GETTING TO CUVERVILLLE ISLAND

Sat, 16 Feb 02, MS Nordnorge, Neko Harbor , Antarctica

Helen’s stomach illness was for just half a day. She was/is fine yesterday and today.

Our planned Greenwich Island shore visit yesterday afternoon was cancelled because it was too windy.

We sailed all afternoon and evening and through the night down the Gerlach Straight to near the end of it and this morning anchored alongside Cuverville Island for morning shore visits there. Cuverville Island is close to Danco Island and “has the largest Gentoo penguin colony on the Antarctic Peninsula.”

Except for the wind, the weather was pretty good. Well, we never have had blue skies in Antarctic waters, and I don’t know how often blue skies are seen. It tends to be overcast, and the cloud cover tends to be low. We haven’t had significant fog.

The agenda called for afternoon shore visits today at Neko Harbor, which is within a few hours of sailing from Cuverville Island.

While sailing Friday afternoon, we saw a whale. It was said to be a humpback which, it is said, is the most likely whale so see here now. My reading is that when you see a whale, you usually don’t see much of it, but I saw a whale. (I saw it. Helen didn’t.)

I walked six miles Friday, most of it on board ship.

There was a fine lecture by a fine story teller in the afternoon. It was about the Antarctic exploration voyages of Sir Ernest Shackleton circa 1918. I had twice read about Shackleton’s amazing, miraculous survival voyage, most recently in one of my books about Antarctica on the airplane to Santiago.

SHACKLETON

Shackleton was an Antarctic man.
Survival was his plan.
His story is replete
With many a marvelous feat,
And he never lost a man.

Deception Island was not what we expected and was a bit of a disappointment in that it certainly wasn’t all snow and ice. Now we’ve gotten into what we expected Antarctica to be, i.e., lots of ice – beautiful ice.

The following information about Cuverville Island and Neko Harbor is copied from our handout for today:

“The Errara Channel is a scenic, narrow waterway between Ronge Island and the Arctowski Peninsula on the mainland. It was discovered by the Belgica expedition and named for Prefessor Leo Errera of the University of Brussels, a benefactor of the voyage. Errera is home to Danco and Cuverville Islands. Cuverville Island supports one of the largest known gentoo penguin colonies. This can be apparent from miles away given the right wind direction. Early in the season, snow cover impedes but doesn’t sop penguins accessing their nests and an intricate network of ‘penguin highways’ is carved into the snow. The shallow waters between Cuverville and Rogne’ islands often trap and ground icebergs. This makes for superb ship-cruising through the channel. Up from the rookery at Cuverville, steep cliffs lead to the island top. These cliffs should be avoided so as not to damage the moses and lichens that grow there. The cliffs are also home to skuas that are vigorous in defending their well-hidden nests.”

“Andvord Bay penetrates deep into the Antarctic Peninsula; from here the Weddell Sea side is a mere fifty kilometers (30 miles) away. Once inside the bay, one is surrounded on all sides by the mountains and alpine glaciers of the peninsula. The bay is splendidly scenic and fills with castellated icebergs and wildlife in the long days of summer. Nestled at the bottom of the bay is Neko Harbor, named for a whaling ship which anchored there in the early 1900s. Neko features an Angentine refuge hut and a gentoo penguin colony onshore. It is also one of the rare places in the Antarctic Peninsula area where one can come ashore on the Antarctic mainland. Please do not enter the refuge. Hike up the hill to the penguin rookery and an amazing view of Andvord Bay but do not continue onto the glacier as it is heavily crevassed. The glacier across the tiny harbor is very active and creates very impressive but dangerous waves when it calves – please stay off the beach.”

Miscellaneous:

The boat rides are fun. Fast! Hard bounces on the wakes and waves! Cold water sometimes splashes on you. Light, shallow draft, plastic bottom, big outboard engine. They have something like pontoons, filled with foam material, I’m told, not air.

It seems to me that the tour operators have a fairly large number of candidate places to visit and, in our case, make shore landings (planning “on the run” based on conditions). But I believe the general route along the Antarctic Peninsula is common to all tours that come here. It is illustrated on a map near the beginning of this blog.

I’m told some Antarctic cruises have no shore visits. They just cruise by as close as is safe and look from the ship; so we are fortunate.

The staff continually remind us to use sunscreen and sunglasses on shore visits even though it is cloudy. (High UV radiation.)

:-)

Bernie