South of the Antarctic Circle and Marguerite Bay
This morning we passed the Antarctic Circle. There were a few eager souls who were up at 4:00a.m. to take photos of the exact latitude but the rest of us were just glad to know that we were sailing towards the “Great White South.”
Our destination was Marguerite Bay and as we cruised towards it, our Global Guest Speaker Peter Hillary gave his first presentation. He told us all about his amazing adventures of not only summiting Mount Everest but also about crossing the Antarctic continent and visiting the North Pole. There are very few people that can tell such stories!
After lunch we went ashore on Pourquoi Pas Island to see an Adelie penguin colony. It was a beautiful afternoon with the wonderful blue skies, sunshine, and stunning scenery. We wandered along the beach to visit the penguin colony and saw lots of almost fledged penguin chicks desperately chasing their parents for one more belly full of krill. There were also cute, fluffy skua chicks running around, who knew that predatory birds start out looking so sweet?
Just before recap we spent time with a large group of Gerlache killer whales. Several small groups of females with young calves surfaced right next to the ship so we had excellent looks at these top predators. John Durban, our guest killer whale researcher recognized many of the animals and it was interesting to see this particular group this far south as usually they are sighted more often further north in the Gerlache Strait.
The day wasn’t quite over yet through. After dinner we were slowly cruising through some pack ice when Captain Krusse yelled out, “Emperor Penguin.” It was very exciting to see the largest of and as the Captain calls it, the holy grail of sightings down here. The majority of Emperor penguins nest on the Ross Sea side of the Antarctic, so it was wonderful to have the chance to see one during this trip. Who knows what adventures tomorrow might bring?
