Icebergs, Leopard Seals & Penguins
Friday, 18 January: Argentine Islands and Vernadsky Station
The Antarctic is starting to show its true colours this morning – cloudy, but no wind.
We are heading to a cove on Yalour Island and see another ship tucked in between some of the islands to port. We are now far enough north to not be the only ship in the area. But the ones we see are very large, taking up to 2,000 passengers. They’re not able to let passengers land and so these people have the joy of watching us having fun, but definitely from the wrong side of their glass windows.
Our morning Zodiac ride takes us straight to the entrance to Yalour Island, and as we approach we can see and smell the Adelie rookeries. The little black and white penguins are lined up on every high point – thousands of them!
Our landing is quite challenging (steep, snowy and rocky), and it becomes apparent that this particular landing spot place is also a penguin highway – one of their routes to the water. I pick my way up the rocks from the landing site, onto the snow and then up the side of the hill until I’m near one of the rookeries.
Wow what a view – mountains and glaciers can be seen in all directions, with the sun sparkling off the tops of the glaciers. I’m not sure how far penguins can see, but I guess that if they could, they’d probably take these vistas for granted.
We’re reminded of our “manners” around the penguins – where to sit, how to get out of their way if we meet on a “highway” and to be careful of the delicate mosses growing amongst the rocks.
I find a perfect rock for sitting, viewing and photographing. Colin, our resident expert photographer, has reminded us that using the motor drive can be very valuable when photographing wildlife. And he’s absolutely right, although it does increase the number of photos exponentially.
Penguins’ habits are just wonderful to watch and after about 10 minutes or so they really are not at all bothered by our presence, and go on with their normal business. A mother has two chicks nestled against her; young penguin is collecting a pebble and carrying it to a nest, repeating this over and over; a couple of youngish penguins are practising preening rituals; Skuas fly overhead causing the penguins to squawk noisily to drive them away.
Out of the corner of my eye, I notice a small black and white shape waddling passed me and virtually brushing by Larry, sitting to my right. It’s extraordinary to be so close to wildlife, and for the animals to be so unfazed.
Finally it’s time to leave Yalour and cruise amongst the icebergs. A Leopard seal surfaces and follows us, dives and then pops up to starboard. They are beautiful animals – we can see this one rolling under the water. Lots of Crabeater and Leopard seals are lying on ice floes, and we even see a large whale carcass that’s been washed up on an outcrop of land, the bones picked clean by birds.
This afternoon we go to Vernadsky Station, a Ukrainian research station that was once called Faraday Station. Its logo includes 2 palm trees – no harm in hoping for warm weather in the middle of a long, dark winter!
We’re welcomed in small groups and taken through one of the 3-4 buildings that make up the station. It’s all very clean and orderly – they were clearly expecting us! Research here is focused on biology and meteorology, but unfortunately we’re not able to meet with the scientists – only the chef that tends the bar serving home-made vodka to anyone who’s game to buy and try!
We’re told that they’re all leaving in February – after 12 months, they are indeed looking forward to going home.
Once we leave Vernadsky, we cruise around to Woodie Hut, an abandoned, but well-kept hut that is now used as a refuge. More beautiful icebergs, seals, penguins and birds before we’re back on the Ioffe for dinner.
Saturday, 19 January: Petermann and Pleneau Islands, Lemaire Channel
This morning it’s blowing 25 knots and snowing. The severity of the weather is increasing & we use the port gangway to try to shield us from the wind. We’re only 2,813 kms from the geographic South Pole. It’s a grey and lumpy sea with lots of spray coming into the Zodiac. But our landing place is great, and soon we’re among the penguins – this time Gentoos, with their “painted red lips” and orange feet.
The Ioffe had dropped 3 scientists here on the last voyage, and our crew is keen to offer them a shower. Petermann is a great place for studying penguin rookeries, the focus of their research. And we see these birds in action – penguins tobogganing down snowy slopes, sitting quietly on their nests, carrying pebbles to their nests, feeding their young and keeping them warm, and squawking to warn off Skuas flying too close.
We are also well and truly introduced to the smell of penguin rookeries – it is powerful indeed, and I quickly learn that as soon as you touch anything (a rock with a glove while steadying myself as I clamber higher up to the rookery, or sitting to observe them for a while), the smell transfers forcefully and deliberately!
Before long, everything we bring onto the ship will be “penguinised”! Not surprising considering that thousands of these birds have been sitting in one place for a few months while their young hatch and grow.
I have a very close encounter with one that passes within a meter – close enough for me to reach out and touch it (I don’t!). They are so very cute – fearlessly walking along their paths with great purpose, using their wings to stabilize, sometimes tripping or slipping on wet rocks.
This afternoon we’re at Pleneau - the wind has dropped and rather than clamber over rocks I choose to cruise around this “Iceberg Graveyard” where icebergs come down from the north and get trapped in the shallow waters.
Scotty is our driver, very happy with a Zodiac of 8 women – we’re have a great time looking at the amazing shapes and tide lines on the icebergs that have become stuck in the seabed. There are loads of Gentoos swimming and porpoising through the water, and soon a Leopard seal surfaces near the Zodiac and stays with us.
Scotty asks if we’re concerned about seeing a Leopard Seal eating a penguin – he’s a little surprised to hear that all of us have no problem with this. But as it turns out, the Leopard Seal is more interested in us than penguins – he must have had his fill earlier in the day.
Our next area of interest is the narrow and photogenic Lemaire Channel, with the Antarctic continent on the right and Booth Island on the left. Leaving our anchorage at 8:30pm, the ship dodges icebergs while we drink delicious and warming mulled wine on the bow! What a treat – high cliffs on either side of the 700m wide channel, and Humpback whales down either side of the ship. We even saw a magnificent tail fluke, and we hear tales of the mountains in the distance known as Una’s Tits.
The crew continue to have their work cut out for them as we navigate around icebergs on our way to Andvord Bay and Neko Harbour, where we will spend the night and the next morning.
In fact Sue tells us over breakfast that while she was reading around midnight, she looked out her cabin window and saw an iceberg “the size of Connecticut” going by. She decided to go to the Bridge for a better view, and was astonished to find the Captain with most of his navigation crew on the Bridge making decisions about how to maneuver around the next iceberg. She watched for a while, and then decided bed was a better option – when she went back to her cabin, she said “I laid my clothes out fireman style, just in case.”
Meanwhile we all slept well, blissfully unaware of the activities on the Bridge and the passage the ship has been through; but sometimes I just want to be awake for 24 hours at a time!