OCEAN TRAMP -Abundant Adventures – David Rider

Dec 13th
We left Paradise Harbour early this morning and started heading north, waving hello as we passed our old friends at the Gonzalez Vidalla Chilean base. I only know this second-hand, as I was fast asleep through all of it (I may have enjoyed the beer at Fiona’s bday celebration a bit too much).

When I woke up, we were returning to Rongé Island (which we had first come across on the 7th), this time to explore the Western shore, where we hoped to encounter a mixed colony of penguins for Helen’s research. When we heard the donkey bray of the mating Gentoo interspersed with the mechanical love call of the Chinstrap, we knew we had met with good fortune.

And definitely better fortune than the poor Gentoo that we saw fall into a deep and narrow rock crevasse. A rescue team was scrambled: Helen, Bassem, Lucy, and Niall quickly headed to shore, while the rest of us watched with bated breath from the deck.

The team slowly approached the crack in the rock, careful not to disturb the penguin onlookers. Niall swept the handle of one of the RIB’s paddles into the crevasse underneath the penguin. Next thing we knew, a dumb-founded penguin head appeared above the surface. It fell and then reappeared, along with the rest of his body, standing on the edge of Niall’s paddle. It stretched its flippers and waddled off, as if nothing had happened. Go Team Rescue!

After the adventure, Lucy and Helen conducted field recordings, while Niall took Fiona, Jacqueline, Gaya and I on a tour of the smaller players of the marine world, turning over rocks to show us the wriggling anthropods and floating krill that make up the foundation of all ocean life. Fiona called us over to examine a massive jelly she had found in a tidal pool, while imperial shags poked around in the nearby kelp, looking for the perfect nesting material.

Back to the boat, and we were heading a couple hours further north when we heard the now-familiar refrain from Helen: “Whale!” We put the engine in neutral to watch three humpback whales engaging in “bubble netting”: swimming and blowing bubbles in a circle, to create a vortex that collects all of the krill and other delicious goodies. They only then need to open their mouths while they skim the surface, shooting the excess water through their baleen to enjoy these morsels. The whales stayed close to the top, diving from time to time to show off their flukes, which we happily photographed for the “Happy Whale” project, which uses the geo-data from tourist photos to identify the unique fingerprint pattern on each humpback’s tail, maintaining a database on where each individual whale is traveling.

Our day ended with the Ocean Tramp entering Foyne Harbour on Enterprise Island, where we had a special mooring for the evening: the hull of a sunken 1916 whaler. The rusted ship was massive, 800-900 meters long, its bow protruding completely out of the water. A flock of Antarctic terns had made a nest in the living quarters, and they swooped on Niall as he attempted to tie our boat lines to the old ship’s bollards; he had to stick his hand in the air so they wouldn’t go for his head. Didn’t they know he was a friend to the avian; hadn’t they heard how he had saved a penguin’s life that day? News clearly doesn’t travel fast in these parts.

Dec 14th

Waking up late (a common theme in my blog posts), I missed the RIB excursion along the coast of Enterprise Island; Caesar took Helen, Bassem, Jacqueline, and Fiona on a tour of the massive rolling icebergs surrounding us, sitting in sparkling blue pools. Damian helped Gaya and me get the kayak out, and we cruised around the boat, checking out the inside of the rusted shipwreck, listening to the roaring of the glaciers calving, and mostly just enjoying the sun. The “engine” broke on our kayak, so Caesar had to tow us in with the RIB, and we bounced along in the dinghy’s wake.

We unmoored (this time with Damian braving the swoops of the terns) and weighed anchor, motoring north across the entrance to Charlotte Bay. After an arduous morning, I went down for a nap, only to be rudely awakened by Gaya shaking me to come back up. Annoyed, and rubbing the sleep from my eyes, I stumbled onto the deck, the boat no longer moving and everyone shouting and looking in all directions. Surrounding us, most fewer than 100 meters away, were six humpback whales skimming the surface for krill.

That’s what the big hubbub was all about? I debated whether I should just go back to sleep, but decided it was a beautiful afternoon, so I stayed up with the rest and watched these majestic creatures circle us; Jacqueline said that the regular blows from all these whales sounded like the gentle lapping of ocean waves against a shore.

Before an amazing stir-fry dinner (thanks Lucy!), Jacqueline and Caesar raised the flags for the State of Florida (where Jacqueline is a proud resident) and for Ocean Tramp, and Helen shared with us her
“Florida-Antarctica” song that she wrote in honour of the event. Then Damian informed us that, based on the lack of good nearby anchorages and the fact that the weather was completely clear, we would not be anchoring that night, and instead would have a sunset-sunrise cruise to our next destination.

We all took to the main deck to watch the sun set at 11:30pm, an amazing sight as we idled next to a massive iceberg: it was as long as a city block, with walls hundreds of feet high and an airplane-wide avenue down the middle of it. We giggled watching chinstrap penguins and humpbacks surface as the orange sun descended behind the horizon. We took turns keeping watch with Damian, most of us staying around for the sunrise at 2:30 (it never really got dark, just a dusky haze that transformed into dawn) and observing our captain ponder over potential landing spots. At 5 AM, with the new sun high and bright in the sky, we found our resting spot for the day off Cape Hershel on the Antarctic Peninsula, and I stumbled into bed.

Dec 15th
With a better excuse this time, I woke up at 11. The rest of the group were standing on deck in the warm sun, their winter jackets still hanging on their hooks. They were talking excitedly about ice and beaches, and I soon learned that today was the day of the POLAR PLUNGE!

Damian took the six of us in the RIB, guiding us through icebergs and pack ice to land us on the Antarctic Peninsula. Jacqueline, Bassem, and I stripped down to our bathing suits, and, one-by-one, we walked into the ice-cold water, quickly diving in before our bodies realized what we were up to. While cold, we all felt refreshed and invigorated by the plunge; Bassem even dunked his head twice. We dried off while a solitary Chinstrap appeared and waded into the same water, curious if we wanted to play. We said goodbye to the continent (I kissed the ground), as we will be disembarking only on islands from here on out.

We pointed the Ocean Tramp towards Deception Island, but halfway there, we jumped in the RIB and explored the channels and icebergs around Trinity Island. The landscape reminded us of Ireland, or something out of Lord of the Rings: massive walls of rock funnelling ocean water and icebergs. We discovered a huge ocean cave, which we were able to walk into once Caesar and Lucy got us safely ashore.

Back on the boat, Bassem was feeling in the mood for French fries, so he cut and fried some potatoes, the perfect accompaniment for Lucy’s delicious steak dinner. It’s after midnight now, and while the sun is set, we can see Deception Island nearby, and we know that in a couple hours, when the sun is back up, we will have found our next home for the night.

Blog – David Rider
Photo – Damian Foxall