By breakfast time the campers and all their gear were back
onboard the FRAM and we were underway through the Lemaire Channel. The early
morning light and freshly fallen snow made our photos have a different glow
that those we took on yesterday’s transit through the Lemaire.
Port Lockroy is always a joy. The 1960’s food and equipment
make the museum a trip back in time and the shop allows us to purchase future
gifts for relatives and friends. The post office also provided the opportunity
mail cards to the “home- folks” even though we may arrive home before the cards
are at their mailboxes. Getting from the landing site to the base building
requires that we walk through a gauntlet of adult Gentoo Penguins and begging
chicks.
Leaving Port Lockroy many of us were loaded down with maps,
books and clothes that we purchased. The FRAM acquired a small load carpenter
equipment and we will drop it off at Stanley in the Falkland Islands. The gear
will remain in storage in Stanley until the 2015-2016 Antarctic summer season
when it will be taken south by ship and be used to restore one or two of the
old stations.
Today is clear and sunny and our route northbound follows
Gerlache Strait. Picturesque is an understatement for the rocks, mountains and
glaciers that border this strait. Many photographs were taken - who knows how
many!
In the late afternoon came the “piece de resistance” of
whale watching. While we were transiting Wilhelmina Bay we encountered many
Humpback Whales, so many flukes were showing they were making a “fluke ballet”.
Several groups were making bubble nets to concentrate krill. Once they had the
krill concentrated, perhaps you could call it krill soup, the whales rose up
through the soup gulping in as many krill as they could. Eventually the FRAM
had to move on for tomorrows landing at Deception Island. We left the whales to
finish their dinner while we migrated to the dining room to enjoy our dinner.
