Introduction
New Year’s day turned out to be quite exciting. The plan was to visit a Gentoo Penguin Colony on Cuverville Island where we heard chicks had hatched only a week ago. Later, we would land at Paradise Bay where we would step onto the Antarctic continent for the first time, not just islands in the Antarctic archipelago.
Today’s post will cover New Year’s Eve and the penguin colony from New Year’s day. Paradise Bay will be covered in the next post.
New Year's Eve in Antarctica
The ship left the Melchior Islands heading towards Cuverville Island. The stage was set for our New Year’s celebration in the Seabreeze Lounge.
And the entertainment was going strong.
When we suddenly heard there was a Mayday call from a small sailing yacht. Since we were the closest to the location, the captain turned the ship around and headed towards the yacht. We did not know much about the situation other than there was a burn injury to a crew member that was serious and needed medical attention. Just a few minutes before midnight, we arrived at the yacht.
The ship’s doctor was sent over to evaluate the situation and it was confirmed it was serious and a crew member onboard the yacht needed immediate medical attention, so he was brought onboard. Apparently, the waves were rough enough for the small yacht that a pot of boiling water on the stove was knocked off and seriously burned the crew member.
Our ship then set out north to rendevous with another cruise ship that was heading towards Ushuaia and that cruise ship turned around as well to rendevous with us. My heart goes out to the injured crew member.
As I watched this unfold, however, I noticed the black and red paint pattern of the yacht and realized I knew this yacht. In fact, it was the very yacht I had sailed on just over a year ago in Greenland. I know the crew and probably knew the injured crew member.
We did hear later that he made it to Ushuaia and was receiving the medical care he needed. It is amazing that our paths would cross again half way around the world, but I just wish it wasn’t in this manner. I truly wish him well.
The Gerlache Strait
Due to the unforeseen detour we made during the night, we spent the next morning coming south through the Gerlache Strait. Here we saw a flock of Northern Fulmars, a porpoising penguin, a Wilson’s Storm Petrel, a plethora of Humpback Whales, plus an iceberg surrounded by soft light and distant fog making it look almost like it was floating in air.
We knew we were getting close to Cuverville Island when we spotted more penguins like this one sitting on a small floating chunk of ice.
As well as this one, swimming in the ocean with the ripples on the surface reflecting like a fun-house mirror.
Cuverville Island Gentoo Penguin Colony
Sure enough, there was Cuverville Island. And up on the rocks in the reddish colored areas were the penguins nesting. In a short time the zodiacs would take us to land on the shore.
On the shore, Penguins were coming out of the water looking all fresh and clean. Though they would still feel itchy. They are actually quite good at balancing and scratching.
Others had to express themselves in song, announcing their return.
Making our way to the first nesting site, the first penguin chick was spotted. The tiny little thing at the bottom of the penguin’s belly is the chick, less than a week old. A piece of the egg still remains to the left of the chick. So cute! The parent is sitting on the nest which is composed of small rocks piled up.
A little further up at the next site, another penguin is lying down on her nest, probably incubating an egg still. An interesting behavior regarding the stones for the nests is that sometimes one penguin would steal a rock from another penguin’s nest and bring it back to its mate’s nest.
At yet another site, a parent with a slightly older chick was feeding her chick. Yum!
Other penguins were again expressing themselves in song while others lie down on their nests incubating their eggs. I am not sure why they do this, but they do like to do so.
If you are curious about what a penguin squawking sounds like, play the track to hear a recording I made of this colony.
You may have noticed that the penguin’s bellies in the colony are decidedly not clean. Well, living in a penguin colony does have it’s disadvantages, especially when it comes to hygiene. This is quite noticeable when you approach due to the strong odor. But you get used to it quickly.
Cruising the Bay at Cuverville Island
We stayed at the colony for quite a while taking many photographs of all the penguins and the chicks. But then it was time to get back to the shore to go for a zodiac cruise before finally returning to the ship. Out on the water there were many icebergs around.
Where there are icebergs, there will often be penguins on them, like this one very gingerly trying to walk down without slipping.
But on other icebergs there may be seals resting on them instead, like this Crabeater seal. Of course, he was seriously resting, though he did lift his head once just to see who we were, but then put his head back down.
Of course, there are other birds around as well. The Antarctic Shags are quite common and very striking with their deep blue eyes contrasting with the bright orange patch just in front of the eyes.
Although we rarely saw other ships at any of the stops, we did come across one here. It was interesting because it was a double-masted sailing ship. I could make out the name, “Eldorado,” and even found it through a Google search. How cool! If you look closely at the photo, you might make out three penguins on the rocks just in front of the ship.
But eventually, it was time to get back to our ship, the Seaventure.
It was already 5 PM and nearly dinner time. We still had one more stop after dinner as well to make up for the time we lost during the night rescue. This next stop at Paradise Bay will be the subject of my next blog post. Stay tuned!
Postscript
I often like to get photographs of animal footprints from where I go, especially when photographing wildlife. I happened upon a really nice penguin footprint in the snow at Cuverville Island that I will share here.
Leave a reply