JASON KNIGHT

Docking at Enterprise Island

Coming into docking this evening, we were told we'd be tying up to a partially submerged whaling ship, the Guvernøren which sank in 1915 but still acts as a convenient place to tie up for smaller boats like ours. (you can read more about the history/story of it's sinking here).

As we pulled up, I remember twilight setting in and a heavily overcast sky setting the mood as we went out to help with lines and see what we were tying up to. It started snowing.

The first thing I noticed was the massive vertical ice walls that we were pulling alongside. Probably a hundred feet high all around us as we nestled into a little cove.

This would become unsurprising and normal soon enough, but at this point in the trip this was our first up close exposure to ice walls/cliffs.

Second, we learned that there were already two boats tied up to to the sunken whaling vessel, so we'd be tying up to one of those instead (a common practice in boating).

The boat we'd be tying up to was a "Russian" ship. Meaning it was crewed by Russians and operated tours mainly to Russian speaking individuals. I learned later that Sasha and Chef from our boat had both worked on this boat in years past.

As we pulled up to the boat, it began snowing in the gloomy twilight, surrounded by ice cliffs with a sunken wreckage visible from the distant past. Then our (Russian speaking) crew began exuberrantly yelling in Russian as they communicated the docking procedures.

Now, as a kid, I read a lot of Tom Clancy spy novels. Many of these featured soviet era Russians as some of the bad guys of the book's plots.

So at this point, my brain was already in overloaded mode with the ice cliffs and sunken whaling ship, but add to that pulling up to a Russian ship, with the Russian men yelling and gesturing frantically at each other and I felt like I was about to negotiate some intel exchange with some naval defectors. A very surreal feel.

My brain of course queued up the Hunt for Red October soundtrack while all of this was going on. Very appropriate for the occasion on many fronts. I recommend playing the music here in the background watching my clip here. Unfortunately, I didn't capture the part where they were talking more exhuberantly at each other, but just use your imagination.

Pulling up to a sunken whaling vessel

Docked up to the Russian boat

Hard to capture the snow here. The exposure either deleted it or turned it into rain looking streaks.

We're not in Kansas anymore

Thank you to Konstantin and the crew of the Amazone for inviting us onboard to take part in the night of Russian singing!

Enterprise singing

I love the full-bore, YOLO style singing that many exhibited in their saloon. Made me feel even more comfortable trying to sing along...

Lyrics

Our hosts were nice enough to share the lyrics for us. "Oh, thank you!"

Fortunately, one or two of the songs had the latinized script that was slightly easier to pronounce.

Doug actually taught me some of the letters and how to pronounce them, since he lived in Mongolia for several years working in the Peace Corps.

Story time: as soon as we sat down, our hosts were very eager to 1) encourage us to share some guitar/piano/singing of our own and 2) to socially lubricate us with alcohol. Unfortunately, we didn't have any piano or guitar players in our group which made the first a series of polite declines. We also weren't looking to get hammered (in general we were all a lighter drinking group) so we would accept pours of wine and then try to sip them as slowly as was polite.

Now, I'm no stranger to singing in front of crowds (8 years in choir will beat that out of you quickly), so I thought I could help one of our problems, but how was I going to sing a song when there was no way they would know a song that I knew the lyrics to?

I spent several Russian songs (trying to muddle our way through) wracking my brain against this problem when I decided to just work up the courage to ask them if they knew a song (trying to pick a popular one) so I got the courage to stand up and ask them if they knew the piano to Elton John's Piano Man.

It was quickly apparent by this point that they didn't, but at this point 1) the audience was all expecting to finally hear these American's perform. And 2) the piano player (lubricated himself no doubt) just launched into the most American song he knew.

Now I bet you're thinking that I'm going to tell you what song that was. If only I could because while he certainly seemed to be making English sounding noises while playing along, I'd imagine it's what you'd sound like to a Russian if I asked you to start speaking "like a Russian".

So without many options left at this point, I just made up my lyrics on the spot about sailing on the Ice Bird. Fake it till you make it I guess?

