No. 28 - Split
The low passing over packed quite a punch. We ran ahead of the
leading edge after finishing the last trawl of the survey and slipped
into Admiralty Bay. We put a Zodiac over and dashed into our field
camp to retrieve some data sheets left behind when the camp was closed
earlier in the season. We found the beach to be practically deserted;
all that were left were a couple hundred fledgling Gentoo penguins
still hesitant about getting in the water, a few adults finishing
their molt, and a couple of young female fur seals who didn't look
like they were going to make it. Several penguin carcasses gave
evidence that skuas were still around picking off the timid. And high
on the bluff sat several giant petrels, as big as skuas and
albatrosses; several of the older birds were completely white in
color. I hadn't been close to the massive glacier next to the camp in
several years and was surprised to see that it had retreated a hundred
feet or more and that the seaward edge was fractured and splintered
into enormous blocks of ice.
We started back to the ship as the wind wound itself up; a standing
chop of 4-5 feet quickly rose and plumes of spray blew off the tops of
the waves. The ship made a lee and took us aboard as the wind howled
out of the northwest across the island and down the long axis of the
bay. We retreated in the face of 60 knot winds and hove-to up close
to the south shore of King George Island. The wind blew steady at 50
knots for the next 10 hours and we could only imagine what it was like
on the north side of the islands.
At first light things looked better and we ventured around to the
north side. I wanted to get more imagery of swarms of krill and
layers of lantern fish, but the swell left over from the storm was
15-20 feet, to big to deploy the cameras and hope to get them back,
and we found little of anything with our acoustic sensors. But we
tried for a day and a half before running out of time and calling it
quits.
We said goodbye to these enchanted islands and started across Drake's
Passage. We had done all that we wanted to do, seen all that we
wanted to see, and it was time to do what every other creature was
doing -- split. The big northwesterly swell is still with us and the
wind refuses to settle, so we waddle along inching our way toward
South America.
-Roger