Barrentos Island, Aitcho Island Group, Antarctica
We are greeted this new day of our adventure with a weather change from yesterday. The skies are grey and the wind has picked up and the seas are choppier. All around the ship the Pintado petrels continue to accompany our journey south. It also feels markedly cooler than yesterday. However the good news is that our progress south continues on schedule for an afternoon landing. Due to the bumpy conditions we spend the morning leisurely and as we trundle along our sea legs are getting more adept at coping with the motion.
During the morning we have a winner for the iceberg competition. The first sighting is turned down as it was not considered to be of the appropriate size. However very soon, the same guest spots a large tabular iceberg looming up on the horizon. Within the next half hour we have spotted several more icebergs and also land! It appears as distant peaks. Many of us come up on deck to witness this great moment.
By lunchtime we are off the English Strait between Nelson and Robert Islands and by the end of our meal we are on our way to Barrentos Island, which is part of the Aitcho Archipelago. It is here where we will make our first landing. However before we can do so we attend the mandatory talk on how we should all proceed in this remarkable place to ensure that we do everything possible to leave it as we found it so future generations may also be able to enjoy it much as we found it. Soon enough we are donning our gear for our first experience in Antarctica.
The boarding parties are announced and flipping our tags we board the Zodiacs and are off. It is a bit rough at the landing site but helpful hands assist us ashore. We have made it and a sizable bunch of Gentoo penguins are there to greet us. There is a lot of snow and ice covering the island right down to the shoreline. We are placed into small groups and under the care of a member of staff we head off on a guided walk. The experience is wonderful. We see many more penguins on our way and over a saddle we encounter Chinstrap penguins and a Weddell seal lazing about on the snow. Overhead Giant petrels, Antarctic skuas, Kelp gulls and Antarctic terns fly over us. After our guided walk is over many of us use the precious time to take this all in on our own or in small groups. On our return to the landing site we get a sighting of a lone Adelie penguin. We have seen all three stiff tail penguins on our first day!
What a start to our Antarctic adventure.
After a recap of the day and during dinner we chat about our experience of the day as the evening light with its yellows and oranges settles over the ice fields on the island that make up the South Shetlands.
We are greeted this new day of our adventure with a weather change from yesterday. The skies are grey and the wind has picked up and the seas are choppier. All around the ship the Pintado petrels continue to accompany our journey south. It also feels markedly cooler than yesterday. However the good news is that our progress south continues on schedule for an afternoon landing. Due to the bumpy conditions we spend the morning leisurely and as we trundle along our sea legs are getting more adept at coping with the motion.
During the morning we have a winner for the iceberg competition. The first sighting is turned down as it was not considered to be of the appropriate size. However very soon, the same guest spots a large tabular iceberg looming up on the horizon. Within the next half hour we have spotted several more icebergs and also land! It appears as distant peaks. Many of us come up on deck to witness this great moment.
By lunchtime we are off the English Strait between Nelson and Robert Islands and by the end of our meal we are on our way to Barrentos Island, which is part of the Aitcho Archipelago. It is here where we will make our first landing. However before we can do so we attend the mandatory talk on how we should all proceed in this remarkable place to ensure that we do everything possible to leave it as we found it so future generations may also be able to enjoy it much as we found it. Soon enough we are donning our gear for our first experience in Antarctica.
The boarding parties are announced and flipping our tags we board the Zodiacs and are off. It is a bit rough at the landing site but helpful hands assist us ashore. We have made it and a sizable bunch of Gentoo penguins are there to greet us. There is a lot of snow and ice covering the island right down to the shoreline. We are placed into small groups and under the care of a member of staff we head off on a guided walk. The experience is wonderful. We see many more penguins on our way and over a saddle we encounter Chinstrap penguins and a Weddell seal lazing about on the snow. Overhead Giant petrels, Antarctic skuas, Kelp gulls and Antarctic terns fly over us. After our guided walk is over many of us use the precious time to take this all in on our own or in small groups. On our return to the landing site we get a sighting of a lone Adelie penguin. We have seen all three stiff tail penguins on our first day!
What a start to our Antarctic adventure.
After a recap of the day and during dinner we chat about our experience of the day as the evening light with its yellows and oranges settles over the ice fields on the island that make up the South Shetlands.
