Antarctica - We've Arrived!

This area of the world is spectacular in beauty. We continued through the Drake Passage for most of the day and the weather remained good. As wemoved closer to the continent, more and more people from the expedition came out on deck. Everyone was trying to spot a whale, seal or penguine. It seemed like everyone wanted to be the first to see something. During the course of the day, we saw a few fur seals, wandering albatross, penguinesand one orca killer whale.

The whale picture is not a very good one sinceit was far away, but I included it anyway. As I mentioned in the last blog, we passed through the Antarctic Convergence. Standing out on the deck I could feel the temprature becomemore cold and sting my face as though it was being poked with thousands of needles. The ocean became very eerie when a fog bank set in as we grew closer to King George Island. This was going to be our first stop in Antarctica. The e-base and Russian station of Bellanhausen are found on theisland. We all loaded into zodiac boats and headed to shore. There was asmall group of penuines as we disembarked from the boats. We have beeninstructed to keep our distance from the wildlife, even if they approach us.The fog was very thick and we did not have very good visibility, so theexpedition team only stayed on the island for a short period. We thenloaded back into the Zodiacs and headed to the ship. As a point ofinterest, everytime we arrive back at ship from being on land, we have towash and scrub our boots to remove all dirt. The same was true with heboots we wore on our hike in Ushuaia. The reasoning is because the don'twant possible contaminents moving from one place to another.

It is excilerating to experience this adventure. Seeing these animals intheir natural habitat, looking at the deep blue, smelling the clean air, itl ifts the soul. Some of us have had discussion regarding how easy ordifficult is it to protect something that is so pure? I would like to askall the students following this blog to think of some ideas on how topreserve Antarctica.