Day 7 - Penguins, Penguins and more Penguins

Our last full day in Antarctica.  Hard to believe months of planning and weeks of travelling are coming to an end.  Overnight, we sailed far North to the South Shetland Islands – the last land (and protected waters) before entering the Drake Passage.  Given the predicted path of bad weather that stands between us and Ushuaia, it seems captain wanted to give us as big of a head start as possible so we are as close to Ushuaia as we can get before the really bad stuff hits.

We did hit some rolling swells overnight as we crossed through the Bransfield Straight to get to the South Shetland Islands, but we got back to protected waters for our daily excursions, so I can walk steady at least through today. 

Our morning zodiac was to Fort Point (not surprisingly named after an 85-meter high rocky point) and Hardy Cove on Greenwich Island where we got to see FOUR different penguin species – the Gentoo, which is everywhere, the Chinstrap, which we hadn’t seen en masse yet, and then two completely random Macaroni penguins (a mating pair) mixed in with the others trying not to be conspicuous.  “Just act like you belong and maybe no one will notice…” and one lone Adelie perched on top of a hill.

Chinstrap chatting up a Gentoo:

The lone Adelie:

The two macaronis right in the middle (you can sort of see the yellow feathers):

The Macaronis are cool because they have bright yellow feathers sticking out of their heads and apparently the got their name from the Yankee Doodle song (stuck a feather in his hat and called it Macaroni).  We also had a view of a glacier that we could get up close and personal with.  Because it was a land glacier vs. one that feeds into the ocean, there is no chance of calving, so it is safe enough to get close.

The island we landed on was comprised almost entirely of rocks and boulders that had been tumbled by the ocean so they were smooth.  Not so fun to walk on as they are true ankle breakers.  Every rock moves when you step on it.  Pleased to say that we got through the landing unscathed.

Damon freaked because he thought there was a huge piece of garbage - it was ice:

Giant shipwrecked mast that had washed up on the island:

We came back to the ship for lunch, repositioned the ship to another location, the Aitcho Islands (they were named after “Hydrographic Office” of the UK Admiralty or “HO” or “Aitcho”) and then launched the afternoon zodiac tour.  The waves were much rougher today and the wind speed had increased, so it was chilly.  My 47 layers kept me well insulated along with the heat packs in my mittens, and all was good. 

Our group did the zodiac tour first around a bunch of smaller islands.  The landscape is much different today.  We are out of iceberg territory (sad because they are super cool) and into these small islands that don’t have a lot of snow on them.  They have mosses that grow bringing some color to the typical monochrome landscape.  We cruised around several islands looking at penguins, seals and birds.  People love birds around these parts!

The second half of our outing was landing on one of the islands.  We had free reign to roam.  We are usually somewhat cordoned off because of the penguins and chicks, but for this island, there were thousands and thousands of penguins.  You couldn’t really walk anywhere without being close to them, so we had some light rules (try to stay 15’ away, give penguins the right of way, etc.), but there were so many penguins roaming around, they were hard to avoid.

I know I’ve said it before, but thousands of penguins make thousands of penguin poops.  The smell was overpowering in some parts where you need something over your face to breathe through.  Plus, the squirty noises… penguins are cute and fun to watch, but they are also so very gross.  They can fire a solid three feet and have no qualms about nailing their neighbors (or their chicks) in the face or chest.  Damon was incredibly proud of this artistic shot of 360 degrees of penguin poop.

Most of the chicks hatched a few weeks ago, so there were tons of babies – also fun to watch - especially when they start chasing the adults around – we saw two chicks gang up on an adult and chase it all over the breeding ground.  I was told later that the chicks were chasing around a parent trying to get food.  Apparently hell hath no fury like a hungry chick!

This next part is not for the squeamish.  We saw or first pseudo predation, otherwise known as nature's food chain.  Many of the birds out here are massive predator birds that feast on baby penguin chicks.  When you have an island filled with baby penguin chicks, the birds are ever present looking for their next meal.  While we didn't see the Northern Giant Petrel actually grab the penguin chick, we did see the ensuing fight between it and a Skua for the prize.  Without going into too much detail, the chick didn't stand a chance.  We watched for a minute and then moved on.  On our way back to the zodiac later, we saw what was left.  Yes, it is totally gross, but the baby chick feet were so comically large and untouched that it did warrant another picture.

The other cool thing we saw on this landing was a group of four elephant seals.  They were mostly laying on top of each other, so hard to see faces.  Sadly, we had to get back to the ship and say goodbye to the last land we will see &/or step foot on until we land in Ushuaia in 2 ½ days.

One other note that I haven’t mentioned is the organization of our landings.  There is a big mud room on deck 4 where we all have lockers that house our muck boots, zodiac life vest, parkas, and waterproof pants.  When the time comes for zodiac cruising, they call our four groups out one at a time, we flock to the mudroom, gear up and head to the zodiac launch spots.  We step in some type of cleaning solution when there will be a landing (vs just cruising) to avoid any type of organic contamination on land, our jackets have a special window on the arm where we stash our ID/key cards and we are scanned off the ship.  When we return, we are re-scanned back onto the ship, dip boots again, take our gear off, and are greeted with a warm cup of something – hot chocolate, hot mocha, lemon tea, ginger tea – a nice way to get back on board!

Around 6:30pm, we were all called to the bow of the ship for our final champagne toast to Antarctica as we left all visible land behind and headed into the dreaded Drake passage.  We regularly get a weather briefing that is as close to predicting conditions as possible – it actually looks like we may get smooth sailing for most of our trip home. A big ugly hurricane force wind storm is brewing, but we may be able to outrun it.  Last land view...

There is nothing reassuring about future weather assessments when they are followed by a full ship announcement reminding us to secure our belongings or put them on the floor before we get into the Drake, and reminding us that the onboard doctor will be holding a seasickness clinic to hand out drugs and advice.  We Scop’d up yesterday just to be prepared for anything.

We had a quick dinner while once again watching whales and other wildlife leaping around outside of the window and headed back up to the room on the early side to get sleep and start the arduous process of going through the 1,800 pictures and video we’ve taken!