"Much of our finest art is surpassed by Nature.... Once wedded to Nature there is
no divorce-separate from her you may and hide yourself amongst the flesh-pots
of London, but the wild will keep calling and calling for ever in your ears. You
cannot escape the 'little voices.’-Frank Wild
Wow, what a difference a day makes!, We awoke to a scene of fresh snow covering
our ship as well as the frozen waters surrounding us. This was grease ice formed by the
snow freezing on top of the water. it’s a scene one seldom comes across at this time of
the year in the Austral Summer.
We made our way cautiously through the Lemaire Channel - named by Adrian De
Gerlache in 1898 in honour of the Belgian explorer - Charles Lemaire. Our path
between these towering mountains of highly deformed rock, was slow but breathtaking,
none the less. At its narrowest the channel is barely 500 m wide and the mountains on
either side reach over 3000 feet high and plummet to over 1000 feet deep, heading
toward Pleneau Island where we hoped to get in an excursion even though the weather
was not being hospitable to us like the last few days. Visibility was low as the snow kept
coming down but the ice forming on the water was an amazing sight. Sitting around the
ship looking out at the snow and mountains was nice as we sat in our warm and
comfortable ship thinking how uncomfortable it would be out there tackling the
elements.
Pleneau Island was named by Jean-Baptiste Charcot in his 1903-05 French
Antarctic Expedition after the expedition’s photographer Paul Pleneau.
Due to the inclement weather, Julio made the call to call off the intended cruise and
we set our sights on the landing after lunch, Petermann Island. Alas, it was not to be.
Although a scout boat went out to shore , it was decided that the landing spot was just
to dangerous to be attempted, the heavy snow that had been falling the whole time,
combined with very icy conditions made the rocks a very bad place to place a foot!!!
However on board another educational program was quickly put in place by our
team of experts and Frank and John enlightened us about the marine wildlife, above
and below these frozen waters. Scott showed a documentary on Port Lockroy and went
over the historical significance of this island and the peninsula. Scobie ventured out in a
zodiac to pick up the staff from the Port Lockroy, and we brought them back to the ship
for a hot shower and a fabulous dinner on board. We were lucky to have our guests
meet us in the lounge after dinner and describe life at the base. We wished them a good
night after their informative talk and looked forward to visiting them the next morning.
[Note: This region of the Antarctic Peninsula has undergone one of the highest
temperature increases in the world over the past 50 years. The mean annual temperature
has risen by >3°C and has been responsible for a significant thinning of ice caps,
recession of glaciers and break-up of ice shelves.]
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