Arctic Men!
Crossing On The Zodiac
I heard from Bob today. He and Lloyd are back in Ushaia and flying to Buenos Aires today. Sounds like they had a great time. Bob's beard is back to normal length! He sent a picture and said... "I ended up on a lower deck with the crew, and Choco was cutting hair, so I jumped in the line and then we all drank rum and ate some crab! No one spoke English!" Here is a photo Bob sent from the front of the boathello, we are in Deception Island right now. it´s an old volcano, that has opened up to the sea. we´re not going to be able to land, as the winds are over 30 knots. we´ll put our seasick patches on at lunch as we head out into the drake passage this evening. sounds like it will be worse than then we crossed the first time. last night was very rough, everything in our room was on the floor when we got back from dinner. it looked like someone had ran sacked our room. well, this is the last email till we get back to ushuaia, as we have to close-pay our accounts today. don´t reply, i won´t get it. take care, love you. Bob xxoo ![]() Deception Island is an island, in the South Shetland Islands archipelago off the Antarctic Peninsula, that has one of the safest harbours inAntarctica. The island is the caldera of an active volcano, which caused serious damage to the local scientific stations in 1967 and 1969. The island previously held a whaling station; it is now a tourist destination and scientific outpost, with research bases being run by Argentina andSpain. Various countries have previously asserted sovereignty; it is administered under the Antarctic Treaty System HAPPY BIRTHDAY!! from Antarctica i can´t believe how fast you´re growing up, 15 now. and you´ll be driving soon. i just wanted to wish you a happy birthday. we don´t have any way to call and emails are very limited. today we saw a lot of humpback whales feeding, we got really close. plus we saw some chinstrap and gentoo penguins. i got charged by a fur seal, but he didn´t get me. the ice bergs are very cool and beautiful. i hope you had a happy birthday. take care, love uncle (polar) bob (you should see my beard in the morning, i have bed beard, it looks pretty funny) The Antarctic Fur SealChinstrap PenquinsOMG!! we´re watching humpback whales feeding, diving, coming back up, over and over and over. i can´t beleive it, they´re just off the bow. i´ve got great video and snaps! This is a photo from the Internet... it will have to hold us over until Bob can send photos! Keela
hello, we´ve been doing a lot of excursions. after breakfast, excursion, nap, lunch, nap excursion, nap, dinner, cribbage, sleep. lol. today was our last landing on the continental part of antarctica. the remaining landing will all be islands. we got real close to some fur seals today. then went for a zodiac cruise and got very close to some humpback whales and right next to a sleeping crab eater seal. it was about six feet long, sleeping on a berg. we then cruise around a lot of bergs. it´s a very nice clear day. you can really see a long ways and it´s very beautiful, although it´s so bleak, that some of the pictures look black and white. durning lunch today we must of seen over 20 humpback whales. we´ll get to our next stop in a couple of hours. it´s been very smooth today. tomorrow will be our last day of excursions, then two days crossing the drake passage. that will be rough. take care. thanx for sharing about the animals. <love you, Bob and lloyd This is a photo of the Crabeater Seal. Apparently they have special teeth that let them filter the small crustaceans. I also read that about 80% of their pups are eaten by leopard seals. Bad leopard seals!!! :-(
hi, we made it past the polar circle yesterday. it was a very rough trip
getting down here. neither one of us had dinner that night. everything in our room ended up on the floor as it slid all over the place. one lady´s chair in her room even tipped over. there´s a lot of ice and ice bergs down here. now i know what the significance of the polar and Arctic circle are. they relate to the summer and winter solstice. on that day, they can see the sun 24 hours a day. we were supposed to land on an island, but it was blocked by icebergs, huge ones. so they we split into groups and went out on the zodiacs, but we didn´t get to go due to weather. we were really bummed. it was very nice an unseasonably sunny, so i have some good pictures. we had to head north again, back in the open ocean last night. it was supposed to be rough again, but it wasn´´t to bad. i got your email, thanx for letting me know about Gracie. love and miss you lots, bob I received this email from Bob today! Whew! Glad to know that all is going well!
hello, we finally got access to email. we´re haveing a great time. We´ve seen lots of whales and penquiens. the drake crossing was, they said, pretty smooth. well 3 to 4 meter swells isn´t smooth to me. lloyd skipped breakfast that morning and a lot of people were chunking up. lol going back will probably be worse. the ship comeing back before us had 10 to 14 meter swels, they even broke windows. the food has been good. each day we load into the zodiacs after breakfast and lunch. we have gone to islands and we have stopped at the argentine research station. it´name is BROWN. you can probably look it up. today we went even further south. lots more icebergs. we had a lot of snow and it was really wet. good thing all our gear is waterproof. the snow and the zodiac rides make you glad. lloyds gloves have gotten wet. we just got back from the urkraine antarctica station. they have a bar and pool table. they make their own pepper vodka. plus they sell souveniers. of course i had to try the vodka. girls get their shot free, if they leave their bra. ha. also, today´s lunch was bbq. they have a big grill on the deck, and they grilled, beef, chicken, brats and blood sausage. we´ve settled into our room. we got an upgrade, so we have a porthole. we have bunk beds, i´m on the top. we share a bathroom and shower with the adjoining cabin. it´s been pretty neat. we head further down tonight, and hope to cross the polar circle in the next day or so. it´s very grey and a lot of snow, glaicers and ice. <please send this to john mccormick so john and mac know lloyd is ok, i don´t have his email handy and lloyd is headed to the lounge for tea. oh, it was real fun taking a shower while crossing the drake passage.... <love bob, wish you were here, but i don´t think you would of like the rock and roll of this ship. love you lots, can´t wait to show you my pictures. XXOO you should see my beard now!! i am a yeti No word from Bob and Lloyd yet. Maybe tomorrow. :-(
|
AuthorBob and Lloyd left for their adventure of a lifetime on 2/19/14. Check here for updates! ArchivesCategories |