Land Ho! (updated with links, pix, and video)

From Mindy, dated 12 January:

Rainbow mist (click to enlarge)

Woke up to calm swells in the Antarctic Sound.  Quite significant head winds are keeping progress slow (20-25 knot winds).  The air outside is right at 0 degrees C (this is where I point out that Arizona is colder than Antarctica right now - Ed.), water temp -.7 C, and barometer at 981.  We sailed through a storm earlier in the morning, and when we had our wake up call we were 25 miles from Hope Bay.  The original plan for the day was to start by landing at Brown Bluff, but the ice and weather prevented us from doing that.  So we sailed on, and got treated to a short lecture (what we call "opportunity training") by Richard Alley on ice cores.

Richard Alley started his lecture with a song he wrote called the Great Penguin Waltz (complete now with pictures of penguins from our trip).  He reviewed several of the methods used to date ice cores, including radioactive isotopes, borehole temperatures, and fractionation of noble gases (I prefer counting how many licks it takes to get to the center, but to each his own - Ed.).  Good review for those who know of ice cores already, and neat summary for those who didn't.

Esperanza Base (click to enlarge)

Mindy in Hope Bay (click to enlarge)

Joanna (click to enlarge)

After lunch we managed to land near an Argentine base in Hope Bay.  The base is named Esperanza Base, and is where many Argentinians live permanently (as a way of establishing some political claims to land down here).  Babies have been born on this base, weddings have been performed, and there is even a school here for the 20 or so kids that live on the base Best field trips EVER - Ed.).

Turbidite (click to enlarge)

Trace fossils (click to enlarge)

Our luck with weather returned and we had a delightful afternoon
enjoying geology and penguins.  This is our first actual steps on THE continent of Antarctica!  For many on board this marked the 7th continent they have visited.  For me it makes the 6th (someday I'll make it to Africa to claim my 7th continent).  On shore we saw some volcanic rocks from the Antarctic Peninsula Group (Cretaceous age), and turbidite sequences from the Trinity Peninsula Group (Triassic age).  Mount Flora towered over us while we roamed the beach, then we cruised over to another section of the beach to see a large colony of Adelie penguins (As opposed to Adele penguins, which sing soulfully - Ed.).

Adelie Baby (click to enlarge)

Diving Adelies
(click to enlarge)

Adelie posse (click to enlarge)

The Adelie penguins were very cute!  They spent most of their time going back and forth to the coastline (on little penguin highways that were very orderly), picking up rocks to build (and maybe decorate) their personal spot of land in the colony, and looking after their babies that were not quite old enough to be left alone.  Penguin antics get funnier and funnier as you spend more time with them, and I likely now have thousands of pictures of the little guys.  I also kept thoughts in my head of how much my son, Daniel, loves the cartoon "Penguins of Madagascar" (in the back of my head I kept hearing "Rico, Kowalski!") ("The Private probably won't survive" - Ed.).

Thousands of Adelies
(click to enlarge)

Walking away (click to enlarge)

After 5 hours of penguins, we were just about ready to head back to the ship (although many of us would have stuck on the beach for a few hours more).  The ship captain was getting a bit nervous about the ice coming into the bay (I like this guy! - Ed.), so we quick-like shimmied out of there while the sun was setting.  The sunset lasted for about 5 hours, and was still beautiful when I finally went to bed near midnight.  This is likely our last shot at seeing tabular icebergs, and the Antarctic continent is beautiful, so nobody was keen on getting to bed.

Adelies saying goodbye (click to enlarge)

Tomorrow is another exciting day, where we'll visit an active volcano, hope that it won't erupt while we are there (Once again, things that were left out of the itinerary briefed to me - Ed.), and swim in some geothermal pools of water at Deception Island.  Should be great!

Bacteria in the snow (click to enlarge)

Adelies on a berg
(click to enlarge)

Adelie footprints (click to enlarge)