Never cross a penguin (guano) highway 
Beautiful blue icebergs in Monroe 
Chinstrap Penguin
Weddell seal
Leopard seal
Today began at 6:30 a.m. with a rush outside to the “real” Antarctica we came to see! Icebergs were all around our ship, snow covered the mountains all the way down to the water line in places. We were even snowed upon with small flakes. The largest tabular (table top looking) glaciers we saw today measured over two miles long and tower 250-300 feet above the ocean. 80% of each glacier is submerged into the icy water. We were treated to a fabulous cruise through literally hundreds of glaciers by way of a narrow strait named William Sound.
We followed three humpback whales for nearly a half hour, and saw two simultaneous tail flukes. One was a calf who was learning the ropes from its mother. When we reached Shingle Cove, we expected to board zodiacs to be taken to view thousands of Adelie penguins in their shoreline rookery. A scout zodiac went ashore to clear a path through the large elephant seals before the passengers embarked. We anxiously awaited our 15-minute alert to dress. Instead, our Captain announced that the entire Adelie penguin colony had disappeared. Matt, the ornithologist who was also in the scout zodiac, reported in part, “The Antarctic has an ever-changing eco system. The Adelies were here earlier this season. The only remains were 3 fledged (dead) chicks. The penguins must have bred earlier this year, hatched and babied their young and then abandoned their rookery. If it had been disease, there would have be some evidence (bones) of the event.” Amazing. We awaited Plan B.
OK, Plan B was announced: hopefully a zodiac tour could be made to a Chinstrap penguin rookery after lunch. It was a bit foggy, 33 degrees air temp, but not much wind and we were told to “Stand down to stand by for further instructions” by Suzana.
And wait we did until the 15-minute dressing call came. Full of anticipation, we boarded our zodiacs for Plan B, a boat-only trip to cruise past a Chinstrap penguin rookery. We were in Matt’s zodiac. He estimated there were over 200,000 penguins in this bay! Chinstraps eat krill (tiny shrimp) and, therefore, their guano (poop) is reddish brown instead of the gray we have seen in past days. Chick Chinstraps are downy gray and oh so fluffy!
Our first encounter with a Leopard seal happened near the end of our zodiac tour of Shingle cover. Luckily, we never got out of the zodiac and the Leopard seal never got into the zodiac for this excursion…so, we were safe. The Leopard seal looked very prehistoric…it was huge with a face a bit like a dinosaur or even a huge turtle. They can be very vicious. Matt told us about an encounter his zodiac had with a Leopard seal last year. His boat was filled with people just like us when they saw a Leopard seal. It actually bit through one chamber of his zodiac, which has five chambers…so they were still able to float and return to the ship safely. Upon examining his zodiac back on the Minerva, Matt discovered that the jaw opening of the seal was 18 inches…big enough to have bitten off a human arm, leg of even head! Needless to say, we were relieved to get back to the Minerva safely.
As we glided back to our mother ship, we enjoyed gorgeous blue icebergs all around, close enough to touch as we passed by. Small snow flakes continued to fall, but it was just 32 degrees with no wind. None of us was cold. It had been a great day!
We followed three humpback whales for nearly a half hour, and saw two simultaneous tail flukes. One was a calf who was learning the ropes from its mother. When we reached Shingle Cove, we expected to board zodiacs to be taken to view thousands of Adelie penguins in their shoreline rookery. A scout zodiac went ashore to clear a path through the large elephant seals before the passengers embarked. We anxiously awaited our 15-minute alert to dress. Instead, our Captain announced that the entire Adelie penguin colony had disappeared. Matt, the ornithologist who was also in the scout zodiac, reported in part, “The Antarctic has an ever-changing eco system. The Adelies were here earlier this season. The only remains were 3 fledged (dead) chicks. The penguins must have bred earlier this year, hatched and babied their young and then abandoned their rookery. If it had been disease, there would have be some evidence (bones) of the event.” Amazing. We awaited Plan B.
OK, Plan B was announced: hopefully a zodiac tour could be made to a Chinstrap penguin rookery after lunch. It was a bit foggy, 33 degrees air temp, but not much wind and we were told to “Stand down to stand by for further instructions” by Suzana.
And wait we did until the 15-minute dressing call came. Full of anticipation, we boarded our zodiacs for Plan B, a boat-only trip to cruise past a Chinstrap penguin rookery. We were in Matt’s zodiac. He estimated there were over 200,000 penguins in this bay! Chinstraps eat krill (tiny shrimp) and, therefore, their guano (poop) is reddish brown instead of the gray we have seen in past days. Chick Chinstraps are downy gray and oh so fluffy!
Our first encounter with a Leopard seal happened near the end of our zodiac tour of Shingle cover. Luckily, we never got out of the zodiac and the Leopard seal never got into the zodiac for this excursion…so, we were safe. The Leopard seal looked very prehistoric…it was huge with a face a bit like a dinosaur or even a huge turtle. They can be very vicious. Matt told us about an encounter his zodiac had with a Leopard seal last year. His boat was filled with people just like us when they saw a Leopard seal. It actually bit through one chamber of his zodiac, which has five chambers…so they were still able to float and return to the ship safely. Upon examining his zodiac back on the Minerva, Matt discovered that the jaw opening of the seal was 18 inches…big enough to have bitten off a human arm, leg of even head! Needless to say, we were relieved to get back to the Minerva safely.
As we glided back to our mother ship, we enjoyed gorgeous blue icebergs all around, close enough to touch as we passed by. Small snow flakes continued to fall, but it was just 32 degrees with no wind. None of us was cold. It had been a great day!
2 comments:
J&J-Looks like you are having a great time. Brings back good memories of this trip for us. Rec'd today a blurb from Alan Fox the CEO of Vacations to Go, whom I think is on your same cruise. He had some "adventuresome" pictures of some rough seas...hope you did okay...that darned Drake Tax! Can't wait for you to get home to talk all about it. Love, Bill & Martha
Nope. He was the trip before us. Until today, we have had fabulous weather. We'll compare parkas when we return home. J&J
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