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Antarctic Peninsula Basecamp, On board the M/V Plancius
March 3-14 2015 Trip Report

Escorted by: Cindi LaRaia

Page Four

Day 4 – Friday 6th March 2015
Port Lockroy and Jougla Point

GPS 08.00 Position: 064°58’S / 062°51’W
Weather: Wind: SW 3. Sea State: Calm. Weather: Partly cloudy. Temperature: + 2°C

Many people were up and out on deck long before the wake‐up call this morning and it was well worth it. It was a clear sunny morning as we sailed down the Gerlache Strait and with the sun rise making the tops of the snowy peaks glow pink and the moon setting behind the mountains it really was a stunning start to our visit to the Antarctic Peninsula. As we sailed further south we were surrounded by groups of feeding Humpback whales. Their blows could be seen all around and with occasional tail flukes showing as they made deeper dives to feed on the Krill it was a beautiful scene. During breakfast, we made our final approach to the Neumayer Channel, a narrow scenic channel that leads out to our destination for the morning, Port Lockroy. It was lovely to sail through the twisted, narrow channel and have the bay open out in front of us with mountains and glaciers all around.

The plan for the morning was for the first group of kayakers to out on the water, the divers to have their check dive, the mountaineers to head up above sea level and the rest of us did a split landing between Port Lockroy Base and Jougla Point. At Port Lockroy everyone enjoyed looking around the museum and buying some Antarctic souvenirs as well as meeting some of the local residents, people and penguins! Gentoo penguins have made their home underneath and around the base for many years and have become quite accustomed to visitors coming and going to the ‘Penguin Post Office’. It was hard to stay the regulatory 5 metres here but the penguins seemed undisturbed by our presence.

Over on Jougla Point we had some quality time with penguins and particularly enjoyed the young chicks, who were very curious about our presence and came up to many of us as we sat down and stayed quiet amongst the rocks. It was a great introduction to Antarctic wildlife.

Once everyone had completed their morning’s activities we all came back on board for lunch and prepared ourselves for the afternoon spent here in the bay near Port Lockroy. There were kayaking and mountaineering groups and the divers were going for their first expedition dive while the rest of us went out on a zodiac cruise around the bay. The cruise brought us up close to icebergs and the glacier ice cliffs and, in terms of wildlife we saw a Weddell seal, Chinstrap penguins, Gentoo penguins and, the highlight for many a Leopard seal stretched out on the ice. Most boats navigated into the entrance to the Peltier Channel before making their way back towards the ship. Ali took her boat into the little bay by Jougla Point to watch the penguins coming ashore and in doing so found a hunting Leopard seal and passengers in her boat and Erin’s were lucky enough to witness a kill. The Leopard seal had been lying in wait as the penguins swam in and one unfortunate bird didn’t make it. It is always very gruesome to see but the power and agility of the seal was incredible to watch and we all felt very privileged to watch it.

Back on board there was time to relax a little before dinner was called and immediately after dinner the first group of campers had to get themselves ready for a night ashore. The staff team had already gone ashore to set up the tents not far from Jougla Point so all the campers had to do was collect their camping kits, board a zodiac and head to shore. Some of us may have been feeling a little envious as we stayed on board but most of us were happy to take a hot shower, enjoy a drink in the bar and head to our warm cosy beds! What a fantastic day!

***Rita, Dieter, Shari and I were the lucky ones who had the first night camping!! Wow dragging our cases of packed sleeping bags and snow artillery along with our own overnight kit and cameras was no easy feat!!! We got all set up – darn no campfire!! We cannot bring food on shore, they made this outdoor loo, luckily Rita found these nifty ‘she wee- urinals that absorb’ ahhhhh perfect! The scenery was exquisite, the boat had shined lights on blue floating glaciers in our picturesque bay for our viewing delight! We had a little time to enjoy our surroundings before lights out, quiet time. We were warm in all our long underwear, and various apparel with the sleeping bag, all good! We received about 1 inch of snow overnight, I fell asleep to the sound of pelting snow on our cozy tent!

Camping

After another great dinner, the first camping group started to approach the campsite nearby Port Lockroy at 8:30pm. The campsite was well setup by the team of expedition guides with ten Helisport polar‐ski tent and one emergency toilet. Once the campers arrived at the campsite, they was surprised how wind‐protected the area was by the side of the ice cliff and actually not too cold in the field. After we settled down all the bivi and sleeping bag systems, all the campers enjoyed the view of icebergs around and Gentoo penguins down by the shore. During the evening Plancius helped our photographers a bit by adding a spot light on an iceberg. It was quite amazing to watch this iceberg and listen the penguins and then, yawning to fall asleep in this beautiful night.

Next morning at 5:45am, our camping guides, Wilson and Peter started to wake up all the happy‐faced campers. There had been some fresh, white snow fall overnight and this presented another perspective of this white continent.

Friendly Gentoo penguins at Jougla Point! ** with our new friend Shawn!!! I think Penguin loved his pink pajamas!!

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