Yesterday we left the relatively tranquil waters of Antarctica. We’ve now sailed north out of the Southern Ocean, crossed the Drake Passage and are in the Atlantic headed toward the Falkland Islands. By dinnertime last night we were staggering around the ship again. I needed to take a Meclizine this morning, and I’ve had to stay close to the handrails when moving about the ship. Believe it or not, Ronnie is walking on the fitness track as I’m writing this.
The
sun is shining today and the ocean is a deep navy blue.
Yesterday
we passed through lots of islands, traveling from King George Island to Half
Moon Island. There were 19 key points on that section of our journey, all names
of different bays, islands, sounds or passages. I only ventured to the deck
once yesterday to snap a few photos around Deception Island. It was impossible
(for me) to stay out for more than a few minutes. Only those folks with those
super long telephoto lens ventured out to take photos in the extreme cold and
wind, not the regular “point and shoot” photographers such as myself.
As
you will see, the islands consist mostly of volcanic rock and the only photos I
snapped yesterday were around Deception Island. Ronnie snapped a few more as we passed the glacier on King George Island.
PS I just realized that I forgot to post photos of the many chinstrap penguins from the day before, so I will include those as well. Supposedly there are 2000 pairs of them on Half Moon Island alone! I'm disappointed that I can't make them large enough for you to see these cute little guys. If you really want to see them, perhaps you can (right mouse click and) save the photo, then enlarge it yourself? (worth a try). Lastly, I will also try to post a short video taken from our balcony of a whale fluking. I had to cut over half of it off because it was too large to upload to my last post.
morning fog
approaching Deception Island
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| see the tiny white dots covering the rocks? those are penguins! |
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| more penguin "dots" plus green algae growth |
hundreds of tiny white "dots" (penguins)
...and more penguins 
more seals and penguins
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small colony of penguins on left side
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| i tried to enlarge, but not sure that helps |
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| Deception Island |
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| note striation on volcanic rock |
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| closer up of above image |
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| glacier, King George Island |
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I love these little penguins!!! Thank you for sharing these amazing photos + videos. Keep them coming! Such a treat!
ReplyDeleteI hope you could make them out - there are LOTS!! We're still debating if we want to see them "up close and personal." It's supposed to be super cold and windy tomorrow and we didn't book an excursion so we may just visit a museum instead.
DeleteYour blogs always send me to the internet for more research. This time it was to learn exactly where the Falkland Islands actually are ;-)
ReplyDeleteOne of the pop-up questions that Google Search suggested for further investigation was, “Is there a McDonalds in the Falkland Islands?” ~ tickled my funny bone!
By BHarberts...what an amazing trip. I am interested in your comments on the Falklands. I had a friend from Great Britain who had a decided opinion. The penguins...thrilling to observe in their habitat. They may think you are the one in the "zoo".
ReplyDeleteHaha! Docked now but raining and still deciding what we want to do today.
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