Today we went ashore at Half Moon Island, one of the most beautiful sites in the South Shetlands. Our scheduled departure time was 11:00 am, and everything was on schedule.
Getting dressed and layered up for the trip ashore was much easier than yesterday.
Getting into the Zodiac is also becoming more comfortable. The staff and crew are very specific about how to enter and exit a Zodiac, which is a big rubber raft. As you step towards the Zodiac, you hand your trekking poles or anything else you may have in your hand to one of the people assisting you into the Zodiac, You then use the Sailors’ grip, which is wrist to wrist, to step on each of the 3 stairs from the ramp, onto the side of the Zodiac, and passing off to another person assisting, then step down onto the step in the Zodiac, then sit on the side and slide to your position. Today Margo was particularly appreciative of those hands helping her as her right foot slipped on the wet side of the Zodiac.
The ride from the ship to the island was a much shorter ride than yesterday’s ride.
Once again, our Zodiac was greeted by penguins, although today they were Chinstrap. Half Moon Island has very different landscape than at Yankee Harbor. Yankee Harbor was mostly flat with small pebbles. Half Moon Island has sharp craggy slabs of rocked covered in orange, yellow, and black lichens providing nesting sites for the Chinstrap penguins.
Upon exiting the Zodiac, we walked up a steep hill about 100 feet to the ledge. If we turned right and walked about 10 minutes, we would see whale bones and some seals. If we turned left we would see penguins. We intended to go look at the penguins and then check out the whale bones.
How to describe what we saw? We turned to the right, and faced another larger hill with large rocks. We walked across a small section of ice to get a closer view. Now to the right was a high hill that is where the Chinstrap have their nesting sites which are much higher up the rocky hills. Looking straight ahead we see the other side of the island.
Watching the penguins waddle and jump up the hill is quite entertaining. One of the penguin experts said they went so high up because these were the areas that the wind cleared of snow early in the breading season. Apparently, one extra week of breeding makes a big difference in the success rate.
Margo wanted to balance between taking pictures to share, and just standing still and experiencing the moment. After watching the Chinstraps high up the cliff, we turned around and continued down the right path. The Chinstrap penguins were much louder than yesterdays Gentoo penguins. Whereas the Gentoo would walk around you if you got in their way, the Chinstraps would just stop and stare you down. “Out of my way!” they seemed to say. The clusters of Chinstraps were smaller and more disbursed. And their poop stunk more too!
When we approached the end of the island, one of guides said, “step into the forest.” We didn’t see a forest, just lots of rocks. As we stepped in to the “forest” the guide pointed out all of the lichen on the rocks; there are 300 different species of lichen. On the ground was the only type of grass seen in Antarctica, it looks somewhat like small covering of moss.
As we look back towards the ship, we see a seal clumsily making his way toward the water. We intended to go visit the whale bones after visiting with the penguins but spent so much time with the penguins it was time to get back on the Zodiac. The hour and half on land seemed like 15 minutes!
Walking back towards the Zodiac, Margo saw a dead penguin close by the water. The guide said it had most likely been killed by a predator.
The weather while we were on shore was picture perfect. The forecast last night said that we would likely have rain and wind during our time ashore but instead we had clear blue skies with calm water. Air temperature was mid-30s. For those of you who comment how it is much colder where you are than here, remember this is summertime in Antarctica.
In spite of wearing SPF 50 sunscreen, we are still getting sunburn. Perhaps tomorrow we will put it on before we go to the Zodiac and again once on the land.
We want to add a clarifying note about yesterdays A51A glacier. It is 37km or about 23 miles long. It contains enough waster to supply New York City water demand for 15 years. The designation indicates that it broke off from the A-sector or the northwest part of Antarctica.
The 12 countries that claimed territory on the continent signed the Antarctic Treaty in 1959. The treaty neither recognizes nor dismisses the claims but rather establishes the entire area for scientific research. The agreement appears to work well and there are now 50 countries that have signed the treaty.
We keep stressing how thorough Seabourn has been in planning and executing our cruise operations. The only complaint we can find is our lack of self-control. The food and drink are very tasty and plentiful. The portion sizes are very reasonable; however, we aren’t used to having breakfast, lunch with dessert, afternoon tea with scones, a drink before dinner, dinner with dessert, lots of constant wines from which to choose. Oh my! We hope that all the walking watching the penguins will counter the effect of excessive caloric intake, but we think that is wishful thinking.
We left Half Moon Island around 5:15. The Captain said he expects good weather to our next destination. He clarified that when he talks about weather, he is referencing wind and swell.
Our evening entertainment is the movie March of the Penguins. We have seen it before and expect that it will be much more real for us watching it here in Antarctica after visiting penguins.