Lemaire Channel & Port Lockroy

Jan 30, 2023
Today we rise early for our crossing through the Lemaire Channel at 6 Am. The fog has socked in the view a bit, and the numerous icebergs have crowded our path which makes for a slower move forward. We find out that our planned zodiac at the end of the Lemaire will have to be canceled, so instead, we will cruise around Penola Strait and pass back through Lemaire Channel northbound this time.  The views are stunning though, and we enjoy photographing the steep edges of the cliffs plunging into the waters below. Here we spot some gentoo penguins swimming and floating on an ice floe, weddell seals, Antarctic terns, and kelp gulls. We decide to take a jacuzzi outside in the back of the boat while we pass through. While in the jacuzzi we spot a pair of humpback whales following the wake of our ship.  What a treat! They follow the boat for a good 20 minutes but never do show off their tale for us! We also spot a small sailing vessel down here cutting through the Lemaire next to us.  It gives one an appreciation for how treacherous it could be for a small boat of that size down here. We watch him sail dangerously close to the shoreline with overhanging glacial snow looking ready to calve on top of him! I don’t think I could be a risk-taker like that in this environment, but it is amazing to see what some are capable of doing, just as the former explorers were.

After lunch, we prepare for our disembarkation in Port Lockroy. First, we hop in a zodiac to explore Jougla Point, which is a small area on Wiencke Island.  We get lucky with a nice warm and sunny day today, which makes for some breathtaking photographs of the penguins with the shimmering snow behind them. Again, here we see some chicks with their mothers, many of which are much closer to us than on Culverville island. It is so fun to watch some of the penguins doing their ‘job’ of finding rocks, waddling back to the nest, dropping one, and waddling back down to get another rock. This is how they build their nests, and they are very hard workers as you watch the purpose of the waddle. We spend some time wandering the shoreline here as well as admiring some impressive whale bones lying on the beach. It is hard to imagine being so close to a creature that big, or even to imagine trying to ‘catch’ a whale in a small dingy or fishing vessel! When it is our turn, we taxi across the water to Port Lockroy. This is one of the first bases established by the British back in the 1944-1945 Operation Tabarin. The base was used first to establish a presence during what was originally looking to be a race to claim land in Antarctica but also to conduct research on the Ionosphere and the use of radio waves for communication. The base was closed in 1962 shortly after the Antarctic Treaty and then nearly 30 years later the decision was made to revive it as a historic site. The base now houses a museum and has been reconstructed the base to look/feel exactly as it did back during its operational heyday. It also is the world’s furthest south post office and will mail a postcard for you to anywhere in the world for one stamp! The journey the postcard takes is traveling by ship first to the Falkland Islands, then it boards an RAF flight back to Britain. Then from there is distributed for regular postal delivery throughout the globe. We send a postcard to our kids, our parents, and get excited to see how long it will take to arrive! The small gift shop here too is the world’s ‘Southernmost mall’, or so they claim! It was neat to hear and learn about the history of the base once back on board during the evening debrief, along with some tips from the onboard photographer about how to capture the best shots. We finish the day off with dinner, which was intended to be an attempted outdoor BBQ, but as we know in Antarctica, the weather changes every 15 minutes. They decide to move the BBQ indoors and we enjoy a festive dinner with silly party hats this evening.