González Videla Base is on the Antarctic mainland at Waterboat Point in Paradise Bay. It is named after Chilean President Gabriel González Videla, who in the 1940s became the first chief of state of any nation to visit Antarctica. The station was active from 1951–58, and was reopened briefly in the early 1980s.
Bill not smiling smiling. He hates having his photo taken and the smell was unbearable. Or maybe it is just he hates having his photo taken and my big nose.
We got introduced to penguin poo - guano. We could smell it as we arrived into the bay, and it just got stronger.
At this time of the year the gentoo penguins - adults and chicks - are moulting. The process takes three weeks. They can't swim when they are moulting. Here is a colony of mostly gentoo penguins. What I know so far about gentoo penguins - they look like they are wearing white head phones and orange lipstick; they eat cod and krill; female and male poop is different. Here is a video that shows their child raising.
We were told to look out for Bachelor Kevin - a Macaroni penguin who for no apparent reason lives among the gentoos here. He doesn't breed and seems to be okay here - the wonderful anomalies of penguin colonies to discover. Kevin wasn't here today. Do penguin colonies resemble human communities? I will find out later.
Ursula, the historian (more about her in a later blog) is on a corner of the rookery and she tells us a bit of the history here of two young Brits who were the first (humans) to spend a winter here. Bill was asking all the questions.
Two 19 and 21 year old British youths survived living in an upside down water boat for a year on this point, and their story is miraculous. They were part of John Lachlan (I was interested in this name as we named our second child Lachlan John) Cope's Expedition in 1920-22 to Graham Land, now known as the Antarctic Peninsula. It was a grand scale 'British Imperial Expedition' involving some fifty people. Amongst its objectives were the circumnavigation of Antarctica (using Scott's old ship - the Terra Nova) from a base at the Ross Sea, and the first flight over the South Pole. Funds of some £100,000 required by the proposal were apparently not forthcoming. After getting close to arrival at the base, the expedition was abandoned and the team returned home. Except the two - Thomas Bagshawe and MC Lester - chose to stay and got to Boatshed Bay on a whaling ship. They ended up being there for a full year, including through the winter of 1921/1922, and conscientiously carried out an extensive programme of observation and measurement. They stayed in this waterboat, hence the name.
I googled for more about these two heroic boys. They stayed here thinking a whaling ship would pick them up. I still can't believe they lived in a waterboat through the Antarctic winter! Bagshawe called the area "a country garden - and a small prison camp". "Their main source of sustenance was an ample supply of seal-meat (in the form of a stew) and penguin eggs and meat. Variety was, therefore, limited but their health was generally good."
"They had minimal scientific equipment - their meteorological screen was built by the carpenter of the whaling ship that brought them south. The screen was mounted on a small hill near the hut (and on occasions sported the British flag). Readings were taken every two or four hours, depending on the month and date, and a complete record of weather conditions was compiled for the full year.
Tidal conditions were recorded for the complete year using a boulder-filled wooden barrel with half an oar attached, suitably calibrated. This involved hourly observations, night and day, often under very uncomfortable conditions.
The ice-state on sea and land, as well as glacier movements, was observed and recorded.
Comprehensive notes were kept of their observations of zoological subjects - whales, seals, penguins and birds. They enjoyed studying the habits of the various breeds of penguins (gentoo, Adelie, chinstrap and macaroni) in the vicinity.
Fortunately, the two explorers were able to keep a photographic record of their expedition but their camera was unsophisticated and they had no facilities for processing film. They had to wait until their return before discovering whether their efforts had been successful. Generally, quality proved to be relatively poor, although many of the pictures are interesting.
The Norwegian captain, O. Andersen, who had brought them from Deception Island had promised to pick them up the following year. And he did. He left them on 18th December 1921, and returned on the same boat on 13th January 1922."
Here are some more photos.
Lester.
What it looks like now.
Penguins desperate to swim and they can't because they are moulting. They have to wait three weeks.
So here we see gentoo penguins for the second time.
Here is a chart of all the penguin species. We will see some of the top row in Antarctica, not Emperor or King. I have seen others in other rows in the sub-Antarctic and in New Zealand.
These guys below have been at the station for 9 months and are just about to leave. Occasional summer visits are made by Chilean parties and tourists.Their conditions are an upgrade from Lester and Bagshawe.
