II - South Shetland Islands

Location:
Within 61° 00'–63° 37' South, 53° 83'–62° 83' West
Duration:
23 hrs. 8pm, 21.12.06 TO 7.15pm, 22.12.06
Landings:
Four

21.12.06. First Landing
Today, we set foot on land at Yankee Harbor - 62.35S, 59.50W. Yankee Harbor is on Mcfarlane channel off Bransfield Strait and is on Greenwich Island which is part of the South Shetland Islands. The South Shetlands consist of 11 major islands and several minor ones, totalling 3687 square kilometres of land area. Between 80 and 90 percent of the land area is permanently glaciated. The highest point on the island chain is Mount Foster on Smith Island at 2105 metres above sea level. Yankee Harbor was our first real encounter with Penguins on land (I'm discounting the small blue penguins that we saw in Philip Island off Melbourne in Dec 2004). Everyone went berserk looking for the best photo opportunity with the penguins. There were also some juvenile elephant seals lying around.

Penguins are skittish beings; and a bit daft. Their gait over the pebbles and snow makes for a comical show. Looking at them, it’s amazing how they are able to negotiate the terrain. Their walk is hard to explain. Its a combination of Charlie Chaplainesque steps, mini-rabbit hops, rolling off inclines and unsuccessful attempts at maintaining their balance for more than 5 meters. They seem to be color blind too. Imagine mistaking a bright yellow parka clad person for a fellow penguin, walking upto him and then realising its mistake, doing the step, hop, roll, fall routine in no particular direction. Andy, our resident marine biologist attributes it to short sightedness but I'm prone to believe its the bird brain together with color blindness :-)

Seals are another story altogether. They lie in supreme disregard of any foreign presence. Their slightest movement seems to be against their will, involving extreme effort of both mind and muscle. They peer at you in a manner which is equal parts disdain and indifference.

Landings are big operations. First, the ship stops and drops anchor. Then, zodiacs - small inflatable boats are lowered via a crane to the water and the staff go for a recce of the place. The gangway is lowered from the ship to reach the zodiacs. All this while we have rushed to our cabins to dress in 5 layers of warm clothing. The parka that Quark provided goes on as the outer most layer. The life jacket goes above the parka. The water proof bottom goes over the long rubber boots. 2 layers of gloves go on our hands. And then the back pack goes over all this. Sun glasses, cap and if we've managed to stay alive in the stifling heat of our cabin, we stagger to the board to turn our tags (more on this later). Then we walk to the bow of the ship to wash our shoes in an antibacterial liquid. That's when we're ready to board the zodiac. We walk down the gangway and gripping the expedition staff in a sailor grip, step onto the zodiac. Motor on, and we're off for a landing.

We had our first taste of kayaking at Yankee Harbor and it was not a good one. The briefing had already made us a bit nervous because it was sounding all hi-tech and complicated with the skirt that would seal the water, the pogey that would protect our hands but hinder our grip and the lifejacket that made breathing difficult. And then we saw the kayaks – they were very different to what we were expecting! And I think, either we didn’t explain our inexperience well or Louise failed to grasp what preparatory briefing is needed. So there we were at Yankee Harbor trying to make sense of the rudder, the peddle and her cries for ‘Try to go anti-clockwise’ while all the while trying to take time out to take in the penguins, the seals, the small icebergies and the mountain ice blocking the horizon. But inspite of all these ‘teething problems’, we had fun maneuvering the kayak.

22.12.06
On 22nd, we reached Half Moon Bay where a big colony of chinstrap penguins awaited us on land and a tough session of kayaking awaited us in water. Chinstrap penguins stand out because of the unmistakable black lines that go around the face – thus the name chinstrap. We were able to spot a Macaroni penguin who had mistakenly wandered off to this colony of chinstraps. We even saw some abandoned penguin eggs. And of course there was a lot of the pottering, falling, sliding penguin gait on display. After a short walk up and down the island, we began our 2nd kayaking trip.

