Highlights: Dorian Bay Air Strip - Port Lockroy Settlement Visit - Penguin Watching!
We anchored at Dorian Bay at 8 am. After breakfast we got dressed in our warm clothes and went to a briefing in the Lounge. Then we were the first group to head out to Dorian Bay. We are now at the 63rd parallel (lattitude) - still not to the Antarctic Circle. We came in the Neumeyer Channel and anchored below the Seven Sisters Mountain - 7 tall peaks and 1 huge peak representing the Mother. There is a lion seal sunning here. The leopard seal has the large mouth and preys on the penguins, but not the lion seal. There are penguin rookeries around and an old British hut - very primative. Also an Argentinian hut - there is a landing strip above us on a high hill so we all walked up a snow covered trail to the landing strip and we took in the spectacular views. Port Locroy with 2 hours is below - we'll visit there this afternoon. The mountain peaks are all snow covered and spectacular.
We had a group picture made and then Tim slide on his belly - face first (show off!) - all of the way down the slope. The other kids joined in! We retrieved my parka which I had shed for the walk up the hill and then went back to the ship for hot bouillon - that hit the spot.
Lunch was a BBQ on the outside upper deck with ribs, steak, lamb chops, hamburgers, and hot dogs. Yummy too! During lunch the m/s Corinthian II repositioned on the other side of the hill where the landing strip was at Port Lockroy on Goudier Island. THere is a historic research station here that has been restored and is maintained by the British Antarctic Heritage Trust. A crew of 3 are stationed here from October to early March - 1 man and 2 women - they were looking forward to March 8 when they leave here! They run a small gift shop and post office in the restored station - quite primitive - I can't imagine having an assignment such as this. They are running an experiment on the island to determine the impact of tourists on the penguin colonies. So tourists are only allowed on half of the island. Results so far - the penguins are doing better on the tourist side since the skua birds are kept away more by the movement of the tourists. Interesting.
We watched a penguin in his never-ending quest to get rocks for his mates nest. You can't tell male from female penguins and they share all nesting responsibilities. They steal rocks from each other. We then took a Zodiac ride to another landing site where whates and seals were slaughtered. There were lots of whale bones around and some laid out to form a whale skeleton. We then walked through another penguin rookery with lots of guano. At this rookery, cormorants had their nests intermingled with the penguins. The penguin nests were low and made out of small rocks. The cormorant nests were built up higher from the group and built of feathers, twigs, and other material - not rocks. We have no idea where the twigs come from - one of the guides told us that they could have carried it from the closest islands. The cormorant chicks had hatched and the parent was regurgitating food for them to eat. We watched this in awe.
We rode around a Dutch sailing boat anchored here and then back to the ship for hot chocolate offered on arrival. Then a shower and clean clothes felt good. Yeah. Two Ukrainian scientists boarded our ship and we took them to their home base. They got off later this night and that was the most southern point we visited on this trip.
During the cocktail hour we arrived at Cape Renard and the entrance to the Lemaire Channel - a 7 mile strait between Booth Island and Humphries Heights on Grahamland.
The one hour trip through the channel was spectacular with tall mountains and cliffs on each side. Uma's Tits was the mountain at the entrance to Lemaire! The wind and cold was much worse here.
After cocktails we had a briefing in the Lounge with John Frick. He recited a poem about exploration in Antarctica and it was very entertaining. John Harwood gave an explanation about our solr system using an umbrella that was very clever and informative. We dined with Tim Mather. THen we headed back to the room and watched Sunset Boulevard on DVD (the original). Then off to sleep.
Larry and Tim
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