Anarctica chapter nine
Fournier Bay: Listening to the ice.
I wake up and step out on the balcony. On the horizon, a fiery glow announces the sunrise.
The skies are clear and as the day gets under way I watch the moon make its way slowly towards the ice.
The wind is howling and large gusts press me against the door. The ship is rolling in the waves. I feel a change in course and it’s confirmed by an annoucement over the PA. It’s too windy for the Zodiacs at our original destination and Szymon has decided to reroute us to another in hopes of better conditions.
Standing outside on deck 8, the wind tears at our parkas. The skies are beautiful and clear. It’s better than standing in snow blowing sideways, remarks a guide. I concur.
We’re cruising back through the area where we saw orca and we have our eyes peeled. Garrett tells us that our sister ship saw orca when they passed the day before. He shows us a video one of his fellow guides had captured. It shows an orca feeding on a seal near to where we are now.
Our ship passes a humpack whale. Looking down from the upper deck we can see it clearly through the deep blue waters: a massive head followed by a body disappearing in the depths.
Leo tells me we’ve done six landings already. Some cruises are do maybe four on their entire trip. We’ve been incredibly fortunate and I’m grateful for the experience we’ve already had.
In Fournier Bay, once again the kayakers are called first. Kris has been working to make sure all the slots are filled and that everyone who wants to go can. Those interested have also been fortunate as everyone who wants to go does (there are a number of cancellations by people who decide they’d rather do a landing when their turn is up).
I’m standing beside Eilidh when he asks her if she can swim and whether she can paddle. He asks her if she wants to go kayaking. She does and then tells me she’s going to work out. I’m impressed. A workout and then kayaking! No, she says, disavowing me of that notion. Kayaking is the workout.
The afternoon’s excursion is a full ship Zodiac cruise; there will be no landing. I find myself in Laura’s Zodiac and we start cruising the bay. Seals abound.
Laura fishes a piece of ice out of the water to show us how it’s formed. She is a glaciologist and takes a particular interest in the world around us. She tells us that icebergs make sounds and pulls us close to one and idles the engine. We can hear it sparkle as it melts and cracks under the sun.
Someone asks Laura about global warming and its effects on the ecosystem of Antarctica. She gives us a brief description of the dangers and tells us she sometimes gives a talk on the subject. It’s not always scheduled—it’s sometimes omitted based on the makeup of the passengers on board—but we’re welcome to request it by filling out a card and putting it into the suggestion box. I do as soon as we’re back on the ship.
Approaching another iceberg we spot a snow petrel flying in and amongst the peaks. It stops for a minute, sheltering in small hollow. Laura asks if anyone has a long lens on their camera; it’d be a beautiful photo of the bird resting in its snow cave.
We continue our cruise, moving in the direction of the ship. There are a lot of seals in the bay and we circle slowly the floes upon which they rest. They’ll often raise their heads to see what’s come upon them, lowering them when no threat (or food) is perceived.
Towards the end of our cruise Laura takes the Zodiac into the ice and shuts off the engine. She wants us to take in our surroundings and listen again to the quiet, the ice, the breath of Antarctica around us.
At dinner, the waiter drops off an egg and tomato dish between my courses. It’s the Chinese dish of the night. It’s simple but I’m excited as it’s one of my favorites. When backpacking through China, I’d often find myself at a restaurant ordering it in addition to whatever specialties I might find. It was a food through-line that connected all the destinations on my trip. Not a week went by that I didn’t ask for it once or twice.
After dinner Heidi talks about her life on the base. She said she had applied for the job on a whim, just to say she did. She was as surprised as anyone when she was called into the final interview process, which involved all the finalists attending a “camp” of sorts on a long weekend. Activities and games were organized to see who might work best with whom; the stress of long days was added to see how candidates might react to life on a remote posting.
She says she’s still close friends with the people she was posted with; one she shares a house with still. She tells us that to the judges it was pretty clear who would make a good team.
The night she arrived, most of the candidates decided to go to bed early and rest up for the weekend. She and the people who ultimately made up the eventual team stayed up late into the night playing cards. And they continued to form a tight knit group throughout the selection weekend. Dilini leans over to me. Like us, she says. 🇦🇶
25 February 2024
