This Is It!

After another night at sea, we woke up to seeing signs of land.  A good sized iceberg passed by the ship, ending the competition to name the day and time we’d spot our first.  I get the strong feeling this will not be out last.

Because it’s New Year’s Day, the ship hosted a brunch for us mid-morning.  I think we’re all getting a little excited for our afternoon shore excursion.  We returned to our room to start laying out our layers of clothing we’ll need to keep us warm and dry.  We start with a thin base layer, followed by a warmer fleece, next our regular coats followed by our expedition parkas.  We have hats, neck scarves and sunglasses.  On bottom, we have long underwear, a thin pair of pants and waterproof pants on top of it all.  Wool socks, waterproof boots and gloves/mittens finish the ensemble.  Next is backpacks, life-jackets (not the giant kind, but smallish ones) and our camera’.  To say we felt a little overdressed is an understatement!  I’m sure we’ll appreciate it all once we’re outside.

Our first stop is on an island in the Aitcho Islands in the southern Shetland Islands. To make sure everyone has a good experience, the groups alternate between going ashore and cruising the bay in the Zodiacs.  We were on the second zodiac out for a stop on the island.  It was a nice sunny day, so we were plenty warm in all our gear.

This island is home to Gentoo (white ring around their eyes and red beaks) and Chinstrap (black strap under their chin) penguins.  They both have rookeries here, so we had a good chance of seeing babies that have hatched in the last couple of days.  This is also home to several different types of birds including Antarctic terns and southern giant petrels.

To say the penguins were everywhere is an understatement.  They were on the beach, up on the ridge and everywhere in between.  There are penguin “highways” through the snow where they have packed down the snow to make their journey up and down the hill easier.  They passed by us on their business without paying much attention to us. 

I found a space to just hang out and watch them go by for awhile.  I know the novelty will wear off but for right now I’m happen taking pictures of all of them.  Up on the ridge, I was able to spy a couple of chicks when their mother(or dad, hard to tell) stood up to re-adjust.  They are just little balls of fluff at this point.  There are also eggs that are still waiting to hatch.  The men were gather stones to bring back to the nests which caused a great deal of squawking among the other males. 

We had the opportunity to see krill (the main food source for the penguins, birds, whales, etc.).  It looks like very immature shrimp.  You can tell where there are schools of krill by the gathering of birds and penguins on the surface of the water.

After an hour and a half of being onshore, it was time for us to trade out with a group that had been bay cruising.  We went all around the edge of the island, to the back side and around icebergs.  There was one iceberg where the penguins had decided to roost for awhile.  There were some on the top of the berg and others trying to jump onto it, mostly unsuccessfully.  There was much sliding and splashing back into the water.

At one of the last little inlets we visited we found a beach of elephant seals.   The sort of blended into the beach and were just laying around sunning themselves.  They can weigh up to 11,000 lbs. but none of these were near this size.

Back on the boat the shower felt refreshing.  All semblance of fashion or style is out the window here.  There’s a secret code that says, take no pictures, don’t judge the fashion.  Dinners are all informal affairs.  We continue to eat in The Restaurant, where we often are able to spot whales off into the distance enjoying our seafood and wine.

Tomorrow: more time onshore.