Cruise Day 6 Pleneau Island and Petermann Island

Greetings, again, all!

Today is Jan 9th, 2023! We have two excursions planned for today. The first is a zodiac ride around the waters of Pleneau Island, and the second is a landing on Petermann Island!

We pass through Lemaire Passage early in the morning on our way to Pleneau Island. On the other side of the passage we encounter numerous chunks of large ice to pass. One large bergy bit was sliding down our port side as we watched – totally silent!

 

Shortly after the bergy bit passes we glide by another “dry dock” bergy bit – you may recall a “dry dock” is two seemingly separate icebergs that are joined underwater – and this one is small enough to see that the sides are joined! The shapes of the bergs are beautiful! The only thing that could improve the view is a little sunshine and blue sky! Not happening today…

Soon we anchor in front of Pleneau Island. We’ll start the day with a zodiac ride! Kelly is our driver guide.

As we make our way to the island’s waters I look back to the ship and am tickled to see penguins porpoising in the water between us and the ship! Lu and Duane are in the buddy zodiac that we see heading toward us!

 

We find a rock that hosts a Kelp Gull family. We get to see our first chicks of the trip – baby gulls! (Thanks to Cal Seaman for catching my error on this post!)

As we approach Pleneau Island itself we can see there are Gentoo penguins here!

We watch as an industrious Gentoo steals rocks from one nest to help build up its own nest! There is lots of complaining, but no one attempts to intervene. The flattened nest of the standing penguin on the lower left is the victim, and the penguin on the right with his beak stretched up honking in triumph is the culprit! This is interesting behavior to witness!

Before we move on I spotted a pirate ship entering our waters!

Moving around the Island we spot several elephant seals bundled together on the rocks.

Then we hear a call that a whale has been spotted! We hurry toward the zodiacs that called it out. They believe it might be a Minke whale. We see it surface and disappear, moving fast!  I didn’t have a chance to get a camera on it. Then it was gone.  Kelly pulls up a whale chart and we try to match what we saw.  I’m not convinced it is a Minke – I think a Bryde’s whale is a better match. But The ship records the sighting as a Minke.

We move on to cruise through an iceberg graveyard! But Kelly tells us there is a surprise for us ahead… huh?

We find a zodiac waiting for us… with champagne!

Back to the iceberg graveyard!

The waters here are shallow so many icebergs get grounded and melt down here. We learn icebergs are etched by air bubbles that escape from the melting ice and flow up the sides of the iceberg on their way to the surface. Bubbles tend to etch straight lines up the side, or form pockets if they are trapped underneath the ice. When icebergs “turn over” – this happens when the ice below the waterline no longer supports the ice above the waterline, and the ice flips – the etched ice is now visible! You’ll see lines and pockets in the images below!

 

OK, enough dying icebergs. They come in all shapes and sizes, and are all beautiful! I just wish we had a little sunlight and blue skies to make them pop!

During lunch the ship repositions to Petermann Island. This is where we have our first landing! It is a tricky, rocky landing. Several excursion team folks are positioned along the rocks to help tell people where to step. Once on the snow the paths we are allowed to walk are outlined by red flags. This keeps us from inadvertently wandering and stepping on penguin highways!

Penguin highways are paths, mostly through the snow, that penguins have established to make traveling across the island easier so they don’t have to trudge through loose snow. We are required to stay off the highways so we don’t interrupt the penguins’ travels.

Once on land we turn to the right. That leads to a rocky penguin rookerie that includes both Gentoo and Adelie penguins!

We are told there are no chicks here this year – the winter storms have continued too long so the weather has not allowed the penguins to maintain the eggs.

We head back toward the zodiac landing.

I get distracted watching penguins running across the snow!  They are too cute! These are Gentoo penguins.

Can you believe that I was so enamored with watching these little guys that I forgot to go take a picture of the elephant seal?  Yup.

On the zodiac, drizzly rain turning into snow as we returned to the ship. This is the first best test of how well our gear protects us!  The rain pants I rented from the ship fail me! The legs are fine, but when I sat on a wet zodiac seat my butt was soaked all the way through my layers.  Not gonna wear the rental pants anymore.

Once we are back on the ship we get our first real run through the “wishy washy” machine to clean penguin poop from our boots and pantlegs! I guess I never took a picture of this device! We step up onto it and break a beam that turns it on. Rotating brushes under the soles scrub the bottoms, then side brushes scrub the sides of the boots and the pantlegs as we step through.  If this machine does not adequately clean us off, there is another room with shower spray wands and brushes to attack spots more vigorously.

Another successful day of excursions complete!