And this is Expedition Cruising!

Well, we thought our 5:20am wake-up call from yesterday was early! Little did we know! For the Antarctic landings, we are split into 2 groups named, Rock Hoppers (us), and Chinstraps. No more then 100 people can be ashore at the same time, which is why they split us! Well, the Rock Hoppers had the early tour this morning. We had to be dressed and ready to go by 5am. When we woke up, we looked at the map that showed the ship’s path overnight and thought someone had fallen asleep at the wheel, as the path was rather erratic. But, it turns out that we attempted to go to our morning landing site, St Andrews Bay (200,000 penguin colony), but the waves were too high, so we went to Royal Bay instead. So, at 5am all suited up, we went ashore to an Elephant Seals Creche (where the mothers have their pups, feed them, then wean them). The Elephant Seal pups were all learning to swim and fight with each other. It was really quite darling! There was also a Gentoo Penguin colony, so we spent some time watching them. Our group had 1 ½ hours onshore and got on the Zodiacs to return to the ship just as it started to rain. Our second landing of the day was to be Gold Harbor. This was supposed to be another beach landing, but the Elephant seals were guarding the beaches and there was not a safe area for us. So, the Expedition Leader decided to just give Zodiac Tours (without landing). This time the Chinstrap group was going first, so we went and grabbed lunch while they began to board the Zodiacs. They had 2 Zodiacs full and pulling away to shore when the wind picked up and the swells became too much to be able to safely board the Zodiacs (when the swells are large, the boat and Zodiac move independently and the step down (or up) can be the size of the swell). So, they cancelled the Zodiac tours. Unfortunately, the people that had already boarded the Zodiacs had to wait for the wind and swell to die down so that they could safely return. So, they sat on the Zodiacs bobbing away for about 20 minutes. We decided that today was a good day to be a Rock Hopper!
After everyone was back on board, we started heading to Drygalski Fjord to see some scenic glaciers. On the way, we incurred a giant iceberg “colony”. (I’m not sure what else to call it.) Frankly, it is NOT an exaggeration to say there were HUNDREDS of giant icebergs, many of them the so called “tabular” icebergs. When ice freezes off the coast, over the sea, it forms thousands of square miles of pristine and flat ice shelves with uniform thickness. As the weather warms, they break off the mainland, and become slabs like table tops (hence, tabular). So, hundreds of these broke off in the Wendell Sea (on the East side of Antarctica), and floated (driven by the currents) to this area. The sea floor is higher here, so these bergs ground in the “shallow” water, and get stuck until they break apart. One of these icebergs we saw was 10 miles long; many were over 2 miles long. I’m not sure how tall they were, but I estimate they were a couple hundred feet above the water. Being stuck, they are more susceptible to wind and water erosion, which carves beautiful caves, channels, and other forms out of them.
So, anyway, as we closed in on this gorgeous scene, a funny thing became evident…the entrance into the fjord was too thick with icebergs to get in safely, and more importantly, even if we did get in, it could choke tighter, and we might get stuck entirely. We have enough food for the 16 day trip, and probably some more if we had to ration. But, frankly, we do not have enough time to wait for weeks or months until they break up naturally. So, one more for “expedition” cruising (which is coming to mean “no one KNOWS what we’re doing next”). Honestly, we can not imagine the fjord being more incredible than the iceberg cluster. So, no disappointment.
Just as we gave up on the fjord and began heading a few hours early to South Orkney Island, the weather reminded us who was boss. The wind picked up steadily, as did the swells. Ultimately, we exceeded 130 kph (roughly 80 mph) wind speed, with swells something like 4-5 meters (12-15 feet). It wasn’t raining, but the caps of the waves broke off in spray under the high winds, so the outer decks (deck 5 and 6) were wet and being sprayed. They closed the outer decks, as you might expect. You might also imagine that the ship, being a 354 foot long by 7 deck high wall, caught quite a lot of the wind. So, we listed (tilted) severely! At one point, we probably had as much as 12 degrees of tilt. One door was open on the 5th deck, and you couldn’t see the horizon from the far side of the hall. All I could see was sea. In our room, Deck 3, the horizon was mostly not visible without looking up from the port hole.While I, Bill, found this of great interest, and very intriguing, Theresa—not so much!! First, the idea of looking out the window at water, significant pitch and roll, and wind speeds exceeding highway speed limits, was not comforting. But, more importantly, despite her “patch” for motion sickness, this was too much. So, for the rest of the evening, she took to the bed sick, and miserable. Unhappy ending. But, after one full week, to get a “really” bad day, I guess we’re ahead of the curve!