Antarctica 2023
ANTARCTICA
Feb 7
GPS Position: 63°34.6’S / 055°51.8’W
Wind: NW-1• Sea State: Good • Weather: Snow
Air temp: 1°C Sea temp: 1°C
It's our last day on Antarctica and we have rounded the tip of the Antarctic peninsula onto the Eastern side of the peninsula on the Weddell Sea. There is Icebergs floating by and it's Snowing. Typical Antarctica.
Paulet Island
After watching groups of penguins swimming by, the Fur Seals group is the first to do the beach landing on Paulet Island. Due to the wind conditions we are only doing the landings and not the zodiac cruises.
This Island became famous after the Antarctic ship was crushed and sank off it's coast during the 1903 Swedish Antarctic Expedition led by Otto Nordenskiöld. The shipwrecked sailors crossed 25 miles of ice to Paulet island and survived. Saskia would give us an insightful lecture all about the Nordenskiöld expiditions when we got back on the ship.
We arrive on the beach of Paulet Island, and it is covered in penguins and fur seals, our best estimate is 150,000 - 200,000 mated pairs of penguins. They just wouldn't stand still long enough for us to count.
This colony of penguins is our 3rd breed of penguin, the Adelie penguins. According to Simon, they are the best penguin... it's just a fact. One other fact, they pooh a lot, the ground is pink with it, and whatever we thought was bad the previous day doesn't even come close to the total amount of pooh, and the absolute stench in the air.
The Fur Seals (the animals, not our group) just plop themselves down wherever they want amongst the colony.
The rookery is full of juvenile penguins, with an amazing collection of hairstyles remaining during their molting process.
Nordenskiöld's Hut was built in 1903 by the shipwreck survivors when the Antarctic sank… 20 men and a cat lived there for 10 months. One of the few structures allowed to stay on Antarctica, it has been designated a Historic Site, and taken over by penguins.
Everywhere you look is penguins, all seeming to be wandering in different directions.
The funniest thing to see is these giant fuzzy babies chasing mother penguins around for another feeding.
So many of them are just filthy
Due to the volcanic geothermal activity below the surface, there is bare rocky areas that are perfect for penguins and seals. When I say bare, I meant before they were covered in a thick coating of pink slime.
These little Adelies have a lot of character, chasing each other around, hopping in and out of the water, and standing up to Skuas and Giant Petrels when they come in to try and steal away an egg or young baby.
It was back to the beach and as thorough a boot cleaning as we can do, before heading back to the boat and letting the King Penguin group have their turn on the Island. When we got back on the boat we did another very thorough scrubbing of our boots and pants.
Once the other group was done, we pulled up the zodiacs, said goodbye to Paulet Island and the penguins, and headed back through the Antarctic Sound to our next destination.
No matter how much we scrubbed, our room now smells like penguin guano, we have to turn on the air purifier full blast.
Today we had lunch with a young German/Polish couple Natalia and Christian, he’s a car guy, and she’s a doctor.
After lunch we spent more time out on the deck watching Icebergs go by, because 'fresh-air' and our room smells.
Brown Bluff
We have arrived at Brown Bluff, a spectacular landing site on the foothills of an old Volcano. Time to start watching penguins again and unload the zodiacs.
Since our group got to do the landing first at Paulet Island, we get the cruise and the others get the first landing at Brown bluff.
We have a great time cruising around Icebergs, cheering on the penguins as they attempt to jump back on from the freezing waters.
This poor little guy seems so sad to be alone on an iceberg.
As we cruise around the bay, we start getting in to some very crunchy water, much more like I expected to see in Antarctica.
It's a little surreal as you move around the floating ice, the crunching and cracking, it sounds like you are in a huge bowl of Rice Krispies mixed with Pop Rocks... Snap, Crackle and Pop !
Before we headed in to shore Felicity found a weird long tubelike thing floating on the surface. Everyone was theorizing about what it might be, kelp, intestines... our zodiac driver says it's whale poop.
Finally we land on the shore of Brown bluff - There is a mix of Adelie and Gentoo penguins here, so many penguins!
There's a Giant Petrel here looking for a meal... the adult Adelies and grownup Gentoos let him know they are not welcome, even though he towers over them in size. He has to settle for old scraps.
I love the setting here, big chunks of ice on a long rocky beach, completely surrounded by penguins of different breeds, all hanging out together peacefully... in a penguin screeching peaceful way.
The day is made even more special when the snow stops and the blue sky opens up.
Two pooped out penguins
Had to retake this picture because it was photo-bombed
Everybody is getting tired as it's later in the day.
We kind of chuckled a bit when we noticed this fur seal with some penguin feathers on him, when we saw the front of him we laughed out loud. He's been tarred and feathered.
Sadly, our last excursion on Antarctica was over, and we had to get on our zodiac and head back to the ship.
Our time on the Antarctic Peninsula couldn't have been more special, from the jaw-dropping scenery, to the mix of weather we experienced, and finally the wildlife that we saw, words just can't really describe what this experience was like. We managed to do 5 landings on a continent that can be very inhospitable, and we never saw temperatures below -5°
My Garmin Sattelite device shows exactly where we have been
The landscapes as we sail away from Antarctica are like paintings
Our Expedition Briefing and recap would have another surprise for us. The original (and now reversed) Plan was to travel away from Antarctica to the South Orkney Islands.
That little blue great weather section is where Elephant Island is
But Pippa let us know, much like the winds we were seeing if we originally went to the Falkland Islands at the start of our trip, the weather at the Orkneys looks really bad. So, we are going to Elephant Island instead, then on towards South Georgia.
Funnily enough, given the changes we have made from our original plans, we are going to recreate the route that Shackleton took from the Antarctic sound to his eventual rescue on South Georgia.