The morning landing was at Brown Bluff on the Tabarin Peninsula of the Antarctic mainland—just at the very tip of the Antarctic Peninsula. Light cloud cover and windless conditions combined to make it a comfortable landing.
The highlight of the landing was the colony of 20,000 pairs of Adélie penguins. Many grey dumpy chicks were evident, at about four weeks development. Some chicks were forming into creches. One bird was seen on the nest and still incubating an egg. The colony of Adélies was mixed with some gentoos, which were mostly on higher ground. High above around the towering cliffs cape petrels were seen flying about, and with binoculars some could be seen nesting on the rocky ledges. Of the larger flying birds, kelp gulls, southern giant petrels, and brown skuas coursed over the colony occasionally, and one Wilson’s storm petrel seen also.
The next destination was Paulet Island, but we were stopped by dense ice six miles from the island. The afternoon started with a lecture given by Bob Jacobel, the Global Perspectives guest speaker on the cryosphere (world of ice and snow). With perfect timing the ship abutted the sea ice just as the presentation commenced. There was a break in proceedings as the ship moved deeper into sheets of sea ice and in amongst the tabular bergs.
We turned tail and cruised back through the Antarctic Sound travelling towards the northwest past Dundee and Joinville Islands, Hope Bay, and Mount Flora. Although the sound had been discovered by the French explorer Dumont d’Urville in 1838, it was named during the Swedish Antarctic expedition under Otto Nordenskjöld in 1902, for his ship Antarctic that was the first vessel to navigate it under the command of C. A. Larsen. The afternoon ice cruising took us through sea ice and past numerous towering tabular bergs, many of which were grounded. Adélie penguins decorated ice floes and crabeater and leopard seals (one of each) were spotted at a distance.
A pod of half a dozen Type B killer whales with young was detected from the bridge later in the afternoon causing excitement amongst guests. We were amongst them for over half an hour and they approached the vessel ensuring that all guests had perfect photo opportunities.
