We are very pleased to report that from time to time we will be posting short, simple videos. These will not be James Cameron 3D Avatar-like movies! We hope you enjoy this new added feature of our blog. Today we thought you might like to see a little of the busy Adelie penguin colony we visited.
We continue to enjoy excellent weather as we now make our way north again. We had a large distance to cover before we achieved our landing in the Fish Islands. That meant there was plenty of time to relax and enjoy the scenery and to attend lectures in the morning.
By 13:00 we had dropped the anchor and were ready to begin Polar Cirkle boat operations.
A short ride through lots of brash ice brought us to a boisterous Adelie penguin colony. It was nice to see a lot very fat chicks. In some cases the chicks were bigger than the parents.
Everywhere you looked there was activity; comical feeding chases where chicks ran after their parents, adults feeding their chicks, raucous ecstatic displays and marauding Skuas constantly circling the colony (their main target seemed to be spilled krill).
From shore we had excellent views of three Minke whales. They first surfaced near a glacier and then headed towards our landing site. We could also see Crabeater seals on nearby icefloes and on one very large iceberg there was a Weddell Seal right at the very top. It must have been an alpine Weddell Seal!!
After one hour on shore we were treated to a thirty minute Polar Cirkle boat ride. Cruising through the ice was great! We saw yet more seals including a very large Leopard Seal.
Around 17:30 the sun burst through the clouds again. 360ยบ around the ship there were snow and ice-covered mountains and glaciers. Another really amazing day.
