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January 23 -24

Starting another day and more of the same, ho hum!

Last night at about 11:15 and still daylight outside, I was lying in bed, looking out the balcony window and the view of white mountains that started to scroll past the window had me jumping out of bed and taking another movie. This place is going to drive me nuts I think.

Our guide answered what was a great question – why don’t whales and deep sea diving mammals get the bends?  As scuba divers, we know that decompression sickness is a very real and sometimes fatal danger when coming back to the surface.  What happens in a nutshell is as we breath compressed air, we accumulate nitrogen in our tissues. As we ascend, and the pressure on our bodies decreases everything in our bodies expands a bit (it’s quite an interesting feeling descending when you feel your wetsuit/drysuit start to squeeze a bit), the nitrogen bubbles can expand in our tissues and that’s not a good thing at all.   What scientists have discovered is that whales CAN get the bends but to diminish this risk their lungs collapse when they are down deep.  Also, they don’t always dive crazy deep – they only go down to the level of where the food is.    As an aside, I have always thought it was a fascinating piece of trivia that whales do sleep, but only on one side of their brains.  So one eye is open, the other closed.  Clever species, those whales.

Tuesday January 24

I spent the morning sitting in the “Lido” deck – covered swimming pool area with a bar and lounge chairs and a burger bar and windows floor to ceiling with café tables.  Decided I’d had enough of trying to see it all and except for actually being inside Wilhelmina Bay and Charlotte Bay (lands of the scary big icebergs) I sat at my café table and knitted and watched the scenery and the whale highway outside.  That was quite amazing.  

As mentioned Wilhelmina Bay and Charlotte Bay looked like a moonscape of an icy planet.  The huge bergs as far as the eye could see until your eyes meet the mountains. I found out they are about 8000 ft, I wondered.  I did not expect to see mountains down here, I have no idea why not except that I had expectations of endless flat ice fields. The sky was overcast but with broken-ish clouds so sometimes there would be a silvery glow on parts of the water and bergs.

As has been the case on this part of the trip, the penguins hanging out on rocky beaches and icebergs have been too hard to see without a good set of binoculars (don’t get me started on how I managed to leave mine sitting on the closet shelf) but they were a little closer and our birding binoculars allowed me to at least see a few specks of the quintessential white belly/black feathered gentoo penguins.  A few graced us by swim flying around the ship which is probably more delightful than just seeing them standing there anyway.  I couldn’t help but laugh with delight as they rock-skip across the waves.  Silly penguins.

Last night  I hit the food wall.  The only thing I really don’t like about cruising is the total devastation of my dietary habits.  It’s not that I eat too much – I don’t – but the food is frequently more salty than I enjoy on a regular basis and caters to the dietary habits of Americans (bad).  So even veggies are cooked in oil/butter.  It tastes good, all righty, but after ten days my body is complaining that I haven’t stuck to fresh fruit and cold cuts.  I don’t eat much bread at home but the rolls are so good and so much better with a pat of butter.  Finally my body cries uncle so last night and probably for most of today I’ll be drinking water, tea and picking at anything that isn’t cooked. Oh yeah, no more delicious ice cream either.  Dang.

This morning we find ourselves away from the bays of the Antarctic Peninsula and on our way to Elephant Island which means back to open seas. I woke up and promptly went back to sleep.  The past few days have been non-stop stay alert because you don’t know what gorgeous scene is going to pass before you.  So, except for whatever awaits at this upcoming island I’m going to take it easy and get ready for round two of this trip, which includes the Falkland Islands (if we can approach), Buenos Aires and disembarkation, and Iguazu Falls by land. 

It’s also time for Twister to say goodbye to her now favorite housesitters, Karen and Robin, and by wowed by the arrival of Anthea and Lawson.  Karen and Robin have stayed with her before and I am sad that although we greet them at the beginning for a day that they will not be there when we get home this time. Sometimes life brings people together for one reason and you find yourself with new friends. In this case I don’t think that although Twister was the cause of our acquaintaince, that her eventual demise will be the cause of disconnection.  Ta ta for now, K and R!  Until we meet again! Welcome Anthea and Lawson. Hopefully Twister won’t hiss at you and if she does she’s only trying to establish her dominance and perhaps a little miffed now

We did make it to Elephant Island but alas, we could not go into the bay where Shackleton left his crew to await their rescue as he headed to Georgia Island in lifeboats.  Okay.  I always let Al plan the trips so once again I am blown away that we are sailing in the footsteps of Shackleton.  I’ve been fascinated by this story for years and didn’t even know we had a chance of seeing where these guys hung out? We’re here in summer and the seas are too rough and the weather too lousy for us to go in to the bay with our cruise ship.  Shackleton set out in lifeboats.  And made it.  The story is one I have been aware of for some time but it’s time for me to go re-read the whole thing when I get home, now that I know what these intrepid explorers were facing.  

It was once again (how many times can I say “stunningly beautiful” before my friends roll their eyes and click off this page?).   The sea and rain and monstrous glaciers that were nevertheless visibile on the island, which is in itself elephantine hardy har har har. Was sad that we couldn’t venture in to the bay but can’t complain, we have seen so much and even the experience of the crazy seas gave a closer approximation of what Shackleton was facing during a much more brutal season.   Anyway, I love storms, no matter the location.