Feb 17

Today is February 17, 2009. It is the 5^th day on the boat. I woke up early this morning to go on an excursion. I woke up at six thirty. I ate breakfast and went to Goudier. That is where a British Base is. I saw some little penguins and they bit at my fingers. They were very cute.

            Then we headed to the island right next the base called Jougla Pt. My dad and I walked over to the water where the penguins were coming and leaving from. It was neat to watch the penguins fly from the water.  They are incredible swimmers and they swim so fast that sometimes they jump their whole bodies out of the water so they can go even faster.  There is less resistance in the air than in the water, which is why they jump out.  This is called porpoising when they jump.

            Next, I got to drive the zodiac around some more, then headed back to the boat. Once I was back I had some lunch. The lunch was good. About two hours after lunch we were going to go to Neko Harbour. The winds were too strong though. They were hurricane force winds – over 100 knots.  Knots is a boating term and means nautical miles, which is a little longer than a regular mile, so 100 knots is like 110 miles per hour. We left the area and ended going to Brown’s Station. That was on Antarctica – all our previous landings had been on islands. I touched the ground of Antarctica and was ready to go on a zodiac cruise.

            When everyone was getting on the zodiac a man fell and cut his fore head. It looked like it had hurt. We drove him back to the ship and started our cruise. On the cruise we saw a baby wandering albatross that was almost grown-up. It had about a week left. We also went around and looked at all the ice. It was cool to see all the different patterns in the ice. We also went to go see a huge glacier. It was so big that it was almost all around us. It was everywhere except behind us.  The glacier front, which is the part that creates icebergs when they fall off due to gravity, was over six miles long.

            Once everyone was done taking pictures of the glacier we went to go see a leopard seal. There were two seals on an iceberg. One left though. They eat penguins and have really big teeth and are really scary looking. We got some good pictures and then headed for the boat. 

            We went to the lounge when we got on the boat. We had a couple drinks and played some cards then listened to the recap. My mom and my brother Andrew and sister Claira are all on a different boat in Antarctica – long story, but my trip with my dad was planned several months ago, and my mom’s trip just a few weeks ago because they are going as guests of the company and almost for free.  Well, while we were playing cards the expedition leader of our trip and the captain of our ship both came and told us that my mom’s boat was stuck on a rock! There were hurricane force winds and their boat was pushed on the rock! They are now stuck. I feel really sorry for them. I hope they make it back in the ocean all right and that there is no hole in their boat. I will just have to wait and see.  It is actually a very dangerous situation and 3 other boats and the Navy from Argentina and from Chile have all gone to try and help them.

            After the recap I went to dinner then off to bed. I had a good day with many surprises. I can’t wait for tomorrow.  I hope my mom and brother and sister are safe.

 

Bye for now,

 

Emily

---  It is now the afternoon on the 18th and I have great news - my mom and brother and sister are all safe on a rescue ship!!!