Today we stopped an an area called Mikkelsen Harbour. Like many of the areas we have been, it was used by whalers to process their catch of whales. It is surrounded by mountains, so it is fairly protected from the wind. What was the best about this morning was that the sunshine was starting to peak through the clouds. We were supposed to have a nice sunny day here, the first sunny day since we left Ushuaia.
I woke up at about 6:15 AM and showered before heading to get a quick bite to eat for breakfast in the World Cafe. Stephanie is still not eating much, especially for breakfast, so she just slept in a little longer. She is feeling a lot better, but does not have much of an appetite.
Landing Area on Mikkelsen Harbour
After I returned form breakfast, we just relaxed in the room until it was time to pull out our gear and get it ready for the Zodiac Landing at 8:00 AM, which was in Group 1, the first landing group for the day. We watched yesterday’s daily briefing for today’s stop on out TV. We found out we are landing on a small island inhabited by a colony of Gentoo Penguins and a few seals. There are also many whale bones on the beach of the island, left over from the early whaling days.
We headed down to Deck A and checked in and then got into the line for the Zodiac boarding. For some reason, probably people going ashore out of order, we were too far back in line to get on the first set of Zodiac boats going ashore and had to wait for those boats to come back to the ship after dropping off their load of passengers.
Stephanie At The Landing Area
There is not a good system in place to segregate the different time slots to insure people are going at their assigned times. It was a little worse today because they made an announcement that the transit time to the island was a little longer because they had to take a non-direct route to the beach due to shallow water and rocks, so we had a longer wait for them to return.
It took about 15 minutes for the Zodiacs to return from their drop off and we were boarded onto the first one back. At least we were in the front of the line and Stephanie could make the request to sit in the front to be away from the engine fumes.
All 10 people boarded and we headed to the landing spot. It was a little rocky on the beach, but not bad, mostly smaller stones. We got off and they gave us a briefing about where to go and also told us not to linger by a group of penguins nearby that were molting. There was also one seal sleeping on the beach near the landing spot and we got some good photos.
There was a large pile of whale bones that had been on the beach for a long time, and they were quite large. We got a photo taken of us with our flags with the nearby glacier ice in the background and then headed along the marked trail to see more penguins. The penguins here are all Gentoo penguins. There were quite a few chicks still with their mothers, fairly old but still with their typical brown feathers. Hopefully they will be old enough be able to leave when the annual migration from Antarctica begins in a few weeks.
There was an area that had a fairly steep incline to the top of a ridge where more penguins were. The entire area on this island was covered in snow, which made walking more difficult. There was also a lot of penguin poop on the ground and it had a strong odor.
By the beach, there were a lot of large pieces of ice that had washed up on the shore and it was interesting to take photos of the ice close up.
Blue Ice Near The Landing Area
The entire area around the island was ice covered mountains and the ice in some areas had a lot if blue showing in the bright sunshine.
We had to spend a lot of time washing the mud off of our boots at the water’s edge before we could get on the Zodiac for the return ride to the ship. Once there, we also had to shuffle through the motorized boot washer, and then step into a tub of some type of disinfectant.
We checked in through security and headed back to the room to get out of our gear. We learned the hard way the other day that we need to take our wet boots off outside the room. We have to let them dry without wiping them off so the disinfectant has time to work. We took them off in the room near the drying closet yesterday and it made the carpet in that are pretty damp, and then our socks got wet from the wet carpet. Today, we did it outside and kept most of the water out of the room.
First Morning Drinks Of The Cruise
Since we did not have anything else scheduled until 3:00 PM, we decided to go to the bar in the Aquavit Terrace at the stern of the ship and have them make us some morning drinks, a peach Bellini for Stephanie and a Bloody Caesar. They had some difficulty rounding up all of the ingredients, the bartender had to go to another bar for the peach schnapps and then they could not find the Clamato for my Caesar. The bar was open, but also in the middle of putting a lot of supplies away so it took them a while, but they finally got us our drinks.
We stayed for two rounds and while we were there, the beverage Manager came by and told us there was a special lunch being set up on Deck 6. They were going to serve mussels steamed in white wine sauce outside since it was such a sunny day.
We talked with our friend Robert from Connecticut for a while, he just happened to be passing by. Then his wife Martha stopped by and we all chatted for a bit.
Enjoying Mussels For Lunch On The Open Deck
It was noon and so we headed up to the special lunch on Deck 6 and it was really good. The mussels were served in a large bowl with the wine broth, and there was toasted garlic bread to accompany the mussels. We found an open table and had the lunch with a glass of white wine. It was really good, the mussels were not rubbery and had a great flavor.
We had never even been to deck 6 before, and so we spent some time walking around to check it out. There was also a deck above this and those normally roped off steps were open so we went up there. It is used as a landing area for a helicopter if there is a need to medically evacuate someone.
After Lunch Stroll On Deck 6
We headed back to the room to rest a bit and work on the blog. Stephanie also worked on her post to Facebook, which gets a lot more interest than this blog. Stephanie was resting and I was typing away when I realized we only had 15 minutes until we needed to meet downstairs at the Hanger for the Special Ops Boat tour. Luckily, we were getting pretty quick at getting ready with all of our expedition gear. We made it just in time to get checked in and set our audio guides to the proper channel.
Leopard Seal On The Ice
It was a good tour. At first, we headed out into the open water to “look for whales”, which was a little funny, I don’t think there were any out in that area all day. Maybe it was just an excuse to ride fast in the boat.
We headed back onto the harbor area and just toured around all of the glacier ice on the mountains at the shoreline. We did see several seals laying on the floating ice, and some of the glacial ice at the edge of the water was really blue in color in some areas. There was one leopard seal on the floating ice, and they are rare to see. They are at the top if the food chain, their only enemy is an Orca Whale. The leopard seals eat penguins on a regular bases for their meals.
The tour was over and we headed back to the boat. It was not bad, but not as good as some previous days, that is just the nature of the site you are visiting.
Like on most days, we got out of our expedition gear and headed up to the Explorer’s Lounge to relax and discuss our day with other people we have met there.
Since Stephanie is still not eating a lot, we have not made any reservations for a Specialty Restaurant. We did decide to go ahead an book Manfredi’s for the night after tomorrow since tomorrow will be a longer afternoon, we do not arrive at the landing area until 1:00 PM.
Rare Sunset
As it got later, the sun was still shining and we were treated to beautiful sunset in the Antarctic, a rare event since it usually does not stay sunny all day and into the evening.
We ate dinner again in the World Cafe, and the food from the grill is really good, some of the other food served there is just not as fresh, especially when you go to eat close to closing time. The grill cooked us two filet mignon’s from the start, most times they have some that are slightly precooked so they do not take long to finish. These were going to take the full 8 minutes to cook to medium rare, they were not cooked at all before they started them.
Sunset In Antarctica
The meal was good. Like most nights, we went to the Explorer’s Lounge for a nightcap. It had been another good day in Antarctica. Luckily, the bar closes at 10:00 PM, or there abouts, so we are never tempted to stay out late!
We headed back to the cabin about 10:15 PM and called it a day.