Photo Friday: Antarctica #7: Remains of the Whaling Past

These reports from our trip are feeling more and more like glimpses of a distant past, both personally and in this world where no one is traveling anywhere too far from home. Certainly not internationally! It's good to look back and remember, and this post is the first of two where it's all about history. In particular, the grim history of whaling.

 

Mikkelsen Harbor was used first by sealers, then in the early 20th Century by whalers. It's not much of a place, and I think they must have mostly just done some basic butchering before hauling the blubber off to someplace else (like Deception Island--I'll get to that in a couple of weeks) to be processed.

Approaching the island in the harbor, where the whalers had what look like seriously inadequate shelter. (Photo by Dave Dempsey)

The skeleton of the whaling boat is poignantly set off by hundred of whale bones.

The animals rule here now. We tourists slogged a long way around through the mud when a large seal (out of sight behind the boat) took possession of the beach. Penguins hopped around on the bones of boat and whales alike.

Dave caught some wonderful views of a parent feeding its nearly-grown chick. As noted, the island now belongs to the animals.

Dave had his moment of communing with a curious gentoo penguin.

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All images and text ©Rebecca M. Douglass, unless otherwise indicated.
As always, please ask permission to use any photos or text. Link-backs appreciated!

Photo Friday and Smashwords Sale!

So, before I get into sharing more photos from Antarctica, you have to hear about the Smashwords Summer/Winter sale. All my books are on sale, and for this first week of July, they are 75% off, which means the ones usually 99 cents are free--a great chance to get in at the start of each series! Jump on the chance, because I'm going to reduce the percentage off each week, unless I forget (yeah, I'm not really expecting great things of myself).

Find my books at my Author Page and stock up!

Just missing the latest, Death By Library and The Christmas Question--but you'll find them all on sale at Smashwords!

Okay, now for Antarctica #6, 

Cierva Harbor Zodiac Cruise

As with my last photo post, I'm offering minimal commentary. This was the next-to-last day of landings and adventures, and as you will see, weather was damp and dreary, but even under those conditions the light in Antarctica could be beautiful.

Coming into the harbor in the morning.

First view, an Argentine base. It was closed for the season, but is in regular summer use. The red buildings are a nice bit of color in an often black-and-white landscape.

Humans move out, penguins move in. I'm pretty sure this was a colony of gentoo penguins.

We then went off to look at icebergs and watch for wildlife in the harbor.

I'm still not sure exactly how these striations were formed. Has to have something to do with the layers in the snow (tilted 90 degrees).

Finally we found our critters--a leopard seal that checked out each zodiac in term, probably trying to decide if there was anything there it could eat.

Note that by now it's raining for real. You can see the rain hitting the water.

Our guide warned us not only to keep our hands out of the water, but to actually move away from that side of the boat, because they can lunge up and grab things, like tourists.

 

A farewell gleam of sun hitting the clear ice on one jagged mini-berg.

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All images and text ©Rebecca M. Douglass, 2020, unless otherwise indicated.
As always, please ask permission to use any photos or text. Link-backs appreciated!

Photo Friday: Antarctica #6

I have struggled a bit with looking at and selecting photos to continue sharing with you all. Not because I don't want to share them--I do. Photos are meant to be shared. It's just kind of hard right now to look at that other life. But I decided I could do it, with less commentary, but remembering the good times. It helps in a way that on most of these outings Dave and I were in separate groups. (For those who wonder, it's because I got ready much faster, and once dressed for outdoors in Antarctica, staying in the ship wasn't an option!)

This was Day 4 along the Antarctic Peninsula, where we spent the morning doing both a landing and a zodiac cruise at Portal Point. This was a whales, seals, and snow morning! I was in the group that landed first, then cruised, and it started snowing shortly after we landed. By the time the zodiac cruise ended, it was raining, and the weather worsened enough we didn't have an afternoon outing. I'll just share the photos with minimal captions and let you enjoy the amazing world that is still out there, somewhere beyond the COVID Curtain.

These guys were the welcome crew by the landing--a pair of crab eater seals, IIRC.

Seals on land are pretty funny!

Big wet snowflakes

As we approached the landing.

X marks the spot... for something? The pattern is from wave erosion suggesting several roll-overs.

We'd seen whales swimming and breaching from the shore, and it didn't take long for a closer look.

My best shot of a breaching whale--a little fuzzy due to excitement and a wobbly boat.

As photos go, this is awful--but I wanted to show the huge splash when the whale came back down!

Today's gratuitous penguins. If we'd returned to Ushuaia as intended, I might have bought one of these!

All images and text ©Rebecca M. Douglass, 2020, unless otherwise indicated.
As always, please ask permission to use any photos or text. Link-backs appreciated!

