At Sea
By early morning the sea had moderated. Very few white caps and several Humpback Whales had been sighted by breakfast. A very informative talk about many unusual aspects of the life of penguins by Stefan tuned everybody up for a closer encounter.
At about 10 am, 13 year-old Rachael P won the prize for sighting the first iceberg as we approached the English Passage between Greenwich and Robert Islands in the South Shetland Islands.
The decks were packed with camera wielding guests as we were carried by the strong currents at 17kts in towards Barrientos Island in the Aitcho Islands group with lots of craggy volcanic stacks and reefs all around. It must have been a nightmare for the early sailing ships bent on harvesting the seals and whales in the 1820’s
After the briefings the landing began at 1400 and the long walkers strolled up through the Gentoo penguin colonies just by the beach, watched by an interested crowd of unruly Chinstrap Penguins.
We climbed over the isthmus to the south side of the island and along to the southeast spit, where we found pods of moulting young Elephant Seals looking their very best with pieces of skin and fur hanging off them and covered in a fetching coating of brown gunge while they waited the three weeks to renew their coats.
Up on the hilltops that weren’t occupied by Gentoos were some Giant Petrel nests from which we kept a good distance so as not to disturb them. The beaches were strewn with bones of the great whales slaughtered in the early part of last century to make soap amd margarine. Lots of ships timbers on the beaches went some way to evening the score.
While all the shore landings were going on, Diver Dave was underwater at Cecelia Island recording the wonders of the sea bed in the area. Lots of assorted kelp, large salps and a very interesting pink cucumber were filmed. We look forward to seeing it ourselves tomorrow evening.
The volcanic nature of the islands was very obvious with many basaltic columns from old lava flows. Huge expanses of moss had been exposed by the retreating snow cover all over the island, no doubt fertilised by the rich guano blowing from the rookeries.
Captain Kruess’s welcome cocktails rounded off a fine day. Everone looked tired but happy! Late in the evening we will rendezvous with NG Explorer to transfer staff and equipment as she readies herself to take over the Antarctic role from NG Endeavour.
By early morning the sea had moderated. Very few white caps and several Humpback Whales had been sighted by breakfast. A very informative talk about many unusual aspects of the life of penguins by Stefan tuned everybody up for a closer encounter.
At about 10 am, 13 year-old Rachael P won the prize for sighting the first iceberg as we approached the English Passage between Greenwich and Robert Islands in the South Shetland Islands.
The decks were packed with camera wielding guests as we were carried by the strong currents at 17kts in towards Barrientos Island in the Aitcho Islands group with lots of craggy volcanic stacks and reefs all around. It must have been a nightmare for the early sailing ships bent on harvesting the seals and whales in the 1820’s
After the briefings the landing began at 1400 and the long walkers strolled up through the Gentoo penguin colonies just by the beach, watched by an interested crowd of unruly Chinstrap Penguins.
We climbed over the isthmus to the south side of the island and along to the southeast spit, where we found pods of moulting young Elephant Seals looking their very best with pieces of skin and fur hanging off them and covered in a fetching coating of brown gunge while they waited the three weeks to renew their coats.
Up on the hilltops that weren’t occupied by Gentoos were some Giant Petrel nests from which we kept a good distance so as not to disturb them. The beaches were strewn with bones of the great whales slaughtered in the early part of last century to make soap amd margarine. Lots of ships timbers on the beaches went some way to evening the score.
While all the shore landings were going on, Diver Dave was underwater at Cecelia Island recording the wonders of the sea bed in the area. Lots of assorted kelp, large salps and a very interesting pink cucumber were filmed. We look forward to seeing it ourselves tomorrow evening.
The volcanic nature of the islands was very obvious with many basaltic columns from old lava flows. Huge expanses of moss had been exposed by the retreating snow cover all over the island, no doubt fertilised by the rich guano blowing from the rookeries.
Captain Kruess’s welcome cocktails rounded off a fine day. Everone looked tired but happy! Late in the evening we will rendezvous with NG Explorer to transfer staff and equipment as she readies herself to take over the Antarctic role from NG Endeavour.
