The Gentle Gentoo

     I arrived in Antarctica today, Thursday, February 12, 2009. The ship’s ride suddenly became smoother around 0300 this morning. I woke up early, looked out my porthole window, and was greeted by mountains, glaciers, and humpback whales. I headed out to the bow, and was entertained by the landscape, whales, and porpoising Gentoo penguins.

     Thursday was an unusually warm day. We bundled up for our hike on Danco Island, only to discover we were too hot! Not a cloud in the sky, barely a breeze, and although the water temperature was 31 degrees (yes, remember, it’s saltwater), the air temperature was 50 degrees. Our naturalists were joking that the expedition company obtained enough brochure photographs for the next five years!
     I spent the morning walking amongst Gentoo penguins. These creatures are very gentle. We are instructed to not get any closer than 5 meters. However, if you sit down and one walks closer to you, that’s acceptable. We are warned to give the molting penguins a wide berth, as molting requires a lot of energy, it’s itchy, and it makes the penguins irritable. We saw many chicks, some families with two chicks, and the chicks ranged from 3 to 8 weeks in age. The Oceanites researchers counted over 1800 chicks on the island today (by the way, they have to perform the counts three times, so that’s over 5400 counts for one colony; they visited three colonies today, and counted a total of 4898 Gentoo chicks)! Unfortunately, the younger chicks will not survive, as the parents will soon have to retreat to the seas for three weeks to eat like crazy before they molt for another three weeks. They won’t be able to complete raising the chicks.
     It was great fun to sit amongst the Gentoo penguins. They are quite comical in their behavior; squawking, stealing rocks, and having their chicks chase them. They have an unusual, inefficient, waddling gait, but once they are in the water, they are like torpedoes. The water is very clear, so we are able to watch them swim under water.
     The afternoon was spent sea kayaking alongside icebergs, penguins, petrels, gulls, skuas, and leopard seals! The bay kept booming with noises. Glaciers were calving and multiple avalanches occurred. It was surreal. Our captain was showing off his skills by gently maneuvering our ship to kiss (i.e., touch the bow) to various icebergs in the bay. Surreal again. Oh, and did I mention the icebergs were huge! Some were the size of an apartment building.
I have attached some photographs (I took hundreds of shots today). You’ll see I go to great extremes (e.g., lying on snow saturated with penguin guano) to get the best vantage point.

Fun results!

     I am also including a photo of a leopard seal. We saw many today, but literally no action, as they prefer to simply lie on ice floes. “Go with the floe” if you may!



     Tomorrow looks to be another exciting day. We are currently steaming farther South along the Antarctic Peninsula, with the goal to reach the southern part of Crystal Bay by early afternoon. This region is located South of the Antarctic Circle (66 degrees and 30 minutes South latitude). Our plans may change, based on the amount of ice en route.