We awoke to cold gray skies, and soon it began to snow. Barney is feeling better but plans to stay in today, though perhaps go up for breakfast. We are approaching Monroe Island in the South Orkney Islands, where we’ll go on the Zodiacs to see some wildlife. We learned that these islands are called the South Orkneys because they mirror the latitude of the Orkney Islands off the coast of Scotland, and similarly with the South Shetlands Islands. I was on the second round of Zodiacs, and the first group went out when it was snowing and hailing, so they got soaking wet and quite cold. By the time I went out (Barney stayed in and took it easy as he continue to recover), the snow and hail had stopped. I suited up and boarded, and the Zodiacs was already bouncing all over. We cruised around the cove and saw huge arrays of chinstrap penguins on the rocky hillsides, which were dusted with fresh snow. Leopard seals were on the prowl, we saw many fur seals and even the less common Weddell seals. Many birds went overhead - giant petrels, Wilson’s petrels, lots of skuas with their blue eye rims, and snowy sheathbills. Some of the petrels flew quite close over the Zodiac, so fast I stopped trying to photograph them and just enjoyed seeing their massive wingspans of at least 5-6 feet. At one iceberg we saw about a dozen petrels mostly floating, and then spotted a leopard seal which had been eating a penguin. It turns out that the leopard seals do not want to eat the feathers and bones which do not have calories for them, so they leave the carcasses to float an then the petrels go at them. It was quite a site, the old circle of life, though somehow we all d feel sorry for the penguins.
Over lunch we went by some enormous tabular icebergs, some were huge and quite closet to the ship. This afternoon we are headed toward Signey Island, and we may have a landing as well as Zodiacs.
The afternoon was gray and cold, about 26° so quite a few people opted out, including Barney who was still recovering. After a short Zodiac ride, we came ashore on a rocky beach, hiked up the fairly fresh snow to an overlook, there were a whole set of young male fur seals play-fighting with each other, and a few young male (but still enormous) elephant seals just laying on the beach. I was a bit winded going up the hill and then remembered to think of it like cross-country skiing up a hill, just be consistent and have a good rhythm and breathe. We then went to another overlook, saw more elephant seals just piled on top of each other, and more active fur seals, and a huge view of the cove and the channel out to the open ocean. We went upstairs to meet our Aussie friends, and soon the was a call to see two blue whales, so Barney went up to do some photos. We had a lovely dinner, and now seem to be invited to southwestern France to Mike’s house under renovation, for the summer of 2027, which should be fun.
I have to attend a Fairyland Finance Committee meeting (4:00pm in California) and Barney is up at the photo feedback session, which should be fun. Tomorrow we will be at sea en route to South Georgia Island.
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