Drake’s Passage lies in all its frightening glory between the continent of Antarctica and the southern tip of South America. With terrible weather, colliding current streams and absolutely no land to calm the water, it is a rough 400 mile stretch. The only expectations I had were of icebergs and penguins.I didn’t have any idea of what else to expect. I didn’t know much about the land’s geography, politics, nor imposing power.
While we were warned ahead of time of the possible dangers of braving Drake’s Passage, the trip down was without incident. We were thoroughly beaten by the Passage on the way home. Our first morning in Antarctica was calm, but gray and dreary. Your one-stop resource on antarctica cruise ship is waiting for you.
At first, I saw grayish mountains with some brown peeking through. However, it wasn’t long before I saw the ice. Itty bitty chunks of ice floated to and fro in the water like bobs on a fishing lure. I grabbed my camera and zipped right up into my red expedition parka – standard issue for all of us passengers – and rushed out into the brisk Antarctic day.
We stood on deck as penguins flew into the air, much to the excitement of the crowd. Whales and dolphins frolicked in the gun metal sea and choppy waves. Naturalists presented slide shows and discussions under a lowering sky. We had high expectations setting off in the small raft, putting the mother ship to our stern and closely approaching the bobbing chunks of ice.We could finally see the rocky, icy coast. The edge was rimmed by penguins thinking about getting in the sea.
Penguins ringed our entire group. This little outpost of land in Paradise Harbor is home to both gentoo penguins and a small group of researchers. The penguins waddles in all directions, seemingly with a predetermined purpose. Some of them stood atop rocky outcroppings watching the red-parka’d interlopers who were smiling, pointing, and taking photos. Due to their maturity, most of the chicks were now on their own. Some of the penguin chicks were not accepting this situation readily. These adolescents are given down-covered sacks of krill. This is a kind of food that the parents will often bring back from the sea, regurgitating it into the chick’s mouth to nourish them. Further resources about adventure antarctica cruises are located there.
These baby penguins were molting. Some were in different stages of molt than others. Much of their coats had become smooth. However, there were patches of gray down, mostly in places where the baby penguins couldn’t reach to scratch off. This gave the illusion of earmuffs or a hat on the baby penguins. In some cases, it looked like a really bad haircut given by a beginner barber. We cruised through ice floating on the bay when we headed back to the ship. One small berg sported a regal seal, stretched out in the sun. Evidently we bored him because he gave returned our stares with a huge yawn.
Penguins are always so very charming. They started to waddle. The wild combination of formal attire and floppy, orange webbed feet.The island was really more rock than dirt, so these penguins were pretty neat and clean looking. They appear to have chubby cheeks due to the black line beneath their chins. This gives them a jaunty air to their whole look and ambience.
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