Today is a Drake's Passage crossing day. We both slept well after some early rocking and rolling. We wake early, read, and both go to the gym. (Yes, the boat has one, one of the reasons Bill chose it.)
After breakfast we tag boots, I exchange my jacket for a smaller one and we go to the briefing for people who want to put their name down for kayaking. Jake and Brooke run it. I remember Daniel, a guide on our sub-Antarctic trip who had started as a kayaking guide, telling us how much fun it was. I loved a photo he showed me of him encountering a leopard seal in Antarctica, and I had asked him if I could share it on my blog if I went kayaking. I haven't yet but here it is. (There was no kayaking on offer in the sub-Antarctic, the seas are rougher.)
In the afternoon there was a talk about IAATO - the International Association of Antarctica Tour Operators. "Members meet at least once a year, during which policies, procedures, challenges and tasks are agreed to. They work in close cooperation with governments and scientific foundations. Antarctica represents a more profound manifestation of international peace than any other place in the world - managed in the past half-century through the Antarctic Treaty's unprecedented global cooperation of nearly 50 countries, and formally designated a "natural reserve dedicated to peace and science." IAATO has set the global precedent of best practice self-regulation in Antarctica. Their agreed best practices demonstrate that first-hand, environmentally responsible tourism is possible in remote and fragile wilderness areas. They focus on protection, management and education promoting a greater worldwide understanding and protection of the Antarctic - leaving it as pristine and as majestic for future generations." I thought this was pretty cool.
Then there were biosecurity checks. This is to ensure no organic material including animals, plants, seeds, soil and diseases get transported into Antarctica. This below from the noticeboard. We had to take everything we were taking on to any islands or Antarctica (mainly clothing and footwear) to be inspected. (Even though it can freeze to death, you never know.)
In the afternoon Frankie Gamble an ornithologist spoke about guess what? Birds and what we hope we would see. (He also talked about King and Emperor penguins but we won't see those.) I googled Frankie. All these guides have classy qualifications. I thought he also looked a bit like Ed Sheeran. He has a BSc (Hons) in Ecology and Wildlife Conservation from Bournemouth University. Some of his experience has focused on island recovery, conservation of endangered birds and he has been a general ranger worker for a variety of taxa and habitats and been with Silverseas for 3 years. Here is what he says we could see - on the wing petrels and prions, bigger petrels, Antarctic shag, terns, scavengers, albatrosses and penguins. Here is his picture and blurb on the boat.
My notes from his talk:
On the wing Petrels
Southern Fulmar and Magellan are diving petrels you could see in the Beagle channel. Cape petrel, sometimes called Pintado - painted, has a tube nose - these can sweep behind anywhere in Drake Passage.
Antarctica, gray and white, it stays close to ice chunks.
Snow - rarely seen away from the ice.
Wilson’s storm - tube nose - on the wing feet dangle behind, dance along the water sparrow size,
Black bellied storm has a black belly.
Prions - difficult to get at species level, all skitter over the water - see at bow of ship and anywhere.
Bigger petrels - white chinned petrel defined by ivory coloured bill, soft-plumaged petrel, erratic flight pattern, fly on their own course.
Giant petrel - 2m wing span, sometimes called stinkers - diff morphs - as they get older they get lighter. Bill of southern giant petrel white, northern giant is red.
Albatrosses
Black browed albatross - has a hook bill, has a great sense of smell, nest colonially. Mud shaped dome nest for chicks, the dark eye stripe which gives it its name, a broad black edging to the white underside of its wings.
Wandering albatross - every other year has chicks, 3.6 m wing span,very heavy, does dynamic soaring - goes up with wind. Royal and wandering albatrosses differ, Wandering has white flecks on wings and staining in neck, Royal has a line in bill.
Grey headed albatross - grey head and yellow and black bill.
Light mantled sooty albatross - find a pic, they are easiest to pick out.
Antarctic shag - blue eyed shag, extended necks in flight. A gulp is a collection of shags. 400 ft dives have been recorded.
Antarctic tern, black cap, red bill, red feet and pointy bird.
Arctic tern - red on bill and feet, come to Antarctic when not breeding, fly round trips of 80,000km in a year.
The Antarctica scavengers, not called sea gulls, called kelp gulls, have dolphin bills.
Snowy sheathbill - no web feet, they take food from a chick's mouth, pure white, they sift through poo, they do not swim.
Skua's - Chilean, Brown,and Polar (lighter in colour). They harass other birds and prey on chicks.
Penguins
King penguins - Proper seabirds, 3 modes of swimming, can see like us with goggles, dense bones have them fly under water, can porpoise.
Magellanic penguins - distinctive bands, horizontal swimming.
Adelie - female goes off on holiday, can dive 500 ft, fur down to their feet, most comical.
Gentoo - look like they are wearing white headphones and orange lipstick, eat cod and krill, female and male poop different, can swim 36km at a time.
Chinstrap - have a wrap around their chin.
Crested - look after second egg better than first, and it is bigger as if they never wanted first, give it to the skuas.
Macaroni - weighs 5 kg, in water they look pink when they are porpoising.
Southern Rockhopper, pure red eyes, live to ten years, nest amongst shags and albatrosses, boisterous, shake head to attract females, practice siblicide - they feed older chick more.
Gentoos, Adelie and King penguins do catastrophic moulting. Cannot go into the water when moulting. It is a stressful time, usually takes about 3 weeks to complete. Chicks do before they go into the water. Adults do once a year. No one told me it was bikini season. More eyes and more bills live in moderate harmony.
I enjoyed this talk as it was simple and even though I had been introduced to seabirds in the sub Antarctic, Frankie showed how I could identify them more easily and how related they were to the ecosystem. This one is easy to recognise, I said above.
Good luck working out which albatrosses are which in here.
But this is a gray headed albatross, or mollymawk.
At the end of the day we had the Captain's Welcome. It started with the Expedition Leader Schalk (pronounced like skulk) introducing his team of Expedition Guides.
Then Eric, the captain of the ship, spoke. He is French. We find out his father introduced him to boats early and he has been on them ever since. He was a professional sailor at age 19. He took his first significant command at age 26 of Douce France, the biggest catamaran of her time. He has 20 years captaining experience. He loves what he does. There was more and I quickly felt very safe in the hands of such an experienced seaman. He now lives in a boat in Whangarei (when he is not captaining the Silver Cloud). He has a girl Juliette 19yrs old and a boy Damien 16yrs by his first wife. He is newly married to "an angel". Here is a picture of his Dad holding him on a boat at 9mths old.
We had dinner at La Terrazza again. Here is what is on each table. Chiara (Lachie's girlfriend) comes from near Modena in Italy. Her father keeps his wife's inheritance of balsamic vinegar, which is in a series of eight barrels from small to large in the basement of their house in Reggio Emilia. Since going to this region and tasting the family's own balsamic vinegar, we have a new appreciation for it.
