Our final day in Antarctica was our lightest, with just a landing + optional excursions, no cruising. Neko (nee-koh) Harbor was a second continental landing. The cove is next to a glacier; we were directed not to dawdle on the beach after getting out of the zodiacs because ice calving from the glacier could cause waves big enough to be hazardous. There was a Gentoo penguin colony, as well as the chance of seeing other birds and seals. The weather was expected to be 1-2 C / 34-36 F with light winds and a mix of clouds and sun. The expedition team considered offering a second chance at a polar plunge after the Deception Island landings were canceled, but decided they could not due to the calving of the nearby glaciers.
The whale sightings from the middle of the night continued as we approached Neko. I took a few for the team and kept dashing outside in just my pajamas (capris and a t-shirt) to take photos/videos.
We reached our ‘parking spot’ at about 7:45a. The landing site was on the starboard side, so we got peace again on the port side. There was A LOT of ice in the water. The morning kayak group (including my father) headed out right as we found seats at breakfast that coincidentally were straight above the tender pit. It looked like they were going to have a fantastic time out among the bergy bits.
Report from my dad on kayaking: Getting gear was well organized; it took 15-20 minutes the night before to get a fleece onesie, dry suit, and boots. They made exchanges if anything didn’t fit. In the morning, everyone got mostly dressed in their own cabins; they finished zipping up the dry suits in the Expedition Lounge. Once the group was taken by zodiac out to where the kayaks were waiting, they moved from the transport zodiac to another zodiac to do the transfer into the kayaks. The person in the back of the kayak got in first, and the expedition team made sure the rudder petals were adjusted properly. This was repeated for each kayak, then the front seater got in for each kayak. They spent a little time going around the area to get used to working with their partner, then the group set off around the bay.
There was a lot of ice (growlers). They were given the instruction not to hit anything bigger than a milk crate. The excursion team gave them advice along the way on how to position their arms or orient the paddles so they didn’t exhaust themselves. It was pretty leisurely most of the time, no one was rushing them along. They did have one sprint because someone spotted a whale, so it was a lot of paddling and then a lot of shushing each other. There were a few breaks where they stopped to ‘smell the roses’, chat with each other, and snap pictures. There were lots of penguins swimming around and under the kayaks. In the end, the process to return to the ship was the reverse of the process to get everyone into the kayaks.
Back on the ship, at 11:45a, they announced that conditions were good and they were going to try offering the polar plunge after all for the Whales and Seals (the remaining 2 groups). Plungers would strip down to their swimsuits on a tarp on the snow to keep a safe distance from the beach, so they recommended having socks for the walk down. For any interested Albatrosses and Petrels, they would try to take them back ashore just to plunge at the end of the day. There was a chance this would all be canceled again if the calving increased. I had considered doing the plunge at Deception Island, but decided I wasn’t really that interested in walking over penguin poop to hop in the freezing water.
As we were getting in the zodiac, ice calved off the glacier right next to the ship. It created a wave that was large enough to be visible on the water. (Sorry, didn’t manage to get any pictures). They held the zodiacs for a couple minutes until the waves dissipated on the landing beach. By the way, loved the name of the zodiac next to ours:
This was another wet landing, though the water was not as deep as Damoy. The marked path was another hike up a giant hill. We didn’t realize the latter until we started getting closer and could see little ‘ants’ in red jackets way up the mountain.
Dad and I did not have climbing another mountain in us, so we agreed to just go to the first plateau (though apparently we had different definitions of where that was – mine won even though it was higher). There were a lot of penguins there, including one who decided to put on a show. This landing proved that sometimes, just stopping to smell the roses is best; our friends were coming up the hill when the penguin antics started and were so focused on continuing on to the top that we found out later they never saw us or the penguin! More ice calved while we were on land; it wasn’t looking good for the polar plunge.
After getting our fill of the penguins and the majestic scenery, we headed back to the ship… and that was the end of our experiences walking on Antarctica. We’d done 4 out of 4 landings, 2 out of 2 zodiac cruises, plus kayaking for Dad. A highly successful adventure.
Once we got out of our landing gear, we headed to Aune for lunch (about 1p). As we were washing our hands before entering, we heard the ship’s horn blast for about 15 seconds. We assumed there had been more ice calving and the bridge was trying to warn the beach and the kayakers about waves. Shortly after, an announcement was made that the polar plunge was canceled once more. The crew still did their best to make folks happy; just before 3:30p, they announced that a modified polar plunge would be held onboard the ship (pool deck) by pulling water from the bay with a fire hose and spraying the people who wanted to participate. It was a brilliantly sunny day and around 40 F, so this was probably better than an actual plunge (and a much shorter distance to go to get warm again).
A little before 4:30p, we started heading north out of Neko Harbor. By 5:45p, we had reached the Gerlache Strait and turned to the northeast to follow it. We sailed between Anvers and Brabant Islands for a few hours, providing beautiful views. By 9:30p, the seas got rougher as we approached the Drake Passage. We’d been spoiled by the calm Antarctic waters for 5 days; now the Drake Shake awaited us.
I went to an evening workshop in the Science Center that was supposed to be looking at samples collected by the science boat under a microscope. However, the equipment wasn’t working correctly so it became a recap presentation about samples from earlier in the week and an Antarctic food chain. Diatoms (phytoplankton or plant plankton) had been found in a water sample collected earlier in the week; they were the bottom of the chain at just 1/100th of a millimeter. Images of the sample under a microscope were shown. They had also found a sea butterfly (aka Thecosomata, a zooplankton or animal plankton), and had a video of it swimming around. Plankton are eaten by krill (which they also had a video of from the science boat). Krill are eaten by penguins, among other animals, and there was a video of penguins swimming from the ship’s small underwater autonomous vehicle. If the food chain is disrupted, say something starts taking or killing the krill, the easy to see problem is that the penguins will starve and their numbers will go down. But also nothing will be eating the phytoplankton and so it will increase out of control. When the massive uneaten population starts dying as all things do, it can lead to chemical changes in it’s environment that also affect other beings. It was interesting to think about how connected and fragile the planet is. The session was well done and well attended.
