Penguins — An Elegant Sufficiency

We’’d seen quite a few Gentoo penguins yesterday, but today it was the turn of the Chinstraps to make their entrance, and my word, they did that in abundance!

We woke to a rather different landscape than the one we’d closed the curtains on last evening. This one had less ice and more rock.

Our day began with a sail around Deception Island and progressed towards the South Shetlands. Most of all, we hoped we were going to see more of that beautiful icy landscape, though.

Though there was, undoubtedly more rock visible in most of the places we were seeing, the ice was certainly there in abundance too and we needn’t have worried!

It wasn’t long before the expedition team advised that we were in the company of penguins. Chinstrap penguins today, and sure enough, as if on cue, there was one standing on the island, right there in front of us.

Oh, and a few hundred Antarctic Shags sitting on top of this rock too.

As Splendor sailed quietly around in these incredibly calm waters, we stood and marvelled at the sights which were passing by.

The noise was mostly coming from the penguins…

I couldn’t resist taking more photographs, mostly of the wonderful layer patterns in the ice.

Around lunchtime, we were held for half an hour off Half Moon Bay, for another ship was already there and we needed to wait for it to leave. We didn’t mind a bit - time for a spot of lunch and more opportunities to chat about the things we’ve seen (and the things we missed) We learned that late last evening, the sea around the ship was “a whale soup” with possibly a hundred humpback whales in the immediate area. Because it all happened when most of us were enjoying dinner, no announcement was made… Never mind. Whenever I step inside, I always wonder if whatever creature I’ve been looking out for is going to make an appearance. Usually, we never get to know

Anyway, we continued to look out, seeing mostly sea, but as many will understand, that in itself is kind of mesmerising.

And the whole time, there were penguins…popping up all over the place.

I set my camera to “burst shoot” in the hope of catching “something”.

Though many shots were just a splash, I struck lucky occasionally.

And wider, broader shots might contain at least one little feature worth a crop.

And occasionally, what I could see with my eyes took a bit of finding on the photograph taken at the time.

There was a whale…a minke whale according to Penny, our whale expert.

And still, all around us, the penguins were porpoising, feeding before returning to their nests to share their catch with their partners back home, who are probably incubating eggs right now.

All around us was the most spectacular landscape.

Looking closely, there was a surprisingly rich palette of colour too - from the deep purply greys by the water, through deep olive greens, lighter greens and ochres beneath the sandy colours of the rocks and the beach.

Occasionally, the “bing bong” on the loudspeaker would alert us to something particular to look out for; in this case, a(nother) penguin colony.

And another snap caught a penguin with its head popping out of the water. Really, there was never a dull moment.

The landscape began to change as we moved out of the bay, however.

In between the rocky areas were flat places, ideal for establishing research camps. This one was Ecuadorean.

And just around the corner, we came across a Chilean station. A closer look reveals the conglomeration of red huts and one, smaller hut set at quite a distance from the “village” We wonder if that’s the loo (a long way to walk in the middle of the night!) or the naughty hut..or…? What do you think?

Last night, we had a wonderful Indian Feast with six of our friends on board. With full tummies we waddled back to our suite, remembering to look outside before going to bed.