

Our internal clocks have been a bit off. Dinners have started at 8:30 and not finshed until 11PM. That's a late night for Dad! Anyway, today we arrived into Port Lockroy and we were first up on the Zodiac ride. Port Lockroy is an old British research station.

There was a small Penguin rookery here, but we were amazed by the skelton of this Finback whale. The Finback whale is the second largest whale and can grow to 88 feet long.

Sun Up and Sun Down

Before we came we knew there would be a lot of daylight since we are in summer way down south in the southern hemisphere, but we really didn't know how much daylight we'd have. While we haven't gotten up at 4AM it appears as though the sun rises at 4AM. Dad couldn't sleep this morning and so got up and took these pictures of sunrise. In addition to the beautiful sites we have been amazed at how quickly white out fog rolls in and out. Sometimes in kind of creepy.

As for sunset it is at about 10:00PM or so.

The Sun and the Ozone

Due to pollution and CFCs (Chloro Fluoro Carbons), which were internationally banned in the 1980s, Antarctica has the largest hole in the ozone layer. Ever time we go out we wear lots of sun screen and our sun glasses.

Sometimes we get a little tired when Dad takes us on long walks.

King George Island Research Facility

Yesterday the weather did not cooperate as much as it has in the last few days. We were supposed to go to another beach . . . more penguins . .. . called Deception Island but it was too windy and therefore too rough so they did not allow us to go. It was particularly disappointing because Courtney, Lauren and Dad were planning to try the "polar dip" at Pendulum Cove. Instead The World was diverted to King George Island where 9 different countries have research stations. We visited the Chilean research station. They even had a souvenir shop! We bought a few postcards. The Russian research station was right next door. Anousheh Ansari apprached a Russian researcher and started speaking Russian. They were quite surprised and then really surprised when they realized that she had been "the celebrity" who had been up on the Russian space capsule. They rushed around to get her picture.


Little Dallas' preferred mode of transportation!.
Only 39 inhabitants at the Chilean base.
A neat pole with many international cities listed and their distance (in kilometers) from this base.
A picture of the world from a hill at the base.