Brown Bluff and Exploring Weddell Sea, Antarctic Peninsula
After two bumpy days at sea, we have reached the great white continent, Antarctica. Brown Bluff is a continental landing and despite the early morning wind and snow, we were happy to be on solid footing and watching penguins again. While some celebrated a 7th continent with high fives and hugs, others sat to watch that familiar pied body waddling along the littoral zone, yet this penguin is new to us. After leaving Magellanics and rockhoppers in the Falkland Islands, kings and macaronis in South Georgia, we were greeted with our sixth species, Adelie penguins with some ubiquitous gentoos for good measure. The simple black and white color scheme of an Adelie penguin is balanced by an animated gait, tobogganing on their stomach, inquisitive eyes and comical honk. We viewed these animals in the most dedicated of positions, partially buried in quickly drifting snow with the sole purpose of insulating one or tow recently laid eggs. This is parental care to another level.
Eventually the sun did break through and we left the blowing snow of Brown Bluff to explore Erebus and Terror Gulf in the northern portion of the Weddell Sea. This is one of the best places on the Antarctic Peninsula to experience ice, and with the ice-reinforced hull of National Geographic Explorer in capable hands, we did just that. Hanging over the bow of a ship going 5 knots through 3 foot thick sea ice is a study in raw power. National Geographic Explorer slipped and cracked her way finely through ice but was also able to be inched closely to resting crabeater seals (another new species for the voyage) for views of this unique marine mammal. All the while we enjoyed close looks at tabular icebergs, those flat-topped mesas of solid water peppering the horizon. We have finally reached a place where words generally fail and scale is notoriously deceptive.
As a last minute postscript, Eagle Eyes Richard White spotted a pod of Type B killer whales at dusk. Nothing can clear a dining room like black and white dolphins.