Anyways, after that point, the asks for us to perform were notably absent, and the insistence on pouring us more rounds took a notable nose dive. So both problems solved I guess?

But it was a fun night overall, and I'm so grateful for them inviting us aboard to part of their festivities.

And that was only my second most embarassing singing story of the trip! (stay tuned...)

Rachmaninoff

This guy played much of the singalong music. But then a hush fell over the audience and he broke into the classics. Rachmaninoff was definitely one, I forget which piece exactly. It fit the mood exactly.

Enterprise morning

Waking up on the boat to fresh coffee, amazing breakfasts, and the promise of a new day was always such a great feeling.

Enterprise kayaking

Today was going to be our first day kayaking in Antarctica! So the first thing to realize is, "the floor is lava".

And that statement has never rang more true for me in life, because the temperature of the "floor" (aka water) here would literally kill you in a matter of minutes. So we had to take many safety precautions with dry suits, multiple VHF radios, extra flotation devices, skirts, chase dingy, etc.

It was a very different experience for me compared to doing water activities in Texas as a kid. Here you do NOT fall in unless you want to play chicken with death.

This made simple things like taking pictures very difficult (especially as someone without an action cam or any of those kinds of things). So you won't see many pictures/videos from me in the kayak from the rest of the trip, because between not falling in and not dropping my phone, juggling multiple layers of gloves etc, I generally took more mental pictures than anything.

Enterprise seal

Funny story here. Again I couldn't really capture it well because of the difficulty filming while Kayaking, but we were coming back to the boat from our Kayaking trip around the island when we thought: let's go around the sunken whaling ship before getting back on the boat.

Right about that time, I heard an exclamation from Mike behind me and looking back, saw a rather large form swimming below his kayak. It was a playful seal!

It would swim underneath Mike, then pop his head up 10 feet away, then repeat. Coming up on different sides as it'd swim below first his kayak and then mine (at this point the others had already gone in, so it was just Mike and me).

This went along for a while until we got closer back to the boat when Sasha walked up to the bow towards us. At this point we confirmed something we had been wondering.

"Sasha, is this a leopard seal?"

"Yees" </Russian accent>

"Aren't they dangerous?"

"Yees" </Russian accent>

"Oh... okay then"

At this point, the playfulness of the seal got to be a little more nerve-jangling, especially as it became more exuberant as he began to push Mike's boat with his snout (altering his course a bit) and even 'mouthing' the bottom of Mike's boat at one point (like an excited dog).

Also at this point, the size comparison became a little more clear. This seal was big! Like, head the size of your torso, and body (checks Wikipedia) anywhere from 8 to 12 feet long at 400 to 1300 lbs). So this thing would mess us up if it wanted to.

But at the same time, its grace in the water was incredible to see up close. Smooth fluid motions propelled it through the water effortlessly.

So cool!

Once we finally got out of the water, we later heard from Cath that these seals (perhaps this very same one since I believe it happened in this same bay many years ago) will often enjoy using inflatable zodiacs as chew toys. Cath's zodiac required 50+ puncture repairs after one of these play sessions.

Wikipedia's size comparison:

You can see our new friend here after we had come back onto the boat wondering: "where did my new friends go?"

Enterprise Hiking

After kayaking, we did a hike up a nearby mountain.

Enterprise hiking vid

Look at those views! I don't know what it is about video, but you really get a better feel for what it was actually like being there.

A picture from that video if you didn't watch it.

Panorama from the top.

I'll let you guess who made this (very impressive) snow angel. Name starts with an M and rymes with Trike.

Fortunately, it was steep enough for some barebutt sledding on the way down.

Enterprise hiking 2

Here we actually climbed up a SEPARATE mountain later in the day so we could get a better view of Ice Bird, and more importantly, take a picture of our hike from earlier in the day. Not everyone went on this one because we had already done a fair amount for one day.

A cleaner shot of the sunken whaling ship as we left for our next anchorage.