I know its been a while and I apologize for that. Things have slowed down a
little here (thankfully), but we still are busy doing a variety of things.
Luckily though, it is Christmas and we will all be helping to make tons of
food (much like Thanksgiving), swapping little gifts, and working only a
half day or two.
We actually have the ship due to arrive on Christmas Day to pick up our
current camp leader and take him back to Punta Arenas, so we are doing our
Christmas celebration on Christmas Eve. Our next camp leader comes in in
early January with the resupply ship (same ship but its on its way out of
the Antarctic now and has to go pick up our fresh food and everything). In
the interim, I will actually be acting camp leader, which is a little
terrifying but also a really great resume builder/ experience for me. I'm
still debating whether to call myself camp leader or expedition leader...
hmm...
In other news the weather had been amazing for a couple days with temps all
the way up into the 40s! It was actually too hot and I was overheating, but
in a good way. Plus there was sun and little wind and playful puppies-
doesn't get much better than that. Unfortunately tonight it decided to
change that. The forecast predicted about 5 mph out of the east. It is
currently blowing 45 with some gusts in the high 50s. So you were close
forecast, but not quite there. We will see what tomorrow brings. Hopefully
it does not impact the boat schedule and Doug is able to get out fine.
Our fresh food is pretty much down to the hardiest of vegetables. We have
lots of canned and frozen goods though so we will persevere. I made a huge
batch of mac n cheese the other night that we ate the following night as
well and still have some left over for lunches. Portion control is not my
speciality.
The fur seal pups are getting bigger and just starting to really become
playful and curious. I think I have the more stubborn defensive beaches
unfortunately where pups are less likely to approach you, but I'm working
on winning them over none-the-less. I've had a few chew on my backpack, my
skipole, my fingers, whatever they can get their little mouths on. I did
unfortunately witness our first leopard seal attack of the season, but so
far we have only really seen 1 or 2 leopards in the area so the pups have
been safe.
Penguin chicks are just starting to hatch out, which will lead to some
hilarity out in the penguin mines. Fuzzy pears with beaks and noodle-like
flippers pretty much speaks for itself.
We still have a lot of ice around the cape in the form of various sized
icebergs. Every once in a while one will get smashed apart by the reefs and
waves and fill a beach or cove with basketball sized blocks of ice. Its
pretty amazing considering last year if we saw just ONE or TWO icebergs we
got excited. It really makes you feel like you are actually in the
Antarctic and that that is NOT normal for most people.
OK thats all for now. I hope everyone has a good holiday and gets to relax
a little. I dont know if anyone is still reading these posts really, but it
is nice to think someone is listening. And Yoshi, thank you for keeping my
mom informed of what I am doing by keeping up with this!
The photo by the way is a female young adult Weddell Seal lounging and
enjoying life on the Cape!
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