Packing Is Going To Be Tricky...
⬅ previous ⬆intro next ➡Day 8 ~ January 21 ~ Antarctica (Useful/Useless Islands and Cuverville Island)
Today we will be visiting the intriguingly named “Useful Island”, along with its neighbour, obviously named “Useless”.Why the name? Nobody is really sure. It appears to be something the old whalers called it, and first appears on a map in 1929.
From the ship, we can see that the penguins are taking their letters to the postbox.
Ok, maybe that's just my imagination. The red tower is a daymark, a navigational aid for sailors.
Back into the Zodiacs, then. We're only going to cruise around the islands as the team have done a recce and decided that it's unsafe to go ashore because of very slippery conditions.
Aha, Chinstrap penguins here! Useless Island has Gentoos as well, but we saw lots of those yesterday so it's nice to have some new ones. Especially as we think they're the cutest, although they could do with wiping their tummies sometimes.
This is how they get so mucky.
A Gentoo about to dive in.
In the water, a leopard seal would be looking at the penguin and thinking “dinner!”, but on land they are far too clumsy to even pretend to be predators. The penguins know this and barely give them a second thought in such a context.
“Let's all go for a swim!”
“No, let's not!”
They go back and forth several times before finally deciding it's the right moment to get in.
We sympathise with them. Back on board, what we could be doing right now is taking the Polar Plunge: jumping into the sea in just a swimming costume or shorts and t-shirt. They do at least tie a string to you so that they can pull you out if you die.
It doesn't really appeal to us, although quite a few of our fellow passengers decide to give it a go.
Yun is documenting the event, so this is her picture, not mine. We don't get to see them until afterwards, but it doesn't make us feel jealous. You may recall we also passed up the opportunity to go swimming in the Arctic in 2016. However, ten years before that, we did jump into the icy seas of Lapland...
Suitably protected, though!
Anyway, after those who are that way inclined have plunged, it's time for lunch and to start sailing to our afternoon destination, Cuverville Island.
After-lunch coffee in the observation lounge.
Behind us is what we were observing.
A couple of whales make an appearance.
A little collage of a penguin leaping out of the water as it swims. (It's called porpoising, as I mentioned before.)
Unlike this morning, Cuverville Island is absolutely fine for a landing.
And here we are!
You can see hanging from my right wrist the bright red Olympus TG-6, which I'm using for non-telephoto shots on these excursions rather than faffing with changing the lens on my big camera. I brought it mainly because it's completely waterproof and our pre-trip info had rather given us the impression we stood a good chance of getting very wet, but we've had near-perfect weather so far. While it's primarily intended as a point-and-shoot, it does have worthwhile manual control and raw file capability which ultimately allows for some excellent images.
This is the largest Gentoo colony on the Antarctic peninsula, estimated at around 6500 pairs.
Chicks feed on fish regurgitated by their parents, who take it in turn to guard the nest and to find food.
Mum or Dad is keeping the chicks warm, but it does look awfully close to squashing them!
They can be very vocal.
Though some are just chilling.
Of course, the penguins are far from the only birds with hungry chicks to feed. This is a Brown Skua, one of the two Antarctic species, the other being the South Polar Skua. The south polar skua is brown, and the brown skua lives in the south polar regions, so I'm not quite sure how they decided which one would get which name.
It's a full-time job feeding that chick – off again for more!
A rare splash of colour on the rocks.
We saw another small yacht approaching the island earlier, and these people climbing a distant slope are most likely from it. I have to say they don't look entirely competent making their ascent.
The sea is almost mirror smooth now.
We bid farewell to the Gentoos and begin a little cruise around the island.
An old boat and a rusty chain left over from the whaling days.
A kelp gull with two chicks, although they're a little difficult to see in this picture.
Looks like this parent is off to find food too now.
And from a slightly different angle, we can see the chicks clearly.
Time for another sleepy leopard seal. That ship behind isn't the one I was talking about seeing earlier, so there are at least two around here.
He's obviously not completely asleep. An eye just opens enough to check us out.
I wonder why not “J.R.R.” as he's normally styled.
More colour, even if it is all guano and lichen.
We read that skuas can be quite aggressive, but this one is just being dramatic.
Rather less in our faces, an Antarctic Tern.
Several, in fact, having a bit of a flurry.
And for our final bird of the day, the Antarctic Shag.
“Ocean Nova” is a somewhat smaller vessel than ours, described on their website as one of the smallest expedition ships in Antarctica, carrying only 78 passengers. Judging from the photos there, it looks like the cabins are plusher than Ortelius but well short of Ocean Explorer.
Amanda has bought some things from the on-board shop, and here she models her purchases.
Well that's pretty international!
More penguins from our balcony, and not a collage this time.
Dinner this evening is going to be an al-fresco affair for those brave enough, and they've been setting up some interesting items for later. We suspect some trickery in this tower of profiteroles to keep it stable.
We admire the artistry, but I'm not sure we're sufficiently adventurous to eat it.
Cheese and wine: that's more us! I do get some meat from the barbie, but bring it inside to eat.
And then a little floor show from some of the crew.
The world's largest cruise ship as I write this, Royal Caribbean's Icon of the Seas, offers a full-scale Broadway musical production of The Wizard of Oz as but one of its many nightly amusements. But it doesn't have penguins, so who cares!
Bedtime: our cabin attendant Sabrine leaves little animals on the bed each day.
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