Antarctica 2023
ANTARCTICA
Feb 6
GPS Position: 64°08.6’S / 061°46.2’W
Wind: NE-5 • Sea State: Smooth • Weather: Overcast
Air temp: 0°C • Sea temp: 1°C
This morning we woke up near the top of the Gerlache Strait.
Palaver Point
Our excursion today is to Palaver Point on Two Hummock Island.
This morning it is our turn to do the zodiac cruise first, and our guide Felicity took us out as she spotted a Humpback whale earlier and we spent time watching it feed. Special thanks to Felicity for trading a couple of great photos she got with me.
After some quality time with a Humpback it was time for our landing to see a penguin colony and fur seals.
We thought we would be seeing another Gentoo colony, but today it turns out to be the adorable Chinstrap penguins.
We didn't need snowshoes for this landing, but we sure needed our muck boots, the whole place is covered in penguin guano. Due to their heavy krill diet, everything is covered in a pink/orange coating of poop... including many of the supposed-to-be-white penguins.
The expedition crew places red poles to indicate our allowed walking path
Even the Imperial Cormorants have big nesting colonies up here, and anywhere there is babies, there is Skua's nearby.
It's pretty funny that the babies are bigger than their parents with their fluffy down feathers.
Just to round out the true Antarctica experience, it is now Snowing!
As we wind our way back down the hill, we are criss-crossing penguin highways, and spend a lot of time waiting for them to pass. It's one of the few times in life when I really enjoy traffic.
Back on the beach we pass the fur seals, and then load our zodiacs... but first a good rinsing off of our boots in the surf, because they are covered in penguin Poo!
The crew have to clear a few small Icebergs away from the landing doors before our zodiac can pull up, and when we get back on the boat, the boot scrubbers and toilet brushes are all hard at work. Once everyone is aboard, the Hondius starts heading North towards the Antarctic sound.
Today we had lunch with an Australian father and daughter, Frances and Jim. It seems we are always on the same zodiac as them, and funnily that would continue for the entire trip. I guess they have the same 'don't-rush-down' philosophy as us.
Our afternoon lecture by Pelin was on the first Antarctic scientific expedition on the ship Belgica. The expedition was led by Adrian de Gerlache in 1898, and it is why the Gerlache Strait received that name. We'll learn a lot more about expeditions that didn't go as well later in the journey.
We spent the rest of the afternoon watching icebergs float by.
It's not long before you start noticing little groups of penguins hanging out on the Icebergs.
The really blue icebergs are often ones that have recently flipped over, the lack of air
bubbles changes the light that is reflected back.
More frozen, more blue.
At around 5:30 we are called to the decks as there is Orcas, we can see their tall dorsal fins in the distance and then humpback whales are feeding right off the front of the boat. A slight detour was much appreciated.
The Italian photography group is the worst, the whole trip so far they have kept to themselves, now they are hitting people with their camera lenses, and stepping in front of people to get their pictures.I hope their pictures were worth it.
Tonight we would have dinner with the Aussie ladies that lost their luggage, very funny group to spend time with. We get kicked out of the dining room again, and soon enough it's time to end our second amazing day on Antarctica.