Cuverville Island and Port Charcot, January 14, 2013

A glorious day. The weather is so changeable.
One day stormy, the next beautiful.

I arose early (around 5:30am) and headed on out to the bridge.  The Antarctic sunrise was glorious.  Of course, it went on for hours.  Daylight at this latitude lasts for about 20 hours.  We were cruising south down the Gerlache Strait to a mooring at Cuverville Island.  The sea has calmed tremendously.  It is like glass compared to the tossing we received yesterday.

An amazing landscape of rocks and ice.

I spent some time on the rocky shore.  Igneous (rocks from molten magma) volcanic and plutonic (rocks that form deep in the crust) rocks dominate the geology.  Rounded granitic cobbles shot through with pink feldspars (a mineral in the rocks) abound on the beach.  Also, scattered about on the beach are numerous whalebones.  According to Kate Spencer, staff cetacean specialist, these are the results of predation by whalers.  The early whalers used to pull up to the beaches and process their kill.

The beach is home to a colony of Gentoo Penguins.  These are distinguishable by their brushy tails, relatively small size, and the white patches that extend backward from their eyes.  The penguins have made “highways” through the snow with their trampling feet.  Their nests are made of pebbles and it is amusing to see them stealing pebbles from one another.  Many of them have young and I was able to get a few photos of them feeding their young.

Chick getting its meal of regurgitated krill

We were offered an opportunity to go Zodiac cruising for an hour or two after our landing.  I never really feel comfortable cruising in the Zodiacs, too much of a wimp.  Instead I returned to the ship.  In speaking later to some of the cruisers I found out that one of them discovered themselves being shadowed by a Leopard Seal.  Leopard Seals are one of the top predators in this area, weighing approximately 1,200 pounds and lengths of 11 feet.  They are known, according to the guidebooks, to have punctured Zodiacs. There is one case of a Leopard Seal killing a human. She was a diver with the British Antarctic Survey. Apparently it grabbed her and took her down to a depth of about 70 feet where she drowned. It was found later chewing on her body. 

On the way back to the ship we saw penguins flying through the air. Not really, but the way that they propel themselves through the water is like a porpoise as they become little torpedoes. We've seen this behavior all along but I found it very hard to get a shot of them "flying."

Penguin as torpedo.

Two of the dozen or so Orcas harassing the Humpbacks.

Leaving Cuverville Island we continued south through the Gerlache Strait to a landing late at night at Port Charcot on Booth Island.  The Gerlache is "whale-rich" and did fail to live up to its name.  We had a very unique encounter during our cruise as we ran into a pod of some 12 Orcas that were harassing three, adult humpbacks.  

According to Ted Cheeseman this is the first time that he’s seen this kind of behavior.  At first we thought that the humpbacks had a calf among them and we were witnessing predation.  That proved not to be the case. However, the confrontation went on for some 20 minutes.  Unfortunately, the action was taking place about ¼ mile away from the ship.  My photos are poor at best.  It was amazing to hear the Humpbacks breathing so far away from the ship.  The sound of their exhalations carried well across the open sea.  Eventually, the Orcas headed off.

Our landing at Port Charcot occurred after dinner.  Given the fact that: 1. the sun doesn’t set until 11:30 and 2. it never really gets dark there was no problem with going late in the day.  In my Zodiac ride to shore we chanced upon a Leopard Seal hunting penguins. Lucky for the penguins they got away.

The small dot in the water to the left is a fleeing penguin. The Leopard Seal's
head is to the right in the water.

Of course, none of my photos were any good but it was amazing to see such a large animal moving so quickly through the water.  Ashore at Port Charcot was a colony of Gentoo Penguins.  On a short hike across the peninsula we were on was an iceberg graveyard.  Thousands of icebergs were grounded in an embayment.  There were myriads of shapes and sizes.

Possibly my best picture of the trip. The iceberg graveyard.

Lounging on the ice floes were five more Leopard Seals.  Just like all the other seals we saw on the trip. When they are resting they rest hard. Every seal I saw was either in motion or immobile.

Lounging Leopard Seal

I returned to the ship sometime after 10:30pm and headed down to the lounge for a nightcap.  While there I ran into Ian Dalziel and we discussed his many trips to the South Pole.  He’s in his mid-70s and told me that he has NSF funding for research into his 80s. He is definitely a man who found what he wanted to do and intends to keep doing it till he dies. He is the only one that I know of that never wears a hat or pulls the hood up on his jacket no matter what the conditions are.