Feb 20th, 2012 at 10:00AM:
We spent the morning watching and following big groups of swimming/feeding penguins on the backside of Pleneau Island, about halfway down the Antarctic Peninsula.
It was one of the most prolific wildlife scenes I've ever witnessed here. The skies were dark, hinting snow, but the incredible beauty of the scene kept us out on deck all morning. Literally thousands of Gentoos swimming and ...Click on a label to read posts from that part of the world.
bowermastersadventures posts
Bowermaster's Adventures: The winds of change in Antarctica
Feb 20th, 2012 at 10:00AM:
We spent the morning watching and following big groups of swimming/feeding penguins on the backside of Pleneau Island, about halfway down the Antarctic Peninsula.
It was one of the most prolific wildlife scenes I've ever witnessed here. The skies were dark, hinting snow, but the incredible beauty of the scene kept us out on deck all morning. Literally thousands of Gentoos swimming and ...Bowermaster's Adventures: Palmer Station, Antarctica
Feb 14th, 2012 at 10:00AM: Palmer Station -- When we sail into the narrow channel fronting the U.S. science base here at the tip of Anvers Island it is clear of ice, but for one sizable iceberg which we wait out, watching it drift slowly out to sea.
Once anchored and tied to the rocks at four corners -- a necessity in Antarctica given the unpredictable winds and constantly moving ice, which are the twin constant threats ...Bowermasters Adventures: Update from the coup in the Maldives
Feb 13th, 2012 at 9:00AM: In a move surprising those not living in the Maldives -- where most of the recent press has focused on its green-thinking on climate change and carbon use -- the island nation's president, Mohamed Nasheed, has apparently been forced out in a coup d'etat.
Fingers are being pointed at allies of the previous president, Maumoon Gayoom, for orchestrating Nasheed's resignation. It was the Gayoom ...Bowermaster's Adventures: Finding civilization in Antarctica
Jan 25th, 2012 at 10:00AM: Port Lockroy -- If there is a human population center along the Antarctic Peninsula, this is it. While there may be hundreds of thousands of penguins, tens of thousands of seals, whales and sea birds that call this remote stretch home, few people do.
But at the height of the austral summer season -- December-February -- more people congregate in the protected harbor here at the former 'Camp A' ...Bowermaster's Adventures: Paradise Harbor, Antarctica
Jan 23rd, 2012 at 11:00AM: Paradise Harbor -- Its common knowledge among Antarctic veterans that no two days here look or feel alike. Ever.
The reality is that no quarter hour looks alike. Or can be predicted, no matter how many months or years you've spent here.
We spent the night in a small, protected bay about 400 miles down the coastline of the Antarctic Peninsula. The tricky thing about sailing a small yacht here ...Bowermaster's Adventures: Iceberg spotting in the rain
Jan 20th, 2012 at 9:00AM: Enterprise Island-- Rain, rain go away.
We woke tied-off to the rusted hulk of a half-sunken Norwegian whaling ship. Its story is legend along the Peninsula for having caught fire a century ago during a sail-away party, its stores of whale oil afire lighting up the sky for several days. Now it is just another ruined reminder of those boom days when Antarctica's whales were one of the world's ...Bowermaster's Adventures: Deception Island, Antarctica
Jan 18th, 2012 at 9:00AM: Deception Island, Antarctica -- The black volcanic sand beach carries a heavy history, of an efficient if somewhat desperate past, in evidence from the cemetery where British whalers are buried to the abandoned and rusted pumps and storage tanks that line the shore, once filled with the oil of thousands of whales killed here each during a 25 year run.
From 1904 to 1931 this bay was home to one ...Bowermaster's Adventures: Departure for Antarctica
Jan 17th, 2012 at 9:00AM:
Drake Passage -- Ever since sailing men first proved the world was not flat they have been cursing the weather conditions at Cape Horn and the Drake Passage that lies below, separating South America from Antarctica.
Everyone from Sir Francis Drake, for whom the windy passage is named, to Captain Bligh, who fought into the winds for 100 days before giving in, turning around and sailing to ...Bowermaster's Adventures: Running out of water in the Maldives
Jan 9th, 2012 at 12:00PM: Kunahadhoo Island-- On a very hot, very typical, mid-morning in the Maldives I walk the streets of this tiny island just north of the equator.
Most of its 800 residents had gathered at the shoreline to greet visitors from a nearby island. While they focused on a first-of-a-kind beach clean-up along the rocky coast, accompanied by a drum band and dancing, I took a small walking tour looking for ...Bowermaster's Adventures: Protecting the Maldives
Dec 30th, 2011 at 11:00AM:
Laamu, Maldives-- The recent four-day, ocean-focused conference -- dubbed WaterWoMen by its sponsors, Six Senses Resortsand +H2O-- was a first-of-a-kind blend of water sport activities and intellectual athleticism.