Photo Friday: Antarctica #6

Portal Point: Seals and Whales

Our 4th day in Antarctica was the only one where we didn't get to do two outings, thanks to the weather. But we did get both a landing and a cruise at Portal Point, and had some special wildlife sightings.

They split the group so only half of us landed at a time (due to constrained space on land), and I was in the batch that got dropped ashore first. This fantastic duo was there to greet us!

Crabeater seals, which do not in fact eat crabs (they mostly eat krill)

Seals are very fast and graceful in the water, but even more so than penguins they are at a disadvantage on land.

Whenever we were ashore, members of the expedition staff went ahead of us with markers to show where we shouldn't go. Sometimes they wanted to keep us away from penguin rookeries or cranky seals. In this case, it was to keep us from the unstable edges of the snowfield, which dropped off 100' or so into the ocean.

Being smart enough to know I don't know everything, I stayed behind the guide.

 Then it started to snow, which was actually amazing and fantastic, even if my camera did want to focus on the snowflakes, making for a lot of photos I had to toss.

 Snow in Antarctica--what could be more appropriate?

I'm not sure who I got to snap this one of me, enjoyed the weather and trying to keep my hood on my head. Note our ship in the background.

Snow made everything more beautiful, and reminded us that a) the weather can turn bad any time of year, and b) it was nearly the autumn equinox, so summer was over.

Snow on the rocks at our landing--I was being very careful!

After an hour ashore, we swapped with those who'd been out cruising, and headed out to look for whales. We'd already seen several from up on the bluff, including one breeching.

We also checked out the ice bergs, which as usual were beautiful.

Waves sculpt the lower reaches of the bergs.

 My husband took the photo below. I include it because it not only shows the color of the ice and water, but also the dirt stripes. The vertical dark stripes show that this berg is lying 90 degrees from how it stood as part of the glacier. The stripes are dirt, laid down in several seasons, perhaps when slopes above the glacier slid and dumped dirt on the ice.

I had to use his photo because most of mine didn't come out. Too much snow on the lens :)

 I'm pretty sure this berg has some history.

The wave-erosion patterns show that the berg has tipped over, probably more than once.

 I promised you whales. This was the only place I saw breeching whales. Apologies for the quality of the photo, but long telephotos on a wildly rocking zodiac make for less-than-perfect photos.

It's also just possible I was too excited to take care with my photos.

 Just for fun--this is blurry, but gives some idea of the splash that thing made when it came back down.

It was kind of loud, too.

Not long after that, we got called back to the ship, as conditions were deteriorating. The snow had turned to rain, and we were getting cold and wet. It was certainly a luxury and a delight to have a hot shower after outings like this. I felt bad for the early explorers, who must have pretty much been cold and wet for weeks at a time (other times they would have dried out, but still been cold).

As the seals had greeted us, the whales waved goodbye.

All humpback whales again.

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 All images and text ©Rebecca M. Douglass, 2020, unless otherwise indicated.
As always, please ask permission to use any photos or text. Link-backs appreciated!

Photo Friday: Antarctica #5

Zodiac cruise with icebergs--and some wildlife

I'm working my way through the Antarctica photos, and I'm kind of amazed to realize from the post numbering that we've been home for 5 weeks. Still have about 5 more posts to do from Antarctica, and then I can get moving on all the hikes in Patagonia. 

Today I'm featuring our Day 3 (along the Antarctic Peninsula--it was day 6 of the cruise) afternoon zodiac cruise in Andvord Bay. This was the after-lunch outing following my amazing penguin encounters.  

We sailed from Neko Harbor to Andvord Bay while we lunched, and the rain stopped, to everyone's relief.

We sailed past lots of these

And parked about here

 Pile into zodiacs and head out with Rustyn Mesdag at the helm. I snagged the seat by the bows, which can be damp but also allows for some good views.

For obvious reasons, I'm not really sure who was on the boat with me!

 There's not a lot of narration needed for the next 2 1/2 hours, though that doesn't mean I won't add any.

Just like a cartoon!

Some of the ice hunks that come off the glaciers are pretty dirty, while others are sparkling white.

Many of the bergs were amazing shades of blue, above and below the water

It took a little cruising around, but eventually we found the wildlife.

A crabeater seal taking a rest.

Penguin naps

And whales! These are all humpback whales, which was most of what we saw.

And to finish off--a little whale video. It's a bit shaky, because I was in the zodiac and that's not a very stable platform (and maybe because I was excited). If you listen to the sound, you'll hear the whale breathe (and me getting excited).

 

All images and text ©Rebecca M. Douglass, 2020, unless otherwise indicated.
As always, please ask permission to use any photos or text. Link-backs appreciated!