Booth Island and Petermann Island
Yesterday we ran ourselves ragged. We had an exciting, packed day of outings but to top it off we had a late-night whale encounter with very curious humpback whales. We worked off a very small portion of the day’s calories by running from one side of the ship to the other as two humpbacks proceeded to perform a hull inspection of National Geographic Explorer as she sat still in the Gerlache Strait. We went to bed buzzing.
It didn’t matter what time the wake-up call was scheduled for, after such an exciting day any time was too early. On the best of days a 7 a.m. announcement usually elicits a groan followed by the shifting of pillows from cranium cradle to giant ear muff. But this morning was something totally different. As if sleep was merely an option exercised only by the weak, those guests not already up at 5 a.m. bounced out of bed and watched our morning transit through the Lemaire Channel with great enthusiasm. Apparently navigating a ship through a very narrow passage surrounded by unthinkably steep mountains and glaciers will make you forget about lost sleep. Eight hours of sleep a day? Not in the austral summer.
The day continued to ratchet up as we dropped the toys at Booth Island, just west of Lemaire Channel. Here we had the opportunity to commune with penguins by foot or by paddle. Hundreds of gentoo penguins (and a handful of chinstrap penguins) were swimming in the somewhat still waters around Booth Island. The penguins followed our kayaks and porpoised past us off to do whatever wild penguins do. The naturalists did what naturalists do best and all surmised a different meaning to the very large aggregation of penguins diving in sync and resurfacing as one. Are they feeding? Are they cleaning? Are they socializing? Some think they’re feeding, but underwater proved that if they are, they’re diving deep to capture their prey. It’s a good reminder of how little we know and how dangerous it can be to make absolute statements about the wilderness. Until we can get a camera onto one of the penguins, I guess we’ll just keep guessing.
In the afternoon we headed just slightly east to Petermann Island for another round of activities. Part of our tribe took to the snow in search of more brush tailed penguins and were delighted to find a few gentoo chicks. The rest of us chose our favorite steed, geared up and headed out on Zodiacs to explore the surrounding waters. Massive ice arches were seen from a humbling vantage point but the blue beauties must always be respected because they can instantaneously implode into yet another abstract shape. Several boats found one of the local favorites, Antarctic minke whales. The whales paced our boats, surfed our bow waves and inspected us closely when we stopped. This is a whale longer than our boats but very possibly playing with us. Sometimes they are very erratic and we’re unable to view them at all. Other times the whales are all over our boats. Could it have been the abundant krill in the water allowing the minkes to tank up and luxuriate with us in play? Who cares why, it was amazing that the whales sought us out.
Lastly, the day’s highlight. Known throughout the world as a bloodthirsty killer of penguins and seals, leopard seals have a bit of a bad rap. They are just as happy to eat krill as the minke whales, they just happen to change it up on occasion. Towards the end of our operation a mother leopard seal and her suckling pup were found on a piece of sea ice. Pups have generally been weaned by this point in the season so it is a very rare observation and one not taken lightly by guests and staff. We could ramble on about how unusual it is and how secretive leopard seals can be and how little we know about their life histories as a justification about why the sighting was noteworthy. But it’s much easier to just say that leopard seal pups are really cute!
