8 Dec 25 - Antarctica 25 - Half Mooning In The South Shetland islands

I awoke to find we were still crossing the Bransfield Strait, between the Antarctic Peninsula and the South Shetland Islands. The crossing was good for Whales with four Humpback Whales, brief views of a Fin or Sei Whale and three other Whale blows. After breakfast, Livingston Island and Greenwich Island came into view. Our first destination was Half Moon Island, which is a small rocky island located within a sheltered large bay on Livingston Island's East coast. The plan for to visit the modest Chinstrap Penguin colony on Half Moon Island.

Approaching the South Shetland Islands: Livingston Island is to the left