Die, Rats, Die! (updated with pix and video)

From Mindy, dated 18 January:

Cape Horn (click to enlarge)

This morning we will sail around Cape Horn, and after we make the turn the captain has promised calm seas (we'll then be on the leeward side of the tip of South America).  As we woke up in the morning (58 miles away from Cape Horn) the ship was sailing at 12 knots, there was a 2 meter swell, 20-25 knot winds, barometer rising at 1005, air temperature 8.5 degrees C, water temp 7.2 C.

Ship's Navigation (click to enlarge)

In the morning we tackled some logistics for ending the trip, settling accounts, packing, and making sure everyone has the right information for traveling home.  A small group from our trip will be spending an extra week going to Tierra del Fuego with the some of the geology trip leaders (think of it as "reverse snowbirding" - Ed.).




Photographer Tom Murphy shared some amazing photos with us from his 35 years of Backcountry Skiing in Yellowstone National Park.  He has published some coffee-table books and a 2013 calendar that show his amazing work.  With Tom giving us insights on how the photo was taken, and the lengths he went to in getting to these locations, you really get an appreciation for how utterly amazing these images are!

Richard Alley gave one last talk on "highlights from 4.6 billion years of climate change." He did an excellent job of explaining and summing up so much climate history so clearly and succinctly.  I will really miss having the privilege to hear his lectures in person (as well as the other amazing brain power on this ship)!  He treated us to an encore of his song The Great Penguin Waltz, complete now with penguin photos from our trip.

Dolphins on the ship's bow
(click to enlarge)

In the afternoon, we held a silent auction to raise money for rat eradication on the South Georgia Islands, being done by the South Georgia Heritage Trust.  The story here is that South Georgia is one of the places we visited on this expedition, and they have an organization who began to work on preserving the natural ecosystem several years ago.  South Georgia used to be abundant in many species of birds who would use the islands to nest and in part of their migration pattern.  But, over the years whalers and explorers inadvertently brought rats with them on their ships, and the rats thrived on the islands.  The rats eat the eggs from nesting birds, and have become a real problem.  As areas have been cleared of rats, the birds have slowly started to return to the islands.  About $145 US dollars can ensure that one hectare of land is cleared of rats, and they are just a few years away from complete rat eradication!

Whaling vessel (click to enlarge)

Before we all came on this trip, we knew about this auction and were encouraged to contribute unique things to auction.  I brought some hand-made note cards (the kind I send as my Christmas cards each year), some wine gift certificates from the first carbon neutral winery in the U.S. (Parducci in Mendocino County, CA), and I also crocheted some scarves (during the trip) that we named based on the yarn colors and how they mimicked the rock formations we had seen on the trip (Sandebugten, Blue Schist, Green Schist, and Serpentinite) (Yes, my wife crochets rocks - you got a problem with that?! - Ed.).  Other really cool stuff in the auction (just to name a small few) included a South Georgia flag flown over Grytviken, historic books, artwork, a hand-made penguin quilt wall-hanging, 1915-era cigarette cards (sort of like baseball cards) of Shackleton's Antarctic expedition, rare rock samples from the Sudbury Impact Structure in Canada, and so many other special mementos from the trip.  A new friend of mine from this trip, Natalie (who you might recall from an earlier blog post has a fear of fur seals) knitted a miniature fur seal complete with toothpick-fangs, red eyes, and red-yarn "blood" dripping from its mouth!  The fur seal went in the silent auction for near $200!  By the end of the auction, we had collectively raised over $14,000 for the South Georgia Heritage Trust Habitat Restoration Project.  Another organization pledged to match funds up to $10,000 and some anonymous donors pledged several thousand dollars outside of the auction.  So, all told we were able to send nearly $30K for rat eradication.  This amount is enough to clear rats from land the size of Elephant Island (if you don't think this is way cool, you're dead inside - Ed.)!

After the auction we had a special dinner with the Captain of the ship, and after dinner we all watched the group photo slideshow (collected and culled by Scott Davis).  Then it was time to pack and get some last visiting in with friends at the ship's bar.  At about midnight we went out on the deck to see the night sky (we hadn't had true darkness for a couple of weeks) and a couple of us got to see the tug boat greet us and drop off the pilot who would take over sailing the ship for its final approach into the port at Ushuaia.  In the morning we will be flying home... can you believe we just went to Antarctica???  None of us can still believe it!