Antarctica Cruise Day 6

The day started with waking up on Stonington Island. I managed some sleep, but not a lot. The land of the midnight sun also meant it stayed light out to varying degrees of brightness the entire night. Some voices around 0300 were due to a curious weddell seal baby , a 'weaner' making it's way through the camp, and people getting up and taking tents down around 0430, instead of 0500 as were told, also disturbed sleeping. Despite the rough sleep, it was a memorable experience and not many people can say they camped inside the Antarctic Circle 🐧. We were back on the ship safe and sound around 0545.

After a nap before and a lie down after breakfast, we headed for Red Rock Ridge and the Adelie penguins colony. We got the zodiac to the continent and there were penguins EVERYWHERE! These penguins are the classic black and white tuxedo penguins and the only penguins to spend their whole lives in Antarctica. We stayed on the zodiac to the second landing site, got off, and did a short hike through some peaks towards the colony. The small mountains were beautiful and the viewpoint allowed for great pictures of the ocean and the colony below.

Watching the penguins was magical. It's an experience I don't think could ever be replicated. The vast amount of penguins was amazing, and the sound of adult adelies was mingled with the sound of newborn chicks. It was so cute to see the two gray colored chicks under several parents. The penguins were also walking or tobogganing around or going back and forth from the edge of the rocks trying to decide if they wanted to jump in. Movies do not do them justice. I could have stayed there all day watching them. Unfortunately, that wasn't an option.

When the zodiac came to pick us up, we got to explore a little bit on the way back to the boat. A lot of this exploring was following a leopard seal as it traveled around near the penguin colony. They are hard to get pictures of, but are pretty big and majestic swimming through the water. We also saw a couple weddell seals too. It was also interesting to see how the penguin behavior changed when they spotted the leopard seal, their predator. Many were leaping out of the water to shelter, and others that were too far from ice or land swam erratically.

Once our zodiac time came to an end and we were back onboard, we had some lunch and began a long afternoon and night of sailing. We started our journey back north along the outside of Adelaide Island. The sea got a little bit choppier, but wasn't too bad. Allan and I had pretty solid naps in the afternoon after the rough sleeping the night before, and unfortunately neither of us set alarms, so we missed part of the lecture on glaciers and sea ice. We managed to catch the section about how sea ice is formed, and the question section, but missed the glacier information from the beginning.

The rest of the day stayed pretty chill. We had our nightly briefing and recap and some dinner before retiring to our room to watch the world go by out of our window. Allan also went to the sauna and I took some time to read. Tomorrow morning is the polar plunge which many are looking forward to.Leggi altro