Active Sound, off the tip of the Antarctic Peninsula
What distinguishes an expedition from a package holiday? Innovation. Discovery. The opportunity to explore new areas. What we euphemistically refer to as “the flexible itinerary”. If plan A doesn’t work, go to plan B. If plan B fails, the Captain and the Expedition Leader meet on the bridge and new options emerge.
We began our day with Zodiac rides through an Antarctic snowstorm to Paulet Island, a volcanic islet that is home to 100,000 pairs of Adelie penguins. Here Captain Carl Anton Larson and 21 survivors of the sinking of their ship, the Antarctic, spent the winter of 1903 huddled in a stone hut, eating penguins and praying for rescue. Today we found penguins, descendents of the survivors of Larsen et al., nesting on the remains of the stone hut.
Leaving Paulet Island, our plans B, C, and D were foiled, in turn, by ice, wind, snow and fog. Captain Lampe and Expedition Leader Matt Drennan huddled over the chart (ships don’t have maps) and found Tay Head, near the southeast corner of Joinville Island, and a new landing was added to our repertoire. We found a previously undocumented breeding colony of Adelie penguins and a leopard seal on the ice taking a toll of passing penguins. On the beach were Antarctic fur seals, dispersed from their breeding colonies on South Georgia Island, and resting Weddell seals, one of whom gazes back at you above.
Our day concluded with dinner served as Endeavour traversed Active Sound, between Joinville and Dundee Islands: Arctic char and Patagonian lamb served with a backdrop of penguins porpoising through and over the water and perched on floating cakes of ice. Glaciers dropped steeply into the water exposing vertical blue-green faces of ice to the setting sun (at 10:00 PM!). It is, indeed, a fine view from our floating restaurant!
What distinguishes an expedition from a package holiday? Innovation. Discovery. The opportunity to explore new areas. What we euphemistically refer to as “the flexible itinerary”. If plan A doesn’t work, go to plan B. If plan B fails, the Captain and the Expedition Leader meet on the bridge and new options emerge.
We began our day with Zodiac rides through an Antarctic snowstorm to Paulet Island, a volcanic islet that is home to 100,000 pairs of Adelie penguins. Here Captain Carl Anton Larson and 21 survivors of the sinking of their ship, the Antarctic, spent the winter of 1903 huddled in a stone hut, eating penguins and praying for rescue. Today we found penguins, descendents of the survivors of Larsen et al., nesting on the remains of the stone hut.
Leaving Paulet Island, our plans B, C, and D were foiled, in turn, by ice, wind, snow and fog. Captain Lampe and Expedition Leader Matt Drennan huddled over the chart (ships don’t have maps) and found Tay Head, near the southeast corner of Joinville Island, and a new landing was added to our repertoire. We found a previously undocumented breeding colony of Adelie penguins and a leopard seal on the ice taking a toll of passing penguins. On the beach were Antarctic fur seals, dispersed from their breeding colonies on South Georgia Island, and resting Weddell seals, one of whom gazes back at you above.
Our day concluded with dinner served as Endeavour traversed Active Sound, between Joinville and Dundee Islands: Arctic char and Patagonian lamb served with a backdrop of penguins porpoising through and over the water and perched on floating cakes of ice. Glaciers dropped steeply into the water exposing vertical blue-green faces of ice to the setting sun (at 10:00 PM!). It is, indeed, a fine view from our floating restaurant!
