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Our Captain had to make a few tough decisions these past few days…the weather wasn’t cooperating with our plans as we sat (or more like floated) around and waited. We ended up just off the coast of Elephant Island which is so named because of the elephant seals that supposedly live there (we didn’t see any but we heard some noises that sounded like a dog barking!). So our Antarctic experience has consisted of Elephant Island and Deception Island…not much, but it looks like all we are going to get this trip.
In the Atlas in the library downstairs Elephant Island seems to be the Northern-most of the South Shetland Islands. There are other smaller islands around and numerous icebergs, including the traditional type of iceberg and the tabular or shelf-like type. We arrived late afternoon and pretty soon the sky started to clear and the swells calmed down as well. The captain all but stopped the ship and did bow thruster-assisted 360’s for most of the afternoon giving us all beautiful views from our suites!
Everyone was on whale, penguin, seal and bird watch. We didn’t get to see a whale although there were numerous sightings, including multiple sighted by Jean-Michel Cousteau (Jacques Cousteau’s son) who is on the ship giving a lecture series. It seemed that the whales were just hanging out having a good time (not migrating) so we hoped for more sightings but alas none came for us…
Margaret and I had multiple penguin sightings from our veranda. They are tough little buggers to take pictures of however as we are pretty high up on the ship (deck 9), the ship is moving, and the penguins are going really fast jumping out of the water like dolphins but only about 1/5th the size. Regardless, your intrepid photographer (that’s me) managed to get multiple shots of them although most were of their rear end as they jumped and dove so fast that was all I could get! I did get a couple shots of them out of the water and also a couple with multiple penguins in one picture! See the Picture Gallery for Elephant Island for more pictures. http://gallery.me.com/travelwithdmcontent#100267&bgcolor=black&view=grid
With vivid blue skies and clouds of all shapes, sizes and hues competing for attention I, once again, stood in awe as I clicked picture after picture, never ceasing to be amazed at how rapidly the panorama changes. It’s tough for me to pick out the best ones for the Galleries but eventually I’ll do a Cloud Gallery from the entire trip. The toughest thing about sky/cloud pictures is they show every bit of dust on the lenses and sensor, a bane of digital photography. Thank goodness there is a “healing” tool in Lightroom which I’m getting quite good at now.
The sun continued it’s very slow descent into the sea as we watched from the Observation Lounge (front of the ship on the 12th (top) floor. It was hard to keep up with it while having interesting conversations with John Wheeler pictured above (who also has a great blog at http://www.southamericancircumnavigation.blogspot.com) and David, both of whom shared the the Machu Picchu experience with us. We talked and talked and talked, so much in fact that by the time we looked at the clock it was 9:45 pm and all the dining venues had closed! It stays light so late here (we are so far south that in the summer – which it is now — the sun doesn’t set until late and rises very early). While I wasn’t very happy about being all dressed up with no place to go, we went back to our room and had a very nice in-room dining experience. Margaret had a hamburger (her personal favorite especially at midnight after an evening at the casino!) and I had a perfectly cooked salmon dinner. And we got a nice red wine to top it all off!
The ship is going to hang out around Elephant Island tonight as the seas are flat and we are hoping for good weather in the morning.
Other sightings: While I didn’t see any whales I did see Charlie Gibson in the reception area this afternoon! Although my mother trained me to take pictures of stars and she had many with famous golfers, I decided to be low key about it. If you don’t know him, he was the host of Good Morning America for about 12 years and the anchor for ABC’s World News for 3 years. I guess he agrees with us that cruising is a great thing to do after retiring. Not sure if he is going to be a speaker but it would be fun if he is!
As our Captain would say “Ciao for now”!
Ryan Glander - Hey guys, it’s me.
Just commenting on your blog.I was very intriuged about Elephant Island. Too bad you didn’t get to see the elephant seals. You could have taken pictures of them. They would have been good pics for your blog.Type to you later!
(Again, HA HA HA) Miss you,
Ryan Glander
Ryan Glander - Hey guys, it’s me.
Just commenting on your blog.I was very intriuged about Elephant Island. Too bad you didn’t get to see the elephant seals. You could have taken pictures of them. They would have been good pics for your blog.Type to you later!
(Again, HA HA HA) Miss you,
Ryan Glander