At Sea, Running From A Storm

Monday, November 4^th.

Our first very rough night. None of us slept very well as we pitched about. There is no rhythm to the sea or the pitching, sometimes it is side to side, but mostly head to toe. We seem to be riding along the waves quite well but then we slammed into one and the whole ship would shudder.

Breakfast was a bit of a challenge trying to walk around, pick up your meal and get to your table. We are all walking like penguins!

Early this morning we had a lecture by Andrew the resident photographer, entitled Advanced Wildlife Photography. Most of it frankly was technical DSLR stuff and over my head.

Next up was John with a lecture called Life Underfoot. This was more interesting to me and talked about all of the little plants and animals that manage to survive in Antarctica year-round. I have included the interesting facts at the end of this post for those who want to know.

The seas calmed a bit by lunch time but you still had to be very aware walking around the ship. After lunch we had another biosecurity check by the crew as we leaving South Georgia and entering the Antarctic region and the mandate from not only G but all environmental groups and the government, is no transfer of any invasive species.

In the afternoon a woman who is leading a sub group of our ship’s company gave a basic lecture on water resources on the planet and how we need to conserve them. She was Chilean and talked about the change in agricultural production in South America and how it is using more of the water, changing water patterns and causing droughts. This led to a lively discussion from mostly Americans who think desalination plants or nuclear energy desalination and hydro energy vehicles are the answers. Keith stood up and said that there are big problems inherent with all of them and probably unforeseen problems too. Then he hit the nail on the head, in my opinion, when he said that the big problem no one is talking about is we need to scale down, there are simply too many people! Therein is the crux of the problem.

During review a question was asked about last night’s storm and how the ‘boat’ managed. The captain told us that the waves reached 7 metres and we listed 20 degrees and then he said ‘a ship has a captain and a boat has a frustrated husband’. Jonathan announced that we were headed towards the South Orkney Islands and hoped to either sail between them or make a landing at the research station there.

After dinner we were involved as the audience for the crew who put on a game of ‘Antarctic Bluff’ which was their version of Baldderdash. It was quite funny especially when Mario gave his definition for a made-up word with his Italian accent and complaining at a hotel that he did not have a ‘sheet’ on his bed and wanted a ‘fork’ on his table (you can imagine the accented words). Then the three of us headed up to the Polar Bear Bar and had a couple of drinks while playing darts, while the ship was really rocking! We had a rematch with Rachael and Alice and this time we prevailed.

Lichen – a symbiotic relationship between fungus and alga

Fungus provides the house and the alga provides the food

Antarctica rich in lichen

Most northern or southernly organisms that don’t fly, walk or swim

Three basic types based on the way they look: Leafy, hairy or thread like, or encrusting types

About 350 species in Antarctica

Can grow almost anywhere on anything

Break up a little rock and turn it into soil

Then other plants can grow – mosses which hold water

Then you can get the ‘higher’ plants

Antarctic hair grass and the Antarctic pearlwort – the only two native plants here!

Then you get very small herbivorous animals, mites that eat the young lichen

Antarctic springtails

Wingless midge or wingless fly which is the largest of the year-round terrestrial residents!

Extreme o files – tardigrades ‘water bears’ can exist in the vacuum of outer space, temps of near absolute zero up to boiling, no food for 10 years, can dry out to 3% water!

Scariest facts:

Under ice: phytoplankton live and grow which feeds krill and everything eats krill.

No ice, no phytoplankton, no krill, no food for anything else and the whole ecosystem collapses!