Antarctic Sound - "Iceberg Alley"
Some overnight fog delayed us on our passage through the Antarctic Sound though on looking out in the morning it was hard to see how
Antarctic Sound - "Iceberg Alley"
The original thought of the expedition staff was for a landing at Devil's Island, but the fog and icebergs in the area made this possibility a bit touch and go, and in the end we didn't go. Instead we prepared for a landing at Brown Bluff, even though visibility was a little poor as the mist was hanging around the rock face. While waiting to land, some Orcas passed by (as they do!).
Brown Bluff
The rock face goes straight up from the beach and its composition is a conglomerate - chunks of black rocks embedded in a brown matrix. The beach is mainly pebbles and along the shores run Adelie penguins on their way out to sea. At one end of the available beach is a penguin rookery with Adelie and Gentoos. We landed at 8.00am and the last zodiac back was at 10.30. the two and a half hours was spent with the penguins, watching them tentatively enter the water, see the chicks chase mothers for food and also just generally enjoying being there.
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Initially the weather cleared, but gradually the cloud came down again as we left.
The mist comes down again onto Brown Bluff beach just after we leave
The next stop was due to be Paulette Island, but again the fog and icebergs prevented that - the British are never totally relaxed when it comes to ships, icebergs and fog. The expedition leader contacted the local Argentinean base (Esperanza), and they very kindly agreed, at very short notice, to permit us to land there and give us a brief tour of the base which includes a resident Adelie penguin rookery.
Esperanza
The base has a school, church, clinic, community centre and other things associated with a small settlement - children have even been born on site, and being born on a continent of indeterminate nationality, the child at some point in the future can chose its nationality (or so we were told). As you can see from the photos below it was incredibly sunny making it very hard to believe the story about fog etc... We had a cup of tea/coffee/chocolate served in the community centre and given the opportunity to support the local economy (i.e. buy postcards and badges).
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As before, it was fascinating to observe the behaviour of the Adelie penguins and their chicks, from chasing mother for food to adults sliding down the hills on their tummies. The rookery is separated from elsewhere by a chain fence. Two chicks wanted to get beyond this fence and made several [failed] attempts at jumping over it until one gave up and walked under it close to a post. The other finally cleared it, almost - it tripped on the chain and fell flat on its face but fortunately on this side of the chain so mission accomplished.
Last zodiac was 4.00pm and we were on it.
As the ship sailed out through Iceberg alley, again, we were on deck to view these enormous flat icebergs, and see the fog close in again as the air got cooler - in fact the coldest it had been so far, fingers were cold outside my gloves. The temperature profile indicates that at this time the temperature was about zero, without the additional wind chill.
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The day ended with a recap of the day followed by dinner.
Continue to Neko Harbour and Dorian Bay
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