Charlotte Bay, 11/16/2024, National Geographic Resolution
Aboard the
National Geographic Resolution
Antarctica
This morning Captain Martin drove National Geographic Resolution into the fast ice in Charlotte Bay, and we spent the morning walking and skiing on the frozen sea. What a thrill it was! In a few days or weeks, this sea ice will break up and disappear, as it does every spring.
In the afternoon we kayaked, and then the hearty among us did the polar plunge – brrr!!
Berit grew up on the rocky shores of Marblehead, Massachusetts, where she explored the marine environment through changing tides and seasons, nurturing a love of natural history and marine biology.
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Merry Christmas from National Geographic Endurance which just arrived in Antarctica! It is not a bad Christmas morning when the first thing one does is step foot on the Antarctic Continent to be greeted by penguins! After a day of sailing, we arrived at the South Shetlands and made our very first landing at Barrientos Island. Already at the beach, we saw gentoos and chinstrap penguins, that seemed to be awaiting our arrival. It was only a short walk to the colonies and there we could see penguins laying on their eggs and even a few recently hatched chicks! After the great make-your-own-pasta-bar lunch, the next activity was a landing at Half Moon Island. There we chose between a long or shorter hike to get a Christmas Day leg stretch and see even more penguins. After a busy day of outings, it was time for the first recap of the journey and then finally Christmas dinner, where the Christmas buffet awaited guests with some of the best food there is. Today was definitely a Christmas Day to remember!
The body of water between South America’s Cape Horn and the Antarctic Peninsula, the Drake Passage, is one of the most infamous stretches of water. We were fortunate to have a friendly passage today with only 35 knots of wind and less than 4-meter wave heights. The seas were spitting and spraying while the albatross and petrels relished in soaring along, unhindered. While we not only prepared ourselves for the journey ahead, but we also got the chance to meet our National Geographic-Lindblad naturalist team and our National Geographic Expert Kenneth Garrett who will be sailing this voyage with us. After a presentation about the seabirds we could expect to see on this voyage by Naturalist Bryan Holliday, we all went out on the outer decks to identify and photograph these magnificent species.
This was a true expedition day, as plans were adjusted due to changing conditions, but in the end, it was a miraculously amazing day full of wonderful events. In the morning, we found ourselves in a very dense concentration of both multi-year and glacial ice, and Captain Martin decided to revise the plan, and we set on the course to Paulet Island, one of the inactive volcanoes in this area where a colony of almost 400,000 Adelie penguins is known to reside. Guests were split in two groups and while the first group had a short hike to observe the penguin colony and very young chicks, the second group enjoyed a presentation onboard, and later they switched. After a delicious dinner, a group of orcas were spotted from the bridge, and for over an hour guests were able to watch the dramatic episodes of orcas hunting Adelie penguins. It was unforgettable experience on this Christmas Eve!
