Pléneau Island & Palmer Station
As the glass dropped precipitously to herald the passing of an Antarctic low we sailed into the shelter of Pléneau Island, our morning’s destination. Named after the photographer on Charcot’s early 1900’s expedition its granodioritic bed is the home of the increasingly successful Gentoo Penguins . Just offshore in the wind churned waters were two 300-pound recently weaned elephant seal pups enjoying the ocean, which soon would be their provider and undersea domain. At moments, katabatic winds rolling off the high glaciers would wrinkle the ocean’s skin and remind us that forces even greater than ours do rule in this world where man has not yet tried to tame the elements.
On we journeyed through the Lemaire Channel where 60 knot winds on our starboard caused the National Geographic Endeavour to heel over noticeably. As we turned into Arthur Bay on Anvers Island, we sighted Palmer Station and found shelter, anchoring within a short Zodiac ride offshore. Visits to both the station and to the research site for long term studies of Adelie penguins on the nearby Torgersen Island went on through the afternoon. Several hauling out sites of elephant seals were sighted in the vicinity. Some large males weighing as much as 4500 pounds were seen amassed in their unhygienic saunas of elephantine itching, belching, snotting, flatulent masses.
A pleasant evening was spent with our friends from Palmer Station coming aboard National Geographic Endeavour for drinks and dinner. Another superlative day in the land of sea snow and ice and immensity.
As the glass dropped precipitously to herald the passing of an Antarctic low we sailed into the shelter of Pléneau Island, our morning’s destination. Named after the photographer on Charcot’s early 1900’s expedition its granodioritic bed is the home of the increasingly successful Gentoo Penguins . Just offshore in the wind churned waters were two 300-pound recently weaned elephant seal pups enjoying the ocean, which soon would be their provider and undersea domain. At moments, katabatic winds rolling off the high glaciers would wrinkle the ocean’s skin and remind us that forces even greater than ours do rule in this world where man has not yet tried to tame the elements.
On we journeyed through the Lemaire Channel where 60 knot winds on our starboard caused the National Geographic Endeavour to heel over noticeably. As we turned into Arthur Bay on Anvers Island, we sighted Palmer Station and found shelter, anchoring within a short Zodiac ride offshore. Visits to both the station and to the research site for long term studies of Adelie penguins on the nearby Torgersen Island went on through the afternoon. Several hauling out sites of elephant seals were sighted in the vicinity. Some large males weighing as much as 4500 pounds were seen amassed in their unhygienic saunas of elephantine itching, belching, snotting, flatulent masses.
A pleasant evening was spent with our friends from Palmer Station coming aboard National Geographic Endeavour for drinks and dinner. Another superlative day in the land of sea snow and ice and immensity.
