Day 5 – various landing attempts ending in Lockroy (9 Dec)

There is a white board near the dining room on Deck 3. The day’s plans are laid out there, and can change rapidly, depending on conditions. This day is a good example of that. We first set out for one destination, arrive there to find conditions not good for anchorage or landing (wind, ice, typically). As the board gradually came to read on this day (I’m paraphrasing):

Plan A: Neko harbor – too much ice to enter the harbor
Plan B: Danko Island – too much ice
Plan C: Useful Island – too windy to anchor or Zodiac
Plan D: Paradise Bay – no good anchorage
Plan E: Neumayer Channel

After cruising the Neumayer Channel neighborhood, we anchored outside Port Lockroy, a famous British station on the Wiencke Island, which itself is between the mainland Peninsula and the much larger Anvers Island. This time, all of us simply Zodiac-ed over to a beach next to the Port Lockroy Station.

We climb a ridge with deep snow in our Wellingtons. Anjali leads the way, drawing a line in the snow beyond which she judges too dangerous to venture. To my experienced eyes, this line is way too conservative, and in fact, she soon allows us to walk back down the slope, over the line. We have a view of the anchorage, and of Port Lockroy. There is some snow wrestling among the staff. We can see a lot of penguins. Mostly gentoos, both at the beach, and over at the next back at Lockroy. Penguins appear to be all over the Lockroy station, even on the steps leading to the front door. Our guides tell us that the penguins often nest near humans, and some studies show that the breeding success rate is higher in these cases. Hypothesis is that predators shy away from humans.

After this landing, we return to the Prof. M. It is now late afternoon, and the plan was to not sail or do any more landings for the afternoon/evening, but to set out that night for the famously picturesque Lamaire Channel. Delphine unexpectedly called the kayakers up to the bridge, and offered us the chance to kayak while everyone else remained on board and waited for dinner. We all agree. So, the kayakers set out for Port Lockroy. I’m back in my blue single this time, and I’m glad of it. The day is colder than other kayaking outings, the sky closer, and the light lower. This is more like what I expected kayaking here to feel like. I dress lighter, however, having learned that the drysuit holds a lot of heat in. I also take care to squeeze all the spare air out of my drysuit, so I don’t look like the Michelin Man. The suit is so airtight that if you don’t bleed air out when you put it on, you retain that air the whole time you wear the suit, looking, as Frode might say, stupid.

Once at Lockroy, we off-loaded on some rocks and pulled the boats up. Walking up to the empty station (we didn’t visit Lockroy as an entire cruise company because the station staff was away for the day at another station visiting), we saw penguins sitting on eggs, penguins stealing stones from each other, and some kind of white bird that waits next to nesting/egg sitting penguins for the opportunity to steal an egg, I think. To prove our valor, we took a few “take one” pamphlets from inside the front door. We all took photos of each other by the station, the old dog sled, and of course, in front of penguins.

We piled back into the kayaks, and while I waited for everyone to get in their boats, I watched the Gentoo penguins swim under my kayak, like the birds they are.

Anchored in the protected harbor of Lockroy was a sailing yacht we’d sighted earlier. A fascinating ship. Aluminum hall. Sails in ice. I wanted to get a close look. So we headed into the harbor further, and rounded the Pelagic Australis. On approach, a woman came out to greet us. We could see that they were having drinks and dinner, so we only stayed a short time, bobbing in the water, asking polite questions as the Pelagic crew smoked cigars. They were on a 21 day trip, 3 crew, 8 guests, who appeared to be jovial Russians. They said the Drake’s Passage crossing wasn’t tough (though I can only imagine what a sailing crew on a 60 or so foot yacht would think was tough sailing) I was fascinated to see that tied to the rigging of the stern were 4 dressed lambs, apparently stored there for convenience. I wanted to ask why the skuas and petrals didn’t pick at the lamb meat as they sailed, but I kept quiet on that question.

We had to set off for the Professor Molchanov, as it was late. Kate and Phil took off in the double – I chased them down and mentioned that we couldn’t keep up, but they kept up their pace. Later, I’d learn Kate was making a beeline for the bathroom. This time, though, Patrick was good and stayed with the group. It got colder and windy. Challenging conditions, but fun. I felt it was the best trip so far.

On board the Prof M., we had a late dinner, especially held over for us, making us feel like champions a little. We sat in the “Finn” dining room, admiring the yellow wall paneling and how different it felt to sit in another dining room after 20 or so meals in the non-Finn room.