Dave Ford Does Earth

Posted by Dave Ford

I love seals.  They are pretty much my favorite animal. Maybe it is because seals are so much like dogs. Although, they smell quite a bit worse than dogs. Like penguins, they spend much of their time at sea eating.  Sitting on the decks of the ship we would occasionally see a seal stick his head up, look around, take a quick breath, and then head back down into the depths.

We saw fur seals, crab eater seals, leopard seals, and weddle seals on this trip. On one of the islands I was charged by a fur seal. Given my big and slugish stature on land I am lucky that seals are even  bigger and slower. The picture below is the little guy who charged me. I think I woke him up trying to take his picture.

Leopard Seals 

The leopard seals are the really scary bastards. Most of the seals eat krill and fish. Leopard seals eat other seals and penguins. They weigh in at 1200 pounds and have extremely sharp teeth.

One morning, we were making a typical landing. It was snowing hard and I was hoping to chill with a new type of penguin that we had not yet seen, the Adelie.  As we were on our zodiac boat ride in, I thought I saw a batch of Adelie Penguins. I felt like being by myself that morning, so I broke from the pack to chill with the new penguins. It took a bit of athleticism to get to the batch of rocks that I thought they were on. I was the only around, the rest of the people hiked up a hill to a different part of the island.

This is where my “dumb” luck kicked in.

There was not a single Adelie Penguin anywhere around. I was surrounded by Gentoo penguins. The same kind that we had seen for days.

So, I am a little pissed. Then, out of nowhere I see a swarm of birds hovering and dive bombing an area right in front of me. When, I looked again closer, I saw (and caught on video) a leopard seal ripping a Penguin to shreds. He was right in front of me in the water, chowing down on a fresh kill. I showed the video to the entire staff, and none of them had ever seen such a thing. Thank god I am so skillful in misidentifying penguins. Planning on uploading the video as soon as possible.

The Antarctic Circle 

Out of the limited weeks that you can actually travel in Antarctic, late February and early March is when it is possible to cross the Antarctic circle. Our expedition leader Jan –with extremely big balls–made the call to go for the Antarctic Circle. Out of the 8 expeditions that were in Antarctica at the same time as us, we were the only ones that went.

As we crossed into this mystical place, we saw hundreds of Icebergs around us in every direction. This is an entry that I wrote from my journal on the deck that day:

Inside the Antarctic Circle
11:11 am February 26th

Not many expeditions find themselves inside the Antarctic Circle. We are lucky enough to be one of the chosen few. I am sitting among a city of Icebergs. Some look like castles, others like skyscrapers. Their shear size is daunting. Now I understand what happened to the Titanic. Polar skuas (birds) are flanking the right and left side of the ship, and humpback whale sitings have been frequent. The expedition staff is buzzing with raw energy, only one of them has been this far south. Its almost noon and the sun is not even close to reaching the halfway point in the sky. We are getting 18 hours plus of light per day. I just saw a 60 year old couple run past me with their cameras with the energy of five year olds. Even the Russian crew seems excited.

Our goal was to make a landing at Detail Island, the site of an abandoned British naval outpost from 1953. Landings at Detail Island are extremely tough due to surrounding pack ice and deep waters. We were the first to make the attempt out of any of the expeditions in 2007.

Luckily, after three attempts at anchoring, we were able to dock. Then, the expedition team made a successful scout landing and let us know that we would be able to land. The rush of adrenaline hit us all at the same time, and we scrambled downstairs to get our gear on.

When we got to the shore, we saw that Detail Island was flourishing with wild life. A colony of fur seals were sleeping on the rocks to our right, with Weddle seals intermittently mixed in. We were able to get right next to the seals. Some grunted and barked at us, most did not even blink an eye to acknowledge our presence.

Then, we got to experience another crown jewel. We were able to tour the abandoned British base. It was preserved like a time capsule. There was food in the cabinets, magazines on the table, and pots on the stove. We walked into a time warp. For the most part, it was unspoiled since their hurried evacuation almost 54 years ago. They had skis by the door, and maps and charts laid out in the workspace. The bedding was still on the bunks.

Inside the abandoned British Base
Expedition Staff Profile

John Killinbeck, Age 70, English

John lived in Antarctica from 1960-1963. He spent his first year at Deception Island as base commander. He spent these three years completely void of women. On Deception island, the men taught themselves how to dog sled. Johns mission was to survey the Adelai Islands on the west coast of the Antarctic Peninsula.

John spent months at a time dog sledding the Antarctic to properly survey the continent and its islands. At that time  their only means of communicating was through Morse Code.

One of their main food sources at the time was seal. According to John, they would use almost every part of the seals that they shot. The dogs would get raw seal meat every other day. I can not even imagine living at such a time. John was a really fascinating guy. Reaching Detail Island was a highlight for him as one of his very good friends in England had lived there for some time.

Polar Plunge
I am going to end the Antarctic series on a high note. The polar plunge of all polar plunges occurred on volcanic deception island in Antarctica. We were informed the night before that we were going to have the opportunity to swim in the water of Antarctic. The following question came up the night before,  “How can you make an Antarctic Polar Plunge on a volcanic island even more ridiculous?”.  This discussion took place over many beers. That night, we figured it out. I was to wear Brazilian Carol’s tini bikini in the water. Unfortunately, I needed to wear my boxers under the bottoms. There were children on board. I must admit, I am dead sexy!!!

Shrinkage? One of the older Greek ladies seemed to enjoy this a little too much.
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The trip home was fantastic. We got the “Drake Lake” (a very calm Drake Passage). No one became seasick. Furthermore, the nightlife erupted as no one had to get up for landings. The expedition staff performed the zodiac dance for the first time. The passengers were all beaming from the post Antarctic high.

We experienced so much amazing stuff in our ten days. I have not even come close to documenting all of it. I do not know if its possible. All I know that this was the best 10 days of traveling that I have ever done. I am making arrangements as we speak to see more wildlife on my trip.

To whoever is reading this, if you get a chance, spend the money and go to Antarctica. I can not promise anything resembling my experience. Nonetheless, Antarctica is the last untouched place on this planet. The human population is officially zero. I would give this trip 5 stars, and highly recommend Quark Expeditions as your company.

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Notes:

> Out of nowhere, as I am walking to the Internet cafe to take a shot at knocking out Antarctica part 3, I run into Brandy and Kim from the Antarctica trip. I did not even know they were going to be here. There are 15 million people in Buenos Aires. What are the chances??? Coincidence, I think not! Anyway, over a few beers we relived the trip and the post-Antarctic high rushed back.

> Hugo Chavez (Venezuleas President) gave a two hour anti-American speech in Buenos Aires yesterday.  President Bush is touring South America right now. I think he is Uruguay right now. Lets just say I do not think he is getting his message across to the masses. For those of you that do not know this, Hugo Chavez is the socialist nut case attempting to make himself dictator for life of Venezuela.

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