Captain’s Blog: Running Away from Huge Storm; 4+ days at Sea!!

3/28 – 30

Hi All,

The staff did a marvelous job of trying to make the best of a disappointing situation….lots of energetic games…got to love their youthful energy but Kathy and I just settled into a routine of reading, some bird picture taking, working on the blog and editing some pictures, attending the various and excellent lectures, and of course we didn’t miss a meal. A lot of people succumbed to the sea sickness malady but fortunately Kathy and I were not affected.

The photo contest was a bust. My “Leo the Friendly Leopard Seal” didn’t even place….whaaaaaa. Max admitted that there were some shenanigans…too many votes with the same handwriting….hmmmm….more like a people popularity contest…ugh!! The picture that did win I liked….a group of penguins porpoising…beautiful….the others were just so so. I told Max the next contest should be judged by professionals, if so, he said my Leo would have done quite well. As a professional he knows how hard it was to get such a clear, in focus picture of a moving Leopard seal…whoa….and now he is my favorite professional photographer:)))!!!

Sea and weather: for the first 2 days we have had 15-20′ seas….somewhat off the port bow…whoa….we are on the 4th floor ~20′ high from the sea to our floor and many of the swells come up to the balcony…yikes!!! A few even hit our sliding door….arghhhhhh!! The wind started out the first night 40-45+kts and then stayed in the 25-35G40kt range for the next 1.5 days and now it has calmed to 15-20G25kts but the head seas have still remained big but now more of the big rollers. The motion is moderately rough…lots of pitching and some rolling….but all gentle, nothing sharp as on most ships. No issue walking around but you do the drunken sailor walk so it’s a bit humorous for all:))) The temperature is now getting warmer….say 35-50*F and we have had glorious sunshine to low dark clouds and rain!!!!

Sighted birds: Wandering and black browed albatross, storm petrels, sooty shearwaters, white chin petrel, Antarctic prion and many more we can’t identify!!

Some of the topics for the lectures:

Sylvia Earle: Unfortunately due to Covid no tours of the engine room or Bridge. That seemed like a lame excuse as we have been isolated on the ship now for 2+ weeks and no one has Covid….but rules are rules…Oops…scratch that…Ruslan, the Chief Engineer from Ukraine, caught me and another fellow from Bonaire and said the Captain said ok so late on Thursday we got an ER tour…ODG….Mr Clean would be impressed and such space and clean design!!! The Captain and Chief Engineer gave a virtual tour of the ship which was great. This ship is so quiet and gentle we often asked if the ship was moving and now we were going to find out why!! Built in China in 2021 at a cost $55 million, 6 months commissioning by CMI then maiden voyage 11/22 so this is her first season, Aurora ordered 3 ships, next one due in a few years, first one was Greg Mortimer in service now for 3-4 years, but the boatyard has built 8 of these ships so far. Two electric engines (why the boat is so quiet), 4 generators (5,600 KW total, 2,200 KW per prop all-out throttle, but normally run ~80% which draws 800-1000KW….all at 1000 volts…wow!!), Props are 15′ diameter, 20+ inch shafts, carries 400 metric tons of fuel (~100,000 gal, we used ~70,000 gallons for the passage!!) two 40 cubic meter/day (~9,000 gal/day, usage is ~7,000 gal/day for ~200 people) RO watermakers, Rolls-Royce stabilizers – one each side, 15′ by 6′ horizontal airplane like stabilizing wings using a gyro for controlling the motion, one bow thruster, and a most impressive dynamic positioning system….just uses the bow thruster and the 2 props to control “zero” position and ship direction (and it worked flawlessly albeit a little loud)…huge galley and 4 large refrigerator/freezers, bakery, and of course a waste water treatment plant. They have 10 Engineers and 10 people in the galley plus all the servers, cleaners et al….ah to have CREW!!!! They are on a 3-month on, 3-month off rotation and are employees of the company that built the boats!! A unique inverted bow called an X-bow. No one knew why it was called “X”. We think when you look at the bow from sea level you can see an X shape from the 2 strakes going aft above and below the waterline, but that is a guess. The X-bow was first used on supply ships in the North Seas so obviously made for very rough waters!!

