Paulet & Devil Islands

The sea was littered with icebergs this morning, as far as the eye could see. Mostly tabular. It was sunny in the east and grey in the west, air temp -2C, water temp -1.1C. The water is a bit choppy but all in all it's fairly smooth sailing.

Paulet Island is just ahead of us. Twenty men from Nordenskjold expedition made their way here after their ship was crushed by pack ice. The snowy landscapes here are gorgeous. The sky is evenly overcast which makes for nice lighting for snow shots.

The fur seals have done a number on the stone hut that they built and at least 3 pengies have constructed their nests on what remains of the walls. Their babies will be born later on - most of this site is covered in evenly spaced nests with the usual kafuffle of arrivals a departures down at the beach. The waters in front of the rookery are filled with porposing pengies - impossible to catch on film but maybe with a bit of patience...

I did a little hike up the slope from the hut ruin to the edge of the old volcano caldera and now lake. The Adelie penguins are everywhere. They look like little grumpy old men in most of their movements whether it's lying flat on the nest all puffed up or running along with a stone in mouth. The Adelies make nests out of small stones and each one is labouriously brought from afar. Often neighbours steal stones.

With the camera people in hot persuit with their offending tripods I headed back to the beach. A good 1/2 kilometer from the landing site there were 2 weddel seals sprawled on an piece of ice like 2 giant slugs. Well camouflaged right at shore was a pup - with a very pretty speckled belly. She yawned and stretched and scratched her chest for the benefit of those watching on shore.

The penguins offered endless entertainment by rushing madly in all directions but all too soon it was time to get back to the ship. Almost everyone was late for lunch because we were passing by gorgeous iceberg after gorgeous iceberg. As we got closer to our next site 40 miles away the ice changed. It was a mass of old pack ice from last year, smaller but still quite interesting.

Landing 2: Devil Island, named for the the two pointy hills representing horns - a bit of a stretch but what the hey. I decided to try the climb up the lesser of the 2 horns but only made it about 2/3 of the way. I wasn't feeling particularly sure-footed in my rubber boots on the steep rocky slope. But the view from 2/3 is nothing to be disappointed with! I took a long walk on the beach to check out some of the iceforms that washed up - complete with penguins of course.

The wind came up which is bad as all the old ice lingering about could have blown into shore and trapped the zodiacs. Laurie radioed the ship and asked them to sound the horn to get people back but the horn was frozen (!) Fortunately Flipper (yes, Flipper) had a good loud whistle with him. The snow was falling pretty thickly by the time everyone got back on board. Up in the lounge they served mulled wine as a warm up.

The intermittent snow is presenting a challenge to the crew. It interferes with the radar which is essential to negotiate the ice so we are moving at a snails pace when it falls.

Tomorrow we land on the Peninsula, and therefore the continent, proper.

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