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Thursday, February 11, 2010-Antarctica |
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Thursday, 11 February 2010 08:19 |
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Greetings from the Polar Star.
We headed out his morning for a 3 hour Zodiac cruise around Cierva Cove located at the northern end of the Gerlache Strait. It was the coldest day so far and I under-estimated the amount of clothing to wear. My toes in particular were freezing and by the time we returned my big toenail was starting to turn black! I learned my lesssn!
Our first sightings were of magnificent sculpted icebergs difficult to describe in both their beauty, color and brilliance. As massive as they are only about 20% of their mass floats above the water. The water surrounding many of them was a beautiful turquoise color. Many of the icebergs we saw today were quite unstable and appeared as if the may overturn at any time.
We came dangerously close to one when the motor on our Zodiac wouldn't start and the driver was pre-occupied with this problem.
The wildlife was very cooperative during our cruise and we saw more animals than I had ever expected. Several humpback whales came very close to the Zodiac and seemed to be "playing" with us. Groups of both Gentoo and Chinstrap penguins were porpoising everywhere - it was quite a sight but hard to capture on camera. The penguins are comical to watch as they come in to the shore for a landing - they just sem to pop up out of the water!
We saw many fur and leopard seals dozing on small ice floats. The leopard seal is quite large and almost reptilian in appearance. The penguins become very nervous when they are around.
n the afternoon we headed out for our second landing to Mikkelsen Harbour.
The sun was shining and the sky was a lovely blue. We were greeted by Gentoos and fur seals on the shore. We made our way across an ice field to the other side of the island were we spent a few hours observing the behaviour of the Gentoos. It was a large colony and the smell was particular strong but I think I am getting used to it! Everytime I think I have seen enough penguins I become fascinated again by their behaviour. Parents were feeding their chicks, chicks were chasing their parents, some were stealing rocks from others' nests, some were fighting, some were sleeping and some were just standing quietly minding their own business!
The evening ended with a presentation from one of the scientists on Giant Squid and an opportunity to dissect a small squid for those who were interested.
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