Happy Feet: Jonathan and Howard gave a fascinating talk on their involvement in making the penguin movie “Happy Feet”. They were at the beginning working with George Miller (Mad Max!) developing the story line. Then Howard led an expedition to the Ross Sea and inland while Jonathan led an expedition to the Peninsula. They took many landscape and penguin film to be used by the animators for the background and various scenes. They showed the movie at night which we watched from the comfort of our bed:)))

Fire & Ice: Dave a firefighter from New Zealand gave a talk on his 20 years as a firefighter in Dunedin, NZ, as well as his many years in Antarctica at the Scott Base, then the American base McMurdo Station and a six-week stint at the South Pole.

Claude Lorius: We saw a French documentary of Lorius “Ice and the Sky”. He was the first scientist to prove you could study the atmosphere through the trapped air in ice. Supposedly while on an Antarctica expedition they were sitting around the table in a hut in sub-zero temperatures having a wee dram on glacier ice. He noticed bubbles coming out of the ice which gave him the idea. Now that is my kind of scientist:))) He developed various ice drilling techniques and the pinnacle of his 60 year career was to drill over 8,000′ down and seeing back over 400,000 years. He proved to the political world that CO2 was destroying our atmosphere and caused many of the changes regarding carbon release. Others have now drilled to study over 800,000 years. The carbon graph does show many cycles so in some since not too worry. But then you look at the last 100-200 years, the pattern is broken and you can see the effect of the Industrial Age and the effect of all the carbon. The average carbon over time is 290 ppm, and we are now ~421ppm…yeppa, time to worry for sure!! Fascinating science!!

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-65060965

Life on Grytviten South Georgia: Dee gave an inspired talk on what it is like to live and work on Grytviten. She is the Museum Director and Sylvia Earle was the last ship of the season and the Captain was kind enough to give her a ride back to the Falklands. Her photography was impressive and she gave us a lot of details of the her life and the museum. She works 6-months, from October – March. The Island gets ~100 ships and 14,000 visitors per year…whoa!!

The Last Husky: Jonathan Chester, the historian on this trip, made a documentary of the history of the Huskies in Antarctica. After the 1991 Madrid Protocol was adopted, the dogs had to leave Antarctica….no foreign pest/animals were allowed anymore, just humans. The documentary followed the dogs on their last 400 mile journey then being loaded onto a ship to Australia, then eventually taken to a new home in Minnesota by air.

Global Warming Effect on Antarctica: Stephi gave a “just the facts ma’am” presentation on what is causing the ice melting. Sobering. Causes are rising CO2, atmosphere and sea temperatures, with all trends starting w/the industrial age and heavy use of fossil fuels. It is now a known fact that all the ice shelves (floating) in West Antarctica (where we went) will melt in the next 20 years. That is over 10% of the ice in Antarctica as East Antarctica holds 90%. The melting ice in West Antarctica will cause the ocean levels to rise by 16′ and if East Antarctica ever melts, that will cause a 180′ rise. While the planet has not yet hit the trigger point for no return, we might have a decade or 2 to reverse the trends. This actually fits with what Kathy and I have witnessed over our 19+ years traveling in the Caribbean and Pacific but we have never been shown the indisputable evidence….oweeeeeee!!

Other topics have been wildlife in the Falklands, several trivia type games, citizen science projects like bird counting and cloud identification. A “Rock, Scissor, Paper” game with all passengers and staff participating. Kathy made it past the 1st round while I made it to the Sweet 16!!

The Plan: We finally land in Port Stanley in the Falklands on Friday, March 31….so we had 4.5 days at sea…even I was getting a bit tired of the passage and will be soooo glad to be on land and stretch the legs. We will have 3 days in the Falklands and then late on 4/2 head for Ushuaia and disembark on 4/4am:((( Kathy and I will spend the day/night in Ushuaia and then start towards California on 4/5 arriving 4/6 in the afternoon.

Hope all is well!!

doing the drunken sailor walk John

PSS: Here is a good article from the BBC a former boat owner sent me about how the Gentoo penguins in Antarctica are trying to adapt from the low sea ice…..encouraging indeed:
https://www.cnn.com/2023/03/26/world/antarctica-penguin-sea-ice-climate/index.html