Three Days to Go

12/20/2007
Our bags are packed and our seasickness prescriptions are filled. We have just enjoyed watching a short video about the delightful sail that awaits us Tuesday evening as we cross Drakes Passage. See it yourself here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jld5pIUKhCE . Looks like fun, doesn't it?

I hope you'll check in on us over the next couple of weeks as we explore the bottom of the world. We will try to post photos and share our adventures in Antarctica. Pray for us.

Doing the Research

Many of our friends have asked what we did to prepare for this journey. I personally spent most of the past six months saying to Marc: “You’re taking me WHERE??” He encouraged Allie, Dave and me to do a little research on other voyages to Antarctica. Of course we watched the classic move, “Endurance,” the story of Sir Ernest Shackleton’s voyage in 1914-16 to the South Pole. (Never made it to the South Pole – did make it back after being stranded in the ice-choked waters for 22 months.) Shackleton had no trouble recruiting a crew after placing the following ad in a London newspaper:

"MEN WANTED FOR HAZARDOUS JOURNEY. SMALL WAGES, BITTER COLD, LONG MONTHS OF COMPLETE DARKNESS,CONSTANT DANGER, SAFE RETURN DOUBTFUL. HONOR AND RECOGNITION IN CASE OF SUCCESS."

We also watched “The March of the Penguins” and “Happy Feet.”

The Last Supper

12/22/07
The family gathered for a bon voyage dinner at our favorite Turkish restaurant - SEVEN'S. We enjoyed some great Chilean wine with yummy Mediterranean delights (probably the last fresh vegetables that we will eat for the next two weeks.) We are anticipating a steady diet of smoked fish and reindeer meat in Antarctica. Right --- there are no reindeer in Antarctica. However, I expect the Norwegian crew brings a ton of it from Norway. It will feel a little uncomfortable eating reindeer over the Christmas holiday, but explorers have to deal with this kind of thing.

Allie, Dave, Ruthellen and Marc are packed and ready to head south. Julia is heading down to Panama with Sequoia to ring in the New Year Latin American style. Becky will keep the home fires buring and remain in New York City with our son-in-law-to-be, Steve.

And so ... we are off on our great adventure. I hope the internet gods are friendly down in the polar region and with a little luck this blog will continue.

On Our Way!!

12/25/07
Tuesday evening: We have set sail on the good ship MS FRAM. It is all very exciting. The internet access is real slow and we are just figuring everything out with pictures, etc. Hopefully tomorrow we'll have more time to download pix, etc.

This morning we flew from Santiago to Ushuaia (pronounced "oo shwai ahh") - it is the southernmost city on the planet earth. Actually it is a bustling town of 70,000. We took a bus tour through Tierra Del Fuego National Park and met up with some motorcyclists who had come on their bikes from Brazil, Canada, Boston -- very rugged guys and gals.

The scenery was beautiful and we'll try to show it to you shortly. We also learned about the indigenous people called the yamama who did not wear clothing - they just ran around buck-naked. They rubbed sea lion blubber on themselves for warmth. The ate mushrooms "shrooms" off of the trees.

The ship is really nice, the other passengers are interesting and varied - all ages and nationalities. The crew is a lot of fun and keep warning us all to take seasickness medication. So far - the waters are calm (I think we're still in the beagle channel tho.)

SHOUT OUT TO MY NEW FRIEND CATHERINE: All of your advice has been right on! Thanks so much - and thanks for your comments.

That's it for now - I'll work on the pictures and keep you all informed.

In the Thick of It

Good morning.  We are in the thick of Drake's Passage- about 200 miles from So America and 300 miles till we arrive at the So Shetland Islands around noon tomorrow.  Captain says "seas are calm" but the ocean is "confused"...hmmm.  We were awakened at 1 am last night when we left the Beagle Channel and entered the Passage.  Our stash of Chilean wine bottled started rolling around and clattering in the closet.  Walking this morning is a challenge - it feels like the floor is dropping out from beneath our feet.  Everyone is bouncing off the walls and looking a bit like penguins or drunken sailors.

Scop Patches are a lifesaver and keep us on our feet and not puking.  Dave and Allie are  bit unsteady and are trying to sleep the day away.  They are not sick -- just trying to adjust to the sea swells.  It seems like more people on the ship are lying down today.  We were instructed by the crew to keep our stomachs full - and eating does make us feel pretty good.  The ship serves salmon twenty ways. Food is interesting (lots of herring) but there is always fresh fruit and lots of bread.

Even tho we are 300 miles from Antarctica, we are seeing lots of sea birds and even albatrosses.  They fly around the ship as if they are escorting us south.  It's really barren out here and we a true sense of being on an "exploration."  No other ships in sight.

The ship is beautiful - brand new and very high tech.  Things are organized and the crew is great.  All day today there are lectures by geologists and historians.  We just sat through a lecture on Cape Horn and the southern ocean and in a few minutes there will be a lecture on Antarctic History.

