RWSE Day 26: Rollin’ Drake Passage

“Notorious for violent storms, which quickly turn a moderate sea into
violent confusion, turmoil and mountainous waves.” ~~ Sir Ernest Shackleton … describing the Drake Passage ~~ (from the Daily Program)

The sea state wasn’t bad, but it was blowing about 35 knots. There was a bit of wet stuff falling … on and off … enough to turn the decks icy as the temperature was barely above freezing. Best to stay inside. So that is what we did … occasionally going up to the bridge to check out the forward views as Ortelius cleaved its way through the Drake Passage. Neither the whale blows, nor the wanderers, gray-headed and black-browed albatrosses were a strong enough inducement to go outside.

EL Sara had planned a full day of lectures for us, so we were kept busy.

First up after breakfast was Gary who gave a presentation about his 2008 research into the emperor penguins of the Auster Rookery … near Australia’s Mawson Station in East Antarctica. His talk gave us insight into “ … the status of diseases in the Auster rookery, specifically investigating the prevalence of Infectious Bursal Disease Virus (IBDV).”

After studying the four sets of samples taken throughout different life cycles of the penguins, it was determined that antibodies to IBD were present in all, and that the antibodies in adults increased significantly through the year … not so much in the chicks.

(For anyone interested, here’s a link to a synopsis of the study: https://www.antarctica.gov.au/magazine/issue-15….)

Tennessee was up next with a presentation entitled “Life in the Freezer.” With some amazing photos as visual aids, he talked about the time he spent working at the Union Glacier Basecamp just weeks before he joined our RWSE. The camp can accommodate 70 guests in double-walled clam tents. The guests are flown in to the camp, which is near a blue-ice runway. That it is cold goes without saying … after all, the glacier is just 690 miles from the South Pole.

Why go to Union Glacier? To experience what I would consider ‘extreme wilderness adventures’ in the remote interior of the continent … such as hiking over blue ice, skydiving, flying to the South Pole for a day. Would we do this? Nah … we like our adventures ‘soft’.

Before lunch we took care of some logistics matters … returning our muck boots and helicopter landing cards since we will need neither for what remains of our expedition.

Much of the afternoon was free. We used the time to pack our bags for disembarkation … now just two sleeps away. Mui then took a nap; I sorted through photos … doing a virtual visit to some of the unique places to which this expedition took us. I was so engrossed in my ‘virtual trip’ that I missed Chloé’s talk … “Umwelt: How Animals Might Sense the World.”

At the daily recap, EL Sara shared once again a screenshot from Windy. Looks like we still have a it of the purple monster ahead of us … though there is a promise of improving conditions around the tip of South America and in the Beagle Channel.

Phil kicked off the recap briefings by sharing a bit more about his time in Greenland.

Tennessee followed with a quick snippet about the HMS Challenger Grand Tour of 1872–1876 … a scientific voyage that spanned the globe … covering nearly 69,000 nautical miles. The purpose of the expedition was to study the deep sea, leading to the discovery of 4,700+ new species. It also mapped the ocean depths. The expedition is credited with launching modern oceanography.

Clara then assisted Dr Angel Yanagihara, an associate researcher at the University of Hawaii, with her brief presentation. Angel is one of the passengers on Ortelius, but she’s been on the ship for a while now for the purposes of conducting a research project entitled “Plankton Observations of Lifecycles and Ecobiomes (POLEs): Mapping Polar Coastal Marine Biomes.”

By the way, today’s Daily Program came with instructions for disembarking Ortelius on 10 March. Our flight to Buenos Aires is in the afternoon, so we will take advantage of the luggage storage service, but will need to make our own way to the airport at the appropriate time. We were hoping to do some hiking at Tierra del Fuego National Park, but I don’t think the 2:00p pick-up deadline for luggage storage is going to work. We’ll have to rethink our sightseeing plans.Leggi altro