01-02-08 CONTINENTAL LANDING!!

The 7 mile long Lemaire Channel is one mile across at its widest and ½ mile across at the narrowest point, and runs northeast to southwest. It separates Booth Island from the Antarctic Peninsula. It was discovered by Dallman’s German Expedition of 1873 and was first navigated by De Gerlache in 1898. De Gerlache named the channel for Charles Lemaire, who was a Belgian explorer of the Congo.

This morning I woke up around 6am because we were in the Lemaire Channel. It was beautiful to navigate between icebergs and walls of rock. A light snow set in as we rode through the channel. In one of the bays I spotted two humpbacks and they were gorgeous, my first whales of the trip!
Our first stop of the day was Peterman Island. It is the furthest south that we will make it on this voyage. On the island there are Adelie’s nesting. They are the cute little Hispanic penguins from Happy Feet. On the backside of the island, you could look out over a bay and see the most gorgeous set of icebergs settled in the protection of the cliffs of the fjord. A Crabeater seal was hauled out onto an iceberg back there moving our seal count up to 3 of 6.There was a huge hill where the new powder had accumulated that quickly became a human sled run and was so fun to watch every whiz down it.
Petermann is a one mile long island that lies in the Wilhelm Archipelago, just south of the Lemaire Channel. The island was first discovered in 1873, and is named for a German geographer. In a cove on the southeastern side of the island Jean-Baptist Charcot over wintered in 1909 in his vessel Pourquoi Pas? This island is a large breeding area for Adelie and Gentoo penguins, blue-eyed shags and polar skuas.
Finally, at 2 pm, WE LANDED ON ANTARCTIC CONTINENT!!! At Neko Harbor, we climbed out of our zodiac onto the beach less than 10 feet from a huge Weddell Seal. The snow had continued from this morning, and the gray skies made the atmosphere of being on the continent just like one would have imagined.

We climbed up onto a big mountain to look down into the bay as a glacier collapsed into the water. The crack sounded like 50 rolls of thunder combined into one. The glaciers were beautiful because the pressure from the ice behind it caused it to crack and form a beautiful fan like scene. As the snow whipped around us in the wind, I reminded them of how blessed we were to have the extreme Antarctic conditions that we had always expected.

On the beach, 3 juvenile elephant seals were play fighting (4 of 6 seal species) and the Gentoo and Chinstrap penguins were lounging on their nests. We made snow angels in the fresh powder and meandered around the summit of the mountain to take in the scenic 360 degrees of beauty. Of course, being rookies with snow, we had a few people get caught in drifts, and today was my day to have my leg stuck. It is a really funny experience to be totally helpless and have to be dug out of simply frozen water.

Once we got back to the boat, it was time for our Antarctic BBQ!! All of the cooks had been working diligently as we were exploring on the land. When we came back, out on deck 5, they had set up picnic table for everyone and a buffet line of soups, sausages, other meats, pretzels, and tons of other tasty goodies. It was crazy to sit and watch the snow melt on the table as we munched on our dinner in the safety on an Antarctic Bay. What a great day in Antarctica…by far my favorite!!