Antarctica Update

We decided to have a less strenuous day and to take a boat ride down the Beagle Channel. We were very lucky to see Magellanic Diving Petrels during the ride as well as lots of South American Sealions, Black-browed Albatross, Imperial Shags and more Southern Giant Petrels.

Imperial Shags

South American Sealions

Our target was a colony of Magellanic Penguins (No 1) which breed on an island in the Beagle Channell. We suddenly realised that there was also a small colony of Gentoo Penguins (no 2).

Magellanic Penguin

We arrived back at around 3.15pm, grabbed a taxi back to the B&B to collect our luggage and back to the docks to board our home for the next 2 weeks, MV Plancius.

We settled into our cabin and the voyage began with safety briefings and a lovely evening meal. We woke up to strong winds, high seas and 3 of us prostrate with sea-sickness!! Lots of birds seen in the hour or so we could drag ourselves from our beds. Following advice a few crackers were eaten to calm the stomachs.

The next day was much calmer and although there weren't the variety of birds from the day before there were still many Southern Giant Petrels, Cape Petrels, a few albatrosses and later in the day Antarctic Peterels began to appear.

Southern Giant Petrel

Cape (Pintado) Petrels

Antarctic Petrel

Tuesday dawned clear and warm and we were briefed for our first zodiac landings at Half Moon Island.

Putting this into practise proved much easier than anticipated and we were soon climbing the ice hillside to the Chinstrap Penguin (No 3) colonies in which we hoped to find a Macaroni Penguin or two.

Chinstrap Penguins

Luckily there was one lonely individual who spent lot of time asleep but did wake up to show off his yellow headgear (no 4). Several photos later we tramped back across the snow to some Weddell Seals. Above our heads we saw an amazing ice crystal halo round the sun and then it was time to return to the ship and head for Deception Island.

Macaroni Penguin

Weddell Seal

Ice Halo

This was more of a historical stop and we learnt a bit about the volcanic nature of the island, evidenced by the black volcanic sand, boat skeletons and half buried buildings. Apart from Santorini, this is the only other caldera that you can sail into. We had great views of Gentoo Penguins as well as South Polar and Brown Skuas and Antarctic Terns.

Deception Island

Antarctic Tern

Brown Skua

Gentoo Penguin

Track from Half Moon Island to Deception

After our return the captain took us for a journey into the pack ice, just to show us what he and his ship could do before we set sail for Brown Bluff which would be our chance to stand on the actual continent of Antarctica.