Day 7 – from Lockroy to Melchoir Islands and north…

Antarctic Peninsula
11 Dec 2008

I awoke near Port Lockroy at 5:30AM to find a note on the floor of our cabin from Frode saying it was too windy for kayaking. Our ambitious early kayaking trip was not to be. The note was marked 4:50AM, from the bridge, comically scrawled. Frode must have been bleary at that early hour.

We waited for wind and ice to allow a Port Lockroy Zodiac landing to visit the famous station, but we gave up around 8AM. Ever flexible, we headed back to the Neumayer Channel (now in reverse I think?), and then plan was to proceed on to Gerlache Strait, with a stop or a cruise of Melchoir Islands our final off-the-ship activity.

The Gerlache Strait is cold! I had been standing on deck for a couple of hours in full gear, and when we moved from the ice-rich Neumayer Channel to open waters of the Gerlache, it got so cold I couldn’t stay out all the time.

Post-lunch, we reached the Melchior Island group. The wind is once again too high, so that’s the end of the kayaking. And our last Antarctic activity was to be: a Zodiac tour through the islands. This sounds kind of boring, but the 5 boats were full, and it was fun. There was driving snow, and it was cold and wet. There were lots of cool-looking big icebergs, some tossed up onto beach coves, some even trapped inside rock island formations, which I though was, in the Canadian words of S, neat. The Melchior Islands have huge icecaps, though the islands themselves are quite low in elevation – it must snow here a lot. I got some reasonably good photos of penguins, which I realized earlier today that I didn’t have much of, having spent my penguin time standing still near them and waiting for them to walk by me.

Upon re-boarding the Prof. Molchanov, Jan the hotelier had a small glass of some warm liqueur-based drink for everyone to toast our journey with. We went onto the bow, into the snow, still wearing our Zodiac gear, and all the staff and passengers had a toast and poured a few drops overboard to appease the god Neptune for a safe crossing. I guess the strict tourism rules that the IAATO has drawn up still allow us to pour a few ounces of liquor overboard…

We had a typical dinner, early this time. 6PM. That’s because we are now heading for the open waters of Drake’s Passage, which will mean rough seas, wind, a rolling and pitching Prof. Molchanov, and sea-sick passengers. I had slapped a new Scopalomine patch on in the morning, anticipating our return sail. This is the secret of my sea-sickness success: early and often application of medicine.

I wanted to stay up, to savor some not-very-good ship’s house wine and to read and write. Because in the non-stop activity during our Antarctic time, I haven’t gotten in much reading or writing or blogging. But, today day’s activities and the anti-nausea drugs knocked me out. I fell asleep in the bar, even though I was surrounded by socializing passengers. I woke up in the bar, and carried myself off to bed very early: 9PM.