Our last day of excursions. We're planning to go to Carcass Island to see more magellanic penguins, some striated caracara (falcon-type birds), and other local birds. We had options for zodiac groups based on how we wanted to see the island instead of by color group this time. There were the fast walkers, who wanted to walk along the coast to the settlement; the bird walkers, who wanted to have a guide to help them find the wildlife; the slow walkers, who just wanted to meander along the coastline to the settlement; and the settlement group, who didn't want to bother with the coastline and just wanted to go straight to the settlement from the ship. I chose the bird walkers. Maybe I should have reconsidered, but it turned out to be the best option.
Ab and Yeti were leading the bird walkers. They have this tendency to take the long way around, through the toughest terrain. In their defense, that's where the birds are nesting, so that's where you have to walk if you're going to see them. I knew that, and yet, I chose the bird walker group. I did get some lovely shots of oyster catchers, a Cobb's wren, meadowlark, and an open nesting magellanic penguin. I got a shot of the striated caracara, but it wasn't a good one. As I heard in the bird group, “A bad picture is better than no picture,” but I won't subject you guys to it! We had gotten back around to where the trail started, and I was beat from hiking through the tussac grass, up steep inclines, climbing over sheer rocks, and was beginning to have some difficulty breathing. Suddenly, Guil appeared walking toward us. I tried to hurry to catch up to him to ask if it was too late to change my mind and go to the settlement group because I had come to the conclusion that I couldn't make it. He said they had canceled the excursion and everyone was going back to the ship. So, I got to see the best of the birds, hit my peak abilities, and got to go back without completely admitting defeat!! Yay, me!! The best of both worlds!
Oystercatcher
Now for the serious part. I feel confident that I am not the only one appreciating Phil's and Cpt Jeremy's caution even though it has kept us from seeing some things we were planning to see (like adelie penguins and doing the polar plunge). When I went to the mud room, there were people talking about an incident that happened two days ago on Elephant Island, a landing we called off because of winds. On Nov 15, an expedition ship with Quark had a landing scheduled on Elephant Island. On our zodiac, we asked Neill, who happened to be our driver, what he knew about it. He said from what they understood at this time, the seas were relatively calm with an experienced crew and an experienced zodiac driver when a rogue wave came out of nowhere and flipped the zodiac. Two passengers perished in the Antarctic waters. He did try to reassure us that these were the first passenger fatalities from accident that he had heard of in his eight years of Antarctic expeditions and reminded us that there is risk in everything we do. It seems to have been just a freak accident, but there will be a full investigation.
Today, we embarked at winds of about 25 knots. According to Kevin, our driver coming back, the winds were consistently 40 knots, meaning that gusts were higher, potentially over 50, and that is dangerous. I, for one, thoroughly appreciate Cpt Jeremy and Phil pulling us in early when conditions deteriorated and keeping us on the ship when conditions are not right for a landing or zodiac cruise at all. Yes, I'm bummed that I didn't get to see the adelie penguins. I'll probably never get another opportunity to see them. If we don't make this afternoon's landing and see the rock hoppers, I'll also be bummed. Rock hoppers live elsewhere, though, and I'll probably have the opportunity to see them again. I am thankful to our ship leadership for considering safety when deciding whether an excursion will go forward or if plan B, C, or D (and in some cases, we have seemed to go to plan ZZ) will have to suffice. In fact, I believe it was a plan ZZ or somewhere close to that where we got to see the emperor penguins. I am also thankful that, if my family reads about the incident before I get back to Ushuaia, that I was able to make contact with them by text message on Stanley yesterday, the day AFTER the incident on Elephant Island. That way, they will know I was alive the day AFTER that incident and will know I'm okay.
Our second excursion for today was also canceled. We only did a drive by of the Devil's nose. You could see a huge amount of white dots all over the hillside, but even with my binoculars, I couldn't discern what was a black-browed albatross nest and what was a rock hopper penguin. Albatross, shag, and gulls flew around the ship, and the dolphins played around the port-side bow, but the wind was blowing so strong and the ship was rocking so hard that it was impossible for me to get a good shot of any of them. Thus ends the last expedition day. Phil let us know that because of cutting Carcass Island short and driving by the Devil's Nose instead of hiking across Westport to the colonies, we will be arriving in Ushuaia earlier than expected. The benefit is that we will be navigating the Beagle Channel during daylight. This may save me an excursion in town. We're allowed to exit the ship for the evening if we want, but I think I'll stay on, eat my last meal on board, pack, and just catch up on things that have happened since I've been gone.
We also got to do a tour of the bridge.
After the briefing and recap, one of our group had reserved the Panorama Restaurant for the group for a hot rocks dinner. Again, I forgot my camera. We went out on the bridge for sunset pix, too. I still didn't have my camera. We never got the spectacular sunsets, so I didn't bother going back down two flights of stairs to get it. I also didn't have my coat. It was windy, but not really that cold, so I stayed out for a while. I've been out without it so much that one of our group noticed that I really do have an aversion to coats!
Then we went down to the lecture room for Antarctic trivia night. I figured if I caught something in that soup of people in the lecture room, it is the last night, and there are no more excursions to miss. When I got there, I found that I probably could have been going down for the game nights all along. The coughing and hacking people weren't there and there was plenty of space between people. Oh well. We won (by virtue of the team with more points than us being disqualified for cheating with expedition staff!), and I have a patch of the Antarctic continent. Now, I just need to find a sharpie and a map so I can mark the spot where I disembarked on the peninsula! Next stop, Ushuaia (again) - the end of the world!
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