At Sea
Today the Antarctic banquet was really laid on, not in the dining room but in the seas of the Southern Ocean all around us. In the finest tradition of festive meals and celebratory gatherings, it went on for hours, one course succeeding another in an almost overwhelming parade of delights.
It all began in the late morning, just as Kim Heacox was finishing up his wonderful talk on Sir Ernest Shackleton and the men of the Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition. Engrossing as Kim’s lecture was, a ripple of distraction ran through the audience as a great wall of ice appeared in the near distance. It was our first iceberg, and a truly Antarctic berg as well, a huge flat-topped island of ice torn from the Larsen ice shelf far to the south.
After a close pass by the wave-polished ramparts of the berg, “cruising for composition” as Expedition Leader Ralph Hopkins likes to say, we turned our attention toward Shag Rocks, now only a few miles away. These rugged, 200-foot-high pinnacles are the peaks of a submarine mountain that rises over 10,000 feet from the surrounding seafloor. Washing against this buttress, nutrient-laden currents are deflected upwards toward the surface where they nourish blooms of phytoplankton and provide the foundation of an astoundingly rich food chain. Blue-eyed Shags and other seabirds congregate here, giving their name to this lonely Antarctic outpost. And today, we found there with them something very special indeed, a southern right whale! This magnificent animal was resting at the surface as we observed it, allowing us perfect views of its strangely curved mouth, its wide flukes and the rough callousities that decorate its rostrum.
After some time, the whale slowly moved off and many of us took the opportunity to go below for a quick bite of lunch. Good thing, because the banquet outside was about to serve up the main course! Less than ten miles out from Shag Rocks more blows were seen, Humpback Whales this time! And Antarctic fur seals porpoising out of the waves! Albatrosses big and small, petrels of several species and prions by the thousands! And more southern right whales – many more!!! (I usually don’t use so many exclamation points in a single paragraph but I’m just helpless here – there are no adequate words!). Surrounding the ship, slashing great black flukes, winging down the wind, leaping out of the water, the bounty of the Antarctic seas was up in our faces, obvious to everyone on board, impossible to ignore. Some trained their cameras on the whale’s flukes and callousities, hoping to later identify individual animals, while others racked their lenses back and worked for those fleeting, perfect moments of composition as an albatross wheeled over one of the great mammals. And some just stood and watched, drinking in the glory of the scene and making memories.
Back in the dining room, we ate heartily and very well, as always. But today the real meals were outdoors, a feast for the senses, food for the soul.
Today the Antarctic banquet was really laid on, not in the dining room but in the seas of the Southern Ocean all around us. In the finest tradition of festive meals and celebratory gatherings, it went on for hours, one course succeeding another in an almost overwhelming parade of delights.
It all began in the late morning, just as Kim Heacox was finishing up his wonderful talk on Sir Ernest Shackleton and the men of the Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition. Engrossing as Kim’s lecture was, a ripple of distraction ran through the audience as a great wall of ice appeared in the near distance. It was our first iceberg, and a truly Antarctic berg as well, a huge flat-topped island of ice torn from the Larsen ice shelf far to the south.
After a close pass by the wave-polished ramparts of the berg, “cruising for composition” as Expedition Leader Ralph Hopkins likes to say, we turned our attention toward Shag Rocks, now only a few miles away. These rugged, 200-foot-high pinnacles are the peaks of a submarine mountain that rises over 10,000 feet from the surrounding seafloor. Washing against this buttress, nutrient-laden currents are deflected upwards toward the surface where they nourish blooms of phytoplankton and provide the foundation of an astoundingly rich food chain. Blue-eyed Shags and other seabirds congregate here, giving their name to this lonely Antarctic outpost. And today, we found there with them something very special indeed, a southern right whale! This magnificent animal was resting at the surface as we observed it, allowing us perfect views of its strangely curved mouth, its wide flukes and the rough callousities that decorate its rostrum.
After some time, the whale slowly moved off and many of us took the opportunity to go below for a quick bite of lunch. Good thing, because the banquet outside was about to serve up the main course! Less than ten miles out from Shag Rocks more blows were seen, Humpback Whales this time! And Antarctic fur seals porpoising out of the waves! Albatrosses big and small, petrels of several species and prions by the thousands! And more southern right whales – many more!!! (I usually don’t use so many exclamation points in a single paragraph but I’m just helpless here – there are no adequate words!). Surrounding the ship, slashing great black flukes, winging down the wind, leaping out of the water, the bounty of the Antarctic seas was up in our faces, obvious to everyone on board, impossible to ignore. Some trained their cameras on the whale’s flukes and callousities, hoping to later identify individual animals, while others racked their lenses back and worked for those fleeting, perfect moments of composition as an albatross wheeled over one of the great mammals. And some just stood and watched, drinking in the glory of the scene and making memories.
Back in the dining room, we ate heartily and very well, as always. But today the real meals were outdoors, a feast for the senses, food for the soul.
