Yankee Harbor 62°32’S 59°47’W is a small harbour entered between Glacier Bluff and Spit Point, indenting the south-west side of Greenwich Island in the South Shetland Islands. Yankee Harbor was known to both American sealers and the British as early as 1820, and this name is now established in international usage.
We made excellent time through Drake Passage with our arrival at Yankee Harbor due to happen on the afternoon of 3 March.
We were arriving in Antarctica a whole day earlier than scheduled!
After breakfast, I went to have all of our outer gear and bags vacuumed in preparation for the afternoon’s landing.
It’s all to make sure that we don’t introduce anything to the landings that shouldn’t be there (though despite the rigorousness of the vacuuming I can’t help but feel this is a little tokenistic — especially when we do it ourselves).
After this I went up on the back of deck 10 for the eBird survey where we counted about 35 Cape Petrals, 1 Southern Giant Petral, and no Unleaded Petrals (ha ha ha).
There were also whales in the distance which totally pulled focus.
At 9:15 was another mandatory briefing, this time about kayaking.
The room was packed with people so the chances of going out twice on a kayak were very slim — and we’ll count ourselves lucky if we get to go out once.
We’ll also count ourselves lucky if Glen and I get out of kayaking without a major argument. There are no single kayaks for passengers, only divorce double kayaks. Wish us luck!
After the briefing we signed a waiver saying that we’re willing to die for the opportunity, handed our forms in, and toddled off.
Places in kayaks will be done by lottery with 16 people going each time (more if they can get more expedition leaders to go too).
Then, about an hour and a half later, was another mandatory briefing. This time about IAATO (International Association for Antarctic Tour Operators) which basically says don’t touch anything, don’t leave anything, and we’re only allowed 100 people at a landing at a time.
Lunch next — BUFFET!
At some point we saw our first Antarctic iceberg and did a circle around this massive block of ice, smooth on one side, ridged on another. Impressive!
We watched the penguin lecture from the comfort of the room. We’ll see Gentoo, Chinstrap, and Adélie Penguins. Unlikely to see Macaroni or Emperor Penguins as they’re much further south.
Quick lie down then Glen went off to his conference and I went to look at feathers under the microscope.
They’re amazing! The way the filaments of the feathers zip together to keep them waterproof is so cool. I sat there for a while talking to the English ornithologist, Kieran (who’s really a seal guy but the ship was looking for an ornithologist), about working for the tour operator.
Sounds like it could be something I could do with my background. Meanwhile, an American came by to ask questions about the landing and Kieran’s opinion on Boris Johnson.
He did not get the opinion he was looking for…
We then made it into Yankee Harbor around 4pm which meant landings were imminent.
The expedition team went off in their zodiac to check it out, while we stayed on boarding taking long distance photos of the rocks, the icebergs, the ice, and the thousands of Gentoo Penguins!
We’re in Leopard Seal group and were scheduled for 18:45 so we had ages to go, particularly as everything was running a little late.
We went for an early dinner at 6, then panic-dressed in preparation for our first landing.
I put on thermal leggings, then ski pants, merino long-sleeve shirt, jumper, ski jacket, then red waterproof jacket. Plus hiking socks and the boots we collected yesterday.
We finally got our overhead call to go down to the launch on level 3 around 7pm, then were loaded into our zodiac after being scanned out.
A quick trip across the icy water and we disembarked on a spit of rocky land to the squawking sounds of thousands of Gentoo Penguins.
There was a lot of activity (although some were already lying down) as the sun was setting and the moon was rising.
Penguins waddled here and there. We had to keep 5m from them but when they moved towards you there’s not much you can do except stand still and enjoy the attention.
It didn’t smell as bad as I was expecting, but they were just as cute as I’d expected. I took a bunch of photos with some turning out pretty alright.
I also saw an adult feeding a (fairly big) young penguin, regurgitating food down its gullet, before the juvenile chased the adult for more food (a behaviour we’d been warned about so it was awesome to see it in action).
On my way back to the zodiac after about 45 minutes on land a couple of penguins came within two metres of me.
The light was almost gone by the time we headed back to the boat. The ice was collected in the little harbour, and the wind was bracing on our return. I got to hand the rope over at the dock.
We then had our boots washed, got scanned back in, and went upstairs.
So, we’re on a boat of about 400 people, which is quite a lot of people compared to some other boats in Antarctica.
This means that we don’t have a huge amount of time on land and we have to be patient with getting to do things.
I thought this would be a problem for me but really, unless there’s something I really missing out on, the “short” time on land isn’t such a bad thing.
After all, how long do you really need to spend walking about? I’ve seen penguins! What more do I need?
Glen and I squeezed in an extra dinner at the fast food place, which was a big mistake as I left feeling full and ill, before going to watch the briefing (not mandatory this time) about the next day’s activities.
Travels with Dan 
What do you say, eh?