Interesting fact of the day:  Did you know that at the South Pole, the sun rises and sets only once a year?  It rises on Sept 22 (my birthday) which marks the beginning of summer and sets on March 22 marking the beginning of winter.  Our days are very sunny.  Last night it was bright light out till 11pm.  We sat at dinner with our sunglasses on!

Dave and I are enjoying our cameras very much and enjoying the digital age as it allows us to shoot to our hearts' content.  Easy t delete the marginal shots and save the great ones.  We carry our cameras everywhere because there are so many opportunities to shoot.

I am disappointed that I have not been successful uploading pix to this blog.  Allie and I are working on it and hopefully, they will appear soon.  Stayed tuned.

Thanks again for your wonderful comments - it's easier to read them than to get my email.

Reindeer for Dinner

Ship's Blog: 20:00 Tuesday.
Location: In the middle of nowhere
Weather: 38 F Slight breeze - steady, rolling seas/

Shout out to Becky!!! Thanks for your notes and comments! We miss you and Jules and wish you were here with us.

It was a lazy day; most passengers were in their cabins, sleeping. We all got several hours of day time sleep between the educational programs. There is lots of food and it always seems to be mealtime. Tonight was our first formal sit-down dinner. We enjoyed a filt of reindeer in blueberry-mushroom sauce. It was delicious and tender and if I ever figure out how to upload these pixs, you'll be able to see Allie eating reindeer up close.

We are lounging around, playing cards and awaiting tonight's movie and a briefing on our first landing tomorrow inthe Shetland Islands.

Blogging out....

The Exploration Team at Tierra Del Fuego

Reindeer Meat for Dinner

First Penguin Sighting

Our first penguin appeared at tea time:
Penguinicus Plasticus Minimus
12/26/07

Welcome to Antarctica

WOW! Marc and I were sipping a cup of coffee early this morning in the ship's cafe when lo and behold we looked out the windows and there they were: ICEBERGS!!! Gorgeous and all around. They are amazing - big and blue-ish with some brown on the bottom. This is the first tangible sight of Antarctica. Suddenly the ship has come alive -- most people have slept off their seasick medication and are chatting excitedly in German, Norwegan, Spanish, English and American English.

Today is a big day. We have traveled for four days are we are finally here. Lots of people on the ship who have traveled further - like from Europe, India and even China!

Allie and Dave are real good company. Everyone has time to relax and do his own thing. Marc is reading "Fountainhead," Allie is choosing her courses for next semester and Dave is determined to crack Rubik's Cube. I'm busy blogging away. It's much more fun than a travel diary.

Shout out to my loyal commenteers: Becky, Mom and Dad, My-My, Dr. David and Judy, Marty, Andee, Catherine, et al.... Keep those comments coming.

Lesson for today: Surrounding Antarctica is an ocean that maintains a fearful repultion with some of the most ferocious sea conditions to be found anywhere on earth. It is the covergence of many oceans and currents. Plus the interaction between the frigid air coming off Antarctica and the relatively warm air of the southern oceans creates a wild sea. However - PRAISE BE TO NEPTUNE: We have had the smoothest crossing ever. It's like a lake out there. (Surely we will pay for this good luck on the return trip.) However by then everyone will have worked out his own cocktail of seasick medication.

"Nuther shout out to David: You'll notice that I am in the pix without feet. They are pictures taken by others. Your instructions are in my head - tic-tac-toe. I promise you some excellent shots will be forthcoming.

Our first landing is schedule for this afternoon so you can expect some pix of Chinstrap Penguins tonight.

More Penguini Minimi

The penguins are everywhere!! Look below for great shots of "Penguinicus on-an-iceberg Minimus" And - "Penguinicus Rubik Cubicus Minimus."


As entertaining as the Minimi are, we can't wait to see Penguni Realistici Maximi later today!

Livingston Island Landing

EXCITEMENT ON BOARD + PENGUINS

After a wonderful day ashore and the excitement of getting up close and personal with a zillion chinstrap penguins, we were all called together for an emergency meeting. The crew informed us that one of the passengers had a stroke and required medical assistance. SOOOO... we are deviating from our route and heading to a Chilean Research Base that has a landing strip. A plane will "try" to fly in and pick her up and take her up to Punta Arenas (Chile). Marc says that she'd be better off in the ship hospital than Punta Arenas Hospital but he was not called in to consult. So - we are heading away from our course and making a medical run. (They say it's life or death...Marc says the damage has been done...but as I said, he wasn't called in to consult. Hopefully tomorrow we will get back on course and see where we can land. Cool, huh?

Our landing was amazing - I have uploaded a few pix (As you can see) and I'll try to upload a few more after this posting. (It's very slow to upload pix, but they are so great tat I know it's worth the effort.) We went ashore in the small rubber Polar Cirkel boats and walked all around the shore with the Chipstraps. We loved it. We were all bundled up and the weather was quite nice - about 25F and no wind. The penguins were friendly and noisy. Allie made a little video that we will try to upload but I'm not sure if that will work - we'll see.

