I was up soon after dawn. But I still wasn't early enough to see the sunrise, which was just before 04:00. Now the Plancius was close to the Antarctic Peninsula, the sea was nice and calm, with a number of icebergs of varying sizes. I was quickly seeing Adelie Penguins on the icebergs and in the water. The first priority was to check every close iceberg on the unlikely off-chance that there would be an Emperor Penguin on one of them. I photographed a number of more distant icebergs to check for a larger Penguin on one of them. Sadly, after two days of checking, we remained unsatisfied.
The black dots are all Adelie Penguins
Another iceberg & more Adelie Penguins
Adelie Penguin: There breed around the edge of the pack ice on Antarctic, as well as, the South Shetland Islands and South Orkney Islands
Adelie Penguin: With Adelie Penguin firmly on the list, I just need to see Emperor Penguins and Galapagos Penguins to have seen all of the Penguins
Brown Skua: This is the lonnbergi subspecies which breeds on the Antarctic Peninsula, South Georgia & circumpolar Subantarctic Islands, apart from the Falklands where it is replaced by the nominate antarcticus subspecies
Brown Skua: note, the heavy build, the strong white wing flashes on the upper and under wings, the capped appearance, the short & stout bill
Antarctic Fur Seal: Despite their name, they aren't as common in the Antarctic as in South Georgia, where ninety-five percent of the world population breeds
With the calmer seas, it was possible to get better views of the Humpback Whales around the coastline. On the final leg of our cruise to Paulet Island, we saw ten Humpback Whales.
Humpback Whale: The first individual that I saw. Unfortunately, like all the photos taken in the pre-breakfast light, I was on a high ISO and the photos are grainy
Humpback Whale: Soon a second Humpback Whale appeared
Humpback Whale: A closer view of the two Humpback Whales, showing the difference in their dorsal fin shapes. There is a lot of variability in the shape of the hump and the small dorsal fin on the hump, to the extent that scientists can use the combined shape to identify individuals
Two hours later, another couple of Humpback Whales put on a nice display in better light.
Humpback Whale: I wasn't sure which species of Whale this was on this first photo. It didn't have a long body and the dorsal fin wasn't right for a Fin Whale or Sei Whale, but it doesn't have an obvious hump either
Humpback Whale: The big kink in the body is starting to suggest a Humpback Whale, but the dorsal fin doesn't have the typical Humpback hump
Humpback Whale: When I saw this photo it was clear that I was watching a couple of Humpback Whales. The knobby upper jaw on the back individual and the raised tail with its white underside both confirm the identification
Humpback Whale: A final view of the undertail of the first individual. Note, the second individual hasn't got an obvious hump below the dorsal fin
Just to increase the competition for the most showy Humpback Whale of the morning, this one showed off its distinctive tail pattern about forty minutes later. The undertail patterns are distinctive and provide the best way to identify individuals, especially as it's the photograph that everybody wants to take.
Humpback Whale: Another fluking large Whale, but the knobbly body suggests it's a Humpback Whale
Humpback Whale: The classic T shape of the tail
Humpback Whale: A good view of the undertail
Humpback Whale: A final Humpback Whale with a classic dorsal fin profile on a Humpback Whale that appeared about twenty minutes later
After about three or four hours on deck, the restaurant finally opened for breakfast. That's the downside of the very early morning starts, albeit there is usually a stash of biscuits and coffee and tea to start the day off in the lounge.
Breakfast time: It was no coincidence that our table was nearest to the restaurant door. If there had of been a shout for a decent Whale or an Emperor Penguin, I wanted to be quickly out of the restaurant & heading to the top deck. Left to right, Berit, Bill, Ship's Doc Marieke, Steve Preddy, Me, Seigfried's wife, Seigfried & Caroline
Approaching Paulet Island: Breakfast over and it was time to get back on deck
Paulet Island is just under a mile across and on the first sighting, it is clearly a volcanic island. Fortunately, it is thought that it last erupted about one thousand years ago. Shackleton was originally aiming for Paulet Island when his crew left their ice floe when it broke up. Shackleton knew there would be food stores there from an 1903 Swedish Antarctic Expedition that were stranded on the island for nine months. Their ship, the Antarctic, was crushed and sunk by the ice twenty-five miles from Paulet Island. The crew build a stone hut and a stone cairn on the highest point of the island to draw the attention of rescuers. They were finally rescued in Nov 1903. Unfortunately, for Shackleton and his crew, the pack ice they were stuck on drifted too far East and the pack ice was too dense to make reaching Paulet Island a possibility.
Jake: There is an unwritten scientific law that there will always be at least one loud American on any organised foreign trip. Steve Preddy & I were lucky that we were sharing a cabin with Bill, who was easily the nicest of all the Americans on the Plancius. Fortunately, we didn't have Jake in our cabin. Jake had some odd ideas, including packing up his job New York job to become a full-time influencer. He clearly needed to work much harder at the influencing game, as nobody else was seen pretending to be Kate Winslet. He did provide a lot of laughs for Steve & I at his expense
Finally, we arrived at Paulet Island and the Expedition team prepared to get the Zodiacs in the water for our first Antarctic landing. I will cover the landing in the next Blog Post.