Back to the penguins. Gentoo penguins average about 5.5kg and 71cm tall for the southern gentoo and about 6.2kg and 80cm tall for the slightly larger northern gentoo. Penguin chicks appear so large because they are covered in thick down before they gain their adult feathers, so they frequently look bigger than the adults that they are feeding from. It's largely fluff though and once they shed the down and grow the adult feathers they seem to shrink a few sizes. As the chicks get bigger they beg for food from almost any adult that comes their way. It is in the adult's interest to only feed their own chicks, so there is often a chase right through and away from the colony with much calling to each other while the adult establishes that this really is their chick.
This area is covered in snow and ice in the winter, but in the warmer months, this melts exposes rocks and in places, an extensive carpet of moss (not grass) and mud appears. Large expanses of green can also turn out on closer inspection to be lichens growing on the bare rock.
This is the sheathbill, cleaning up guano.
His/her lookout.
In this short video, we were told Mum does not feed chick as much, chick wants more and says so - I think this is what they are saying. The chicks are getting close to going to live by themselves. This is a way of telling chick soon you will have to fend for yourself, otherwise chick would stay here waiting for Mum to feed him/her. So there's one way penguins are similar to humans.
Time to head back to the boat. Phew for the smell. Over lunch I do the washing. The Silversea Laundromat is tiny, but there's plenty happening there. I arrive at the laundromat after our morning landing (11am). I see it is full. A woman at the far end of the room looks at me and says “Every machine is taken. You will have to come back.” This below is not the laundromat as my photo did not come out - like this and narrower if you can imagine.
Danyelle is at the nearest machine to the door. We had been kayaking together two days before. She says in a quiet voice "You can have this machine after me. If you put your bag on the top of the machine I can pop it in for you after my wash. Come back in 25 minutes."
The lady in the back of the room ( the b lady) says “I have been here for 20 minutes. One of these machines might come free soon. Other people have also put their bags on the top of the machines. They too are waiting to put their laundry in. If the person who has the bag on the top doesn’t turn up, you could put your washing in before them.“
I'm not sure what the rules are. I see two machines have 5 mins to go. Danyelle’s machine has 10 mins to go. “I will wait 5 minutes" I say. "If the others come I can put mine in Danyelle’s machine, if they don’t I will put it in either of these two machines."
Then one of the people with their bag on top of one of the machines turns up. I realise bag on top is code you are next. I say to Danyelle I will use your machine. So I go away and come back in ten minutes.
Danyelle has come back just before me. Danyelle takes her washing out. I put our washing in. The woman who was here 15 minutes earlier is still here. She has done two 45 minute washes and now has two dryers. She complains about the dryers being too hot. She also hold up a blue bra and asks if it belongs to any one? Another woman comes in and she says she saw the blue bra in the washing machine yesterday. Someone left it there washing in that machine and it was there all day. The b lady puts the blue bra on to of the soap dispenser.
I go back to our room and come back 15 minutes later. Dee arrives as I wait for the last 5 minutes of my washing to finish, and asks if there is a spare machine? "You can put yours on top of mine and when I am finished I can put yours in" I say. I take my washing out and look for a dryer. Danyelle offers the same deal as last time. The woman who had the two dryers says she will combine her two dryers and this will free up the other one for me. Phew.
So the woman who held up the blue bra, and Danyelle, leave. Jay and Lynn come in. They are looking for a machine. I give them what I think the machine status is! This one has 15 minutes to go, or if you hang around these might be ready to finish. Then Lynda comes in and uses the ironing board.
By this time I am laughing! This is a great show. Yesterday the woman that commented on the blue bra being in the machine was clearly the queen of the laundromat. Today the woman that held up the blue bra was for the first part, then Danyelle was queen for maybe 5 minutes, and now I am the queen!
After 100 days of cruising with Silversea you get free laundry. I originally thought this was a nothing, but after the laundry antics I have witnessed, Mick and Linda, you really are on the verge of a big prize! I can see why you were both so excited about it! And after visiting penguin colonies and hearing Martin's talk about penguins and their antics, I can see humans and penguins may well have a lot of behaviour in common.
I got to know Danyelle in this process, and we chatted more later on the trip.
In the afternoon it was on to Paradise Bay. And it really was paradise for shags, whales, penguins, seals and leopard seals. They were everywhere.
Thanks Laurie for this tail picture. It is a beauty.
Shags.
Most of the shags have two chicks and one will do much better than the other. This is why.
More whales.
Weddell seal.
Leopard seal.
Another whale.
Sunset.