grail |grāl|
noun
a thing that is being earnestly pursued or sought after
Yesterday evening when our expedition leader, Lisa, reviewed the intentions for the next day, she spoke in a reserved yet optimistic manner. Satellite images for the Weddell Sea were better than they had been for the past four years. Recent winds had opened up iceberg-choked waters that had not been accessible even a week earlier. With this cautiously optimistic report, and the possibilities it might present, she turned the microphone over to the Captain. At that point in time all reserve flew out the window. The Captain boiled over with a gushing enthusiasm not only for the opportunity this open lead of water was presenting for navigation amongst tabular icebergs but the penguins. Emperor penguins specifically, the holy grail of penguins, the superlative penguin, the tallest, the heaviest, the hardest to find, a truly Antarctic bird. If you went to bed with images of emperors dancing, or marching, in your head, it wasn’t a dream. It was a premonition.
This morning Lisa woke us gently over the P.A. system with an invitation to come out on the bow of the ship, wear your jacket over your pajamas, be warm, but come out, there were emperors on the ice. Maneuvering amongst bergs and finally into fast ice, we laid our eyes on the emperors. A few Adélie penguins were also on the ice, providing a convenient contrast for comparison, a 23-inch-tall penguin standing next to a 35-inch-tall penguin. That is scale.
But it got even better. There was a huge expanse of fast ice in front of us and even more emperors in the distance. The ship was set into the ice, a safety check was made, and parameters set and out on the ice our own orange-jacketed march began. As we headed towards the small group of emperors a mile plus away, additional penguins came onto the ice and joined our march. Parallel with each other we all headed towards the standing group. The emperors sometimes got down onto their bellies and tobogganed, we got on our bellies and photographed or just admired them.
In the end we all coalesced into a gathering of observers. Penguins watching us laid out on the fast ice, and we watching them as they rested, preened, and occasionally vocalized to each other. We left them where we found them, and returned to National Geographic Explorer with hundreds of images, a little bit of sunburn on our noses, and humungous grins on our faces and in our hearts. We found the Holy Grail, and it has webbed feet.
Inspiration smacked into one of our younger travelers, here is his impression of the day.
Emperor penguins
Sliding slowly on the ice
Some are naughty, some nice.
