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Laura Thieme

Bizresearch President – 10 years - 2007

Fisher College of Business Lecturer on Search Marketing

OSU Russian Studies Grad – 1993

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15th December 2007

Land Excursions, Laziness & Learning at Cuverville Island & Enterprise Island

This morning, I literally rolled out of bed and dressed for the Cuverville Island 8:00 Saturday excursion at 7:45. Vintage Last Minute Laura.  With the light lasting 24 hours now, it’s difficult to sleep and after last night in Lemaire Channel and staying up until well after 2 a.m., it was a true effort to start the day of excursions.

I saw an entire Gentoo penguin colony and absolutely loved it. Gentoos are not
as adversely affected yet by climate change as Adelie penguins.  This penguin shown below has two eggs, as Gentoo penguins lay two eggs, although one chick will typically not survive.


Gentoo Penguin Atop Nest of Two Eggs: Her Partner is in Front
Kinda Funny - He was taking a little walk around her as if to stretch his legs

I have yet to see an Adelie, and will no longer be able to do so, as they’re more likely to
live in the southern part of our trip, which we are well beyond and heading now
northward to Argentina again. I’m fascinated by penguins despite the guano
smell, which is beyond foul. You do become accustomed to it within time, but it
is initially overwhelming the further into the island you get. I took a lot of photos and look forward to sharing them with you soon.

I missed Enterprise Island due to a long, big, fat nap. Ah the pleasure of
getting away. I missed seeing the Bahia shipwreck which I would have liked to have
seen as well as a crabeater seal which was seen by one or two zodiac boats.

One of our lecturers and expedition leaders is ornithologist (”birder”)
Patricia Silva from Uruguay, who has been in the region for 18 years and
specializes in seabirds which include petrels and penguins. She has a website,
www.patriciasilva.com.ar - Sorry website under construction…. She works for Mar del Plata which is located in Buenos Aires Province. I’ve enjoyed her recaps on the expeditions as well as listened to her on the Zodiac boats.  Patricia - get your website up and running?  do you need help - we can help - see www.bizresearch.com


Patricia Silva Lectures on Penguins

How do Antarctic mammals keep warm in such extreme environments? Bradycardia
enables the heart rate to decrease 90% after it leaves the surface -as well as
layers of blubber and lots of food.

Polar explorers suffered terribly from scurvy - when sailors were eating
nothing but fish and protein but lacked vitamin c - black gums, rotting flesh
and odor radiating - teeth fall out - skin hemorrages, turns red and eventually
black. Joints get painful, ulcer, breathing becomes difficult,
hypersensitivity of the senses, becomes nostalgia, and then scars reopen. If
you have large scars - they might reopen - can you imagine such a dreadful
thing? Bob Burton, our historian lecturer, recounted his scars and he has many at the age of 70+. He said if this happened to him, he’d “literally fall out of” himself.

James Lind aboard the Salisbury in May of 1747 had 12 patients and those who
had 2 oranges, 1 lemon compared to 1 quart of cider, and other things - did the
best - A Treatise of Scurvy - a rather painful account written by Lind where
you can barely find the “fruits” of the literature. Citrus fruits cured scurvy
early on, it was discovered. However, when the British got control of the West
Indies, lime was used. What they didn’t know is that lime did not have much
vitamin C as oranges and lemons. So, hold the tonic water with lime, please -
and make that a lemon will you?

Shackleton, Scott &Wilson all died of scurvy according to some reports.
However, our lecturer said that there is nothing to indicate so in their
journals that they suffered from scurvy. Most animals make their own vitamin
c, but guinea pigs, monkeys and we do not. Ascorbic acid creates collagen,
which holds your teeth in as well as your scars together. Our lecturer ended
with always drink your gin and tonic with a lemon and this will be enough
vitamin c every day.

Patricia (Petri), our Uruguayan lecturer who now lives in Argentina (shown above), talked about penguin behavior. They live in huge colonies, spending only 20% of their time on land each year, and compete for space, nest sites, mating, and synchronize for maximum effect:

” Visual - aggressive or offensive, submissive or defense, and then
displacement, preening, head-shaking, or wing-flapping
” Sexual behavior - courtship, ecstasy, bowing, mutual preening, copulation
displays - right now she says you can see younger penguins practicing - they are still
too young to produce but enjoy having “fun” as Petri said it.  I have a picture of them practicing nesting, but not the other stuff……

They played the Happy Feet clip where the penguin sings My Way at the top of
the mountaintop. A few moments of humorous music and Americanized penguin
antics, if only cartoon, felt quite good and perhaps stirred a little
homesickness for my own pets.

One of the lecturers then talked about last night in the mountains in Lemaire
Channel, as well as the excursions today. He talked about where we’re headed
now - our first stop will be at Deception Island. It is an active volcano,
which is about 8 miles long. We will enter the little hole in the crater,
which is Neptune’s Bellows - 6 a.m. photography would be excellent. We’ll drop
anchor in Whaler’s Bay. My group goes out later, around 9:30, thankfully.

We get to do the polar plunge in Deception Island in the supposedly slightly
but no so much thermal waters - the young anxiously awaited the moment the
older, well, they all agreed they would be happy to be voyeurs and no more.
I’ll check in after that.

One of the nicest things about this cruise is the number of people who venture
to Antarctica on this cruise alone - mostly older people on their own, however,
some women my age who are doing this on their own for various reasons. I’ve
met a lot of British people, and was invited to sit with them last night in the
piano parlor for some good story exchange. I enjoyed it immensely. Time to
fall asleep or try to do so.

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