This one was a bit better because we had fixed the rudder on our kayak and were a bit further up on our learning curve. However, we soon realized the Rick and Darcy were setting a really fast pace with most of us playing catch up. I was enjoying kayaking in the Antarctic waters and taking in the awe-inspiring scenery. What I didn’t like was pushing myself with the sole purpose of reaching a particular point in the fastest time. Louise called everyone together and asked us to bunch up so we don’t spread too far (this was for our safety since there was one safety zodiac for the group – in case someone capsized). We rounded up the kayaking trip with the realization that while some had come for real power kayaking, others had just signed up so they could experience being in Antarctic waters on a kayak and get close to the icebergs. It will be interesting to see how Louise resolves this conflict.

On 22nd evening, we entered Deception Islands - named so because its hard to tell from afar that the huge, singular massif is actually the remaining rim of an active volcano with water inside it. Entry is through a narrow 200 mts inlet where the caldera rim has collapsed and what makes it more interesting is a rock at 2.5mts depth almost in the middle of the inlet. This leaves about 95mts for the ship to pass through and tests the navigational skills of every ship captain who dares to unmask the deception.

Deception was one of the most exciting landing this far. First, our kayak ran aground as we were negotiating a narrow channel to get into a small bay. Smita and Shalini had (wisely) decided to skip kayaking and go for the extended walk among the different volcanic pools on the island. Dittmar and Verena also opted for the walk leaving Rick & Darcy, Shanks & me and Rahul & Paula in 3 kayaks with Louise behind us as kayak master. We started off well, with Rick & Darcy again setting the pace, Shanks & me following them closely and Rahul & Paula bringing up the rear. At this point, Louise, directed us to go to the small bay on our right through a narrow channel. As we were approaching the channel, I looked back to see that Rahul & Paula had fallen back and asked Shanks to slow down so they could catch up. By this time, Rick & Darcy had left us behind and even when we tried calling, they couldn’t hear and crossed the channel to the other side. As we lay waiting for Rahul & Paula, the wind picked up and started carrying us towards the rocks. Given our limited skills, we couldn’t maneuver the kayak and ran aground. It was exciting to get out of the kayak, pick it up and carry it across the narrow channel. By this time Rahul & Paula went backwards through the channel, their kayak being carried by the wind and water current and they having lost momentary control. Louise came up, directed us across the channel and then went ahead to get every one to bunch up. As we entered the bay on the other side of the channel, we realized we were short on safety cover, since the safety zodiac could not enter. We had a situation. So Shanks & I and Rahul & Paula waited in our kayaks while Louise got back Rick & Darcy. A tough conversation followed with Louise bringing up the lack of group ethic in staying together and its impact on safety, Rick calling out his frustration in not being able to kayak at the speed and duration that he wanted and we saying that lets split the group. Interestingly, no one overtly called attention to the security lapse and no one admitted to it. We've had enough of kayaking for sometime to come.

Anyway, we all left our kayaks, got into the safety zodiac and went to the landing site (from where we had begun kayaking). The wind had really picked up by this time and because we were wet, we were feeling doubly cold. So there we were, wandering on Deception Islands, looking at the seals – there were Weddell seals and a Elephant Seal – with the temperature plummeting to sub zero. It was at this point that, Kirsten announced the next exciting event of Deception Islands - a Soft Polar plunge. Here’s what a Soft Polar Plunge is:

Requirements:
1. Temporary loss of sanity.
2. Suicidal tendency
Methodology
1. Strip down to your swimming trunks in the open against a cold blast of wind
2. Run towards the ice cold sea
3. Run into the sea and dunk full body
4. Run back to the shore
5. Grab a towel from the expedition staff
6. Check whether your fingers and toes are still there - cause you sure can’t feel them!
7. Rub yourself dry
8. Try to wear clothes in whatever manner you can with stumps for hands
9. Run towards the zodiac that carries you back to the ship
10. Shiver all the way back to the ship
11. Wash your boots, turn your tag and get to your cabin
12. Strip down for a hot shower
13. Sigh of relief!
Reward
1. Bragging rights
2. Certificate
3. Self satisfaction (yeah right!)

Once everyone was onboard, Kirsten, our expedition leader - and an exceptional one at that - decided to take a quick stop at a historic whaling station in Deception Islands. In a 60 year span human greed led to 95% of the world's whales being massacred for their oil. The Antarctic treaty bans whaling but different countries and rogue operators nick in a few here and there.