It's 7:00 am and several people are at the bow of the ship on whale watch. The ship has just crossed the Antarctic Circle. This is the furthest south the Octantis has traveled and the first time it has crossed the Antarctic Circle.
A hundred yards off the bow, two whales blow. The white vapor is their breath, just like yours when breathing outside in the winter. On this morning there are a lot of humpback whales in the area, however none of them decided to breach showing off their their iconic leap out of the ocean.
Gene and Jan in full gear with an iceberg as large as the Octantis in the right background.
Lots of table top icebergs. I hope the captain is awake on the bridge, we want no Titanic episode on this voyage!
In the afternoon, we boarded a Zodiac for a shoreline cruise near Detaille Island. On the beach, four adult fur seals greeted us.
Icebergs frequently have a blue color. This effect is caused when the ice was buried deep in a glacier for centuries. Under tons of pressure, air bubbles are forced out of the ice. The remaining ice acts as a prism that only passes blue spectrum light waves.
Returning to the ship, we volunteered for lab duty. Octantis has a research function and the ship has more Ph.D.'s on board than executive sailing staff. Today, we joined 10 other passengers, donned lab coats and latex gloves and waited for our assignment.
Each of us had a 12" Atlantic Chub Mackerel at our station. After a 30 minute hands-on session of examining and dissecting the specimen, we went to work preparing it as chum for use in a future bait box. The fish was placed in a heavy plastic bag and began kneading it into a thick paste. The bag was then placed in the freezer. After that experience, Jan and I are glad to be vegans!
No comments:
Post a Comment