Equal part coming out party for the resort on this remote Maldivian atoll just a100 miles north of the equator included were not just some of the world's top water athletes ...Bowermaster's Adventures: Learning how to breathe in the Maldives
Dec 21st, 2011 at 9:00AM: LAAMU, Maldives -- A fast-moving rainstorm blew over the small atoll late in the afternoon, briefly cooling a humid day just 100 miles north of the equator. But within twenty minutes the sun was back hot and bright, the air even thicker with dampness. Aaaaaah paradise!
I was desperate for some cooling off, having spent the morning learning something I thought I'd mastered long ago: How to ...Maldives in Peril: Exploring the island of Maalhos
Nov 21st, 2011 at 9:00AM:
Late on a Sunday afternoon, hardly a day of rest in this part of the world, the small island of Maalhos is quiet. The men, most of who go to sea each day to fish or work at one of six nearby tourist resorts, are absent. School is out for a week's holiday so kids of various ages scamper up and down the short, dusty streets. The women of the island of 600 are mostly in doorways or small ...Maldives in Peril: A Q&A with actor Edward Norton
Nov 9th, 2011 at 11:00AM:
There was no b.s. in actor Edward Norton's introduction of himself at the recent SLOWLIFE Symposium in the Maldives: "Films are now my sideline," he said. "Waste is my business."
He admitted of course that what he referred to as his "day job" had provided him with the "storytelling skills" that aid him in his variety of non-acting pursuits, from CEO of Baswood Inc., a green wastewater ...Maldives in Peril: An interview with Daryl Hannah
Nov 7th, 2011 at 10:30AM:
Given her decades of success in the movie business, environmental activist and actress Daryl Hannahcould be lounging on any beach in the world today, drinking rum punches, working on her tan or perfecting her mermaid's kick.
That she recently spent a week in the Maldives, much of it indoors participating in a pair of eco-symposiums focused on climate change and the future of island nations -- ...Maldives in Peril: SCUBA surveying with Fabien Cousteau
Oct 21st, 2011 at 9:00AM:
There are few places on the planet as remote as the Maldives. Landfall is a thousand miles away from much of the long string of 1,200 islands, most of which are little more than thin, uninhabited atolls. Diving into the heart of a Maldivian lagoon it is easy to imagine you are alone in one of Planet Ocean's most distant paradises.
Yet when I did just that a few days ago, in the heart of the ...Maldives in Peril: Richard Branson on impacting climate change
Oct 17th, 2011 at 10:00AM:
I've bumped into Richard Branson a couple times now, in vastly different settings. The first was in the high Arctic village of Clyde River, where he'd come to join his son Sam for a weeklong dogsled expedition. He introduced himself with what he admitted was a weakish pinky-tap, blaming his inability to lift his arm on having rolled an ATV at his African safari camp the week before.
When ...Maldives in Peril: From the SLOWLIFE Symposium part II
Oct 12th, 2011 at 4:30PM:
Perhaps the most essential weapon -- or tool -- in affecting environmental change is political will. While individuals can make a difference, and must often lead the charge, for change to stick it demands governmental teeth.
When it comes to the ocean that means things like creating Marine Protected Areas, dictating what fish can be taken when and where, eliminating plastic at every step ...Maldives in Peril: From the SLOWLIFE symposium
Oct 11th, 2011 at 11:00AM:
There is no place more apt to engage in heavy-hitting conversation about the future of Planet Ocean than the heart of the small island nation of the Maldives.
It is a place many have heard of but few could pick out on a map. Made up of twelve hundred islands and atolls, most pancake flat, the highest reaches no more than five feet above sea level making the Maldives the lowest country on ...Antarctica updates, July 2011
Jul 30th, 2011 at 1:00PM: The fact that today's high was -67 degrees at the South Pole is not news. Especially for the 49 hardy souls overwintering; they knew what they signed on for. Nor is it a shock that it was -97 at Vostok one day last week, since the Russian base holds the record for the coldest temperature ever recorded (-128).
But there are some surprises being reported from the deep-deep south during the ...A profile of Adventurers and Scientists for Conservation
Jul 28th, 2011 at 1:00PM: In the course of humankind's global wanderings – whether in search of new lands or gold – there have been a couple historical cycles during which science has prevailed over more material seeking.
The early 21st century is one of those times. Already deep into the information age, what we want to know today about the future are things like where will new energy come from, what can we ...
