Continental Landing, plankton, penguins and food – 18th March

Overnight we sailed from Horseshoe Island within the Antarctic Circle to Prospect Point which is a landing on the Antarctic continent as opposed to Antarctic Islands. 

The trip overnight was out in the weather again – a bit rocky and rolly but ok. It was obviously cold overnight as our balcony is covered in snow and this continued at sea this morning – which meant a nice slow start to the day. 

Then we attended the lecture…

A simple introduction into the mind blowing world of plankton with Russell. 

Such an interesting lecture. So many different critters down in these Antarctic waters. Phytoplankton, Zooplankton etc etc.  So many sea critters that start life as magnificent looking zoo plankton.  Russell did a brilliant job of explaining the topic. 

Prior to and after the lecture we spent some time with computers and downloading photos etc. we recovered Phil’s 274 accidentally deleted photos and had a quick review of some pictures. 

The daily plan was updated with the afternoon activity being a landing and then a Zodiac cruise at Prospect Point. A little later they announced that one zodiac would be a photography one so we booked us on with Max. 

Then onto lunch – OMG so much, too much tasty and delicious food. The variety changes daily. Today’s hit was the Punjabi Tikki – which was a spicy rissole, there was also delicious beef bourginon. It’s a real trap.

After lunch we started to get ready for our Landing and Zodiac tour. I went to the mud room to swap my boots and then went to watch them unload the zodiacs, while awaiting the call to mud room, it started snowing again.

We were called first and arrived on Prospect Point to be briefed by Howard and the party of expedition staff who had set out the activities on the landing. They had discovered some crevasses and cut a set of steps up the hill from rocky shore, then following a set of flags Howard indicated we could walk up to the crevasses and have a look, then back to an intersection and turn left to bit of a view point, or right to the remnants of another UK Antarctic hut, established for the International Geophysical year 1957/58- which was only about 18 month stint. 

We headed up to Crevasses first, in quite heavy snow, visibility dropping, it wasn’t looking good. We could hardly see the ship in the bay. Stephi greeted us and explained that another cruise line had found and marked GPS position of the crevasse earlier in the season. The crew could recognise the signs in the snow and poked with a measuring stick to open it up for us to look at. It was far more obvious later on Zodiac that the cracks at the edge of the ice were quite deep. 

The viewpoint was ok, we took our flag selfie on the continent, then back to the intersection and out to see Vicky (one of the Port Lockroy team) who told us of a bit of the history of the hut. Being associated with John Rymill and Penola.

There were also a small bunch of Adelie penguins on the shoreline, who had a whole paparazzi thing going on.  Lots of us taking pics of them. 

Then we were due back to the zodiac at 4pm for our photography zodiac cruise around the icebergs. It was fantastic. We cruised through brash ice in and around many icebergs large and small, we saw more Adelie penguins, the kayakers and some other zodiacs. 

Our zodiac cruise lasted almost 2 hours. Such a great day out. It was then back to the ship, in time to go for cocktails and canapés, followed by dinner. We were joined tonight by the guest photographer Richard L’Anson and Jo. Great company, great food and glacial ice in our Baileys. 

We were last to leave the Gentoo Restaurant, we spent a short while listening to one of the passengers playing the piano for a bit of a sing a long, before visiting the library to get our polar plunge photos. 

We are now sailing further North ready for two landings/zodiac cruises tomorrow- a big day with two ventures off ship. 

Following cocktail and canapés there is a daily recap and precap from crew. 

Recap and precap

Today was a bit from Jonathan regarding naming of places around the peninsula. Then Max shared his Phototip of the Day – Isolate a subject.

Howard then gave us a heads up about tomorrow – possibly Yalour islands -Landing and zodiac cruise in am. Then Plenaeau/Charcot with landing and zodiac cruise. 

The weather is expected to be windy in the morning and better in the afternoon. 

Tomorrow 6th day of voyage – no seafood on request from Sylvia Earle – to support sustainability of natural resource there will be no seafood will be served tomorrow. 

Jonathan

Marguerite Bay discovered by Charcot – Horseshoe Island. Named after his wife. 

John Rymill – (SA) the Penola was his ship named after his home town.