You may have read that there are 17 species of Penguin here in Antarctica -- not true. There are two kinds: white and black. The whites are walking towards you and the blacks are walking away from you. (That's a joke, haha) (You have to be here....)

We continue to enjoy the other passengers. Really nice people and everyone is interesting -- most have traveled extensively.

So much to say but I know if I make this too long no one will read it.

We'll keep you posted on the medical run and let you know when we are back on course.

More Pix from Livingston Island

Sorry the pictures are small but the big ones take too long to upload. Anyway - ain't we cute?
12/27/07

Guest Blogger

Greetings from the bottom of the earth. The Rubins and Dave are too lazy to blog right now (having just returned from a visit to the Polish Research Base in Admiralty Bay.) So, they asked me, Penguinus Plasticus Minimus) to fill in as a guest blogger. Bear with me I usually use a PC and this is a Mac...so I'm going slowly here.

The tourists are a real trip for us penguins. They bundle up in all this heavy clothing -- they have matching jackets and they look like a cross between the Pillsbury Dough Boy and an astronaut. They are not very surefooted on the rocks and ice so they waddle around. We laugh at them and point to them and oblige they by posing for pictures. They think WE look funny -- HA--they look ridiculous.

And, although they are warned to get no closer to us than 15 feet, they are always inching up a little closer. They are also warned not to trample our precious moss and lichens and other plant life, but they still manage to traipse over it.

We love to swim alongside the ship and escort it in and out of the bays.

I hope that all of you reading this, who have not yet visited Antarctica, will plan a trip very soon. You will not be disappointed. Oh - and by the way -- all that talk about disappearing penguin colonies...HA...there are a gazillion of us down here.


Signed,
Penguinus Plasticus Minimus

Friday's Photos + Report

Here we are preparing to launch for Admiralty Bay this morning where we encountered many, many penguins and a few seals. We still have not uploaded the stroke victim - since a rescue plane has not arrived yet. We are cruising back to the Chilean Base this afternoon in hopes of a rendezvous with the airplane (de plane! de plane!)

You do not want to have a stroke on a ship in the Antarctic. Our itinerary has changed substantially but the expedition crew is doing their best in getting us to shore. Because the ship has a great relationship with the Poles at their research base, the base captain welcomed us with great hospitality today.

Update!! Just had an announcement that the rescue plane will not be flying in today. So we are sailing south again and we will come back to the Chilean Base when the plan does finally arrive.
We may even be able to do a second landing on shore this evening. (It never gets dark.)


Off to lunch...salmon and reindeer twenty ways. Yum. We are slowly developing a taste for Norwegan food.

A GREAT ADVENTURE AND WE ARE ALL FINE!!!

12/28/07
Hi Everyone:
Tonight we had a small mechanical problem on the good ship FRAM. We drifted for a while and after a few minutes everything was corrected - and all is well with us and with the ship. There are a couple of news reporters on the cruise and they saw this episode as a great story to send up to CNN. So - you may hear something on the news about the MS Fram in Antarctica -- but don't worry -- there was absolutely no danger and I wouldn't even mention it except that you might see something on the news.

More to come...

Saturday Morning and all is Well

After last night's adventure (blog above) things are calm this morning. Because of the slight inconvenience posed by the mechanical issues, the Captain opened up the bar (free) last night. We all drank champagne and had a rousing party. Kind of a prelude to New Years.

This morning we have returned to a place called Maxwell's Bay and we are here awaiting the rescue plane for the stroke victim. The weather is gorgeous and so we are confident the plane will land and take this poor guy off the ship. Speaking of gorgeous weather, we sunbathed on the deck yesterday (lots of sunscreen.) I have some pix of that and will upload them later today.

The four of us are really having a great time. It is truly a huge adventure and we will be home with amazing stories. This morning's itinerary is still unconfirmed but we are hoping to make a landing at the Chilean Base. I'll write more later and keep you posted.

We Are Fine!

By now you probably have seen on the news that the little problem we had last night resulted in a collision with an iceberg. Honestly we were never in danger and no one was injured in the least. The news services are reporting it pretty accurately but they left off the big party that took place on the ship afterward.

There was an announcement on the PA system that we were all to report to the top deck with warm clothing (WARM CLOTHING!!!) That was scary. Everyone was calm and the crew was excellent. There was never a time when we were going to abandon ship -- so we didn't need the warm clothing.

We cruised through the night and the ship works fine. We went ashore this morning for a visit to the Chilean Base. We are lounging now - after a big lunch. We are not sure whether the ship company or Lloyds of London (insurer) will allow us to continue with the voyage or not. But we are safe, calm, and enjoying reading about ourselves on the internet news services.

Here's a photo of us lounging on deck.