Land at Last: Macquarie Island

After many days at sea we raised Macquarie Island around noon today.

The last few days and nights we experienced high seas and lots of rocking and rolling. Going up the 5 flights of stairs separating us Deck 3 denizens from the Observatory Lounge on Deck 8, one tends to pause waiting for the ship to surge the right way effectively taking 100 pounds of of one before scampering up a set of steps. The ship’s elevator gets taken offline in rough seas so there’s exercise to be had moving between floors.

We’ve had some excellent presentations by expedition staff on various topics. One guy crewed on a 45 footer that sailed through pack ice taking some nutcases to the Ross Sea to climb Mt Minto which is about 12 000 ft. They sailed through a blizzard with wind that twice submerged the mast

The excitement of seeing land once again brought a throng topside.

We suited up and hit the beach under bright sunny skies well in the lee of the island so no huge waves on the way in or out.

Macquarie Island has the only Royal Peguin colony in the world and the scenery is striking made more so by a successful pest eradication

My cellphone battery croaked shortly aftertaking these shots. I begged Leonard to send me some of his but he said he was tired so nothing doing.

I’ll have it charged right up for tomorrow’s early morning trip to the isthmus on the northern end of the island.