Antarctica: Land of Giants

Ocean Tramp – David

Waking up next to a hulking wreck of a boat is not typically what you want to encounter when sailing miles from anywhere. Thankfully, this wreck provided us a nice calm mooring for our overnight in Enterprise and a wonderfully atmospheric start to our day of exploration. Some of the group kayaked around the wreck and the bay, exploring the
landscape from the water – a unique and perfect way to enjoy the eerily blue ice giants that bob and float around. As the icebergs melt, they form intricate shapes, textures and colours (note the spelling for our UK and Canadian readers) and are constantly changing throughout their lives.

After breakfast, we packed up and set sail towards our ultimate destination: the penguin colony of Cuverville. It was going to be a day of exploration with a mission-for-science thrown in for good measure – little did we know at the time, it would also be one of our most moving encounters with the beauty and grace of giants.

We were barely on our way for more than an hour when we saw the familiar blow of a couple of Humpback whales off the bow (that’s the front of the boat for the newbies joining us today.) As we slowed to see what they were doing, they came closer and closer, arching their bodies and shallow diving through the water. We all watched in  amazement as they approached us with curiosity; surely wondering what this rather whale-sized floating thing was.
For the next thirty minutes as we drifted, they glided under and around our boat, effortlessly twisting, turning and checking us out while we all watched on in utter awe. How can something that size, be so graceful? Ending their inquisition with a fabulous display of flipper waving and tail slapping, we parted ways – good bye friendly giants!

But back to the mission! We agreed to help a researcher from Santa Cruz Uni by trying to locate and retrieve a beacon that was recently attached to a Humpback whale here and had come off as planned and was being tracked by satellite indicating to us its position and where to search for it! In order to do that, we followed the radio signal in and out of immense ice covered coves and bays before finally spotting it amongst some broken up ice in the  Gerlache Strait. Imagine our excitement to locate something barely the size of a football in an ocean of ice!

After confirmation that the champagne would be on ice when we returned it to its rightful owner, we steamed on before dropping anchor in our spot for the night, just outside a huge penguin colony, with its residents happily going about their lives in and out of the water.

Today’s lesson, be it natural or manmade, Antarctica is certainly the land of giants.

Blog & Photo: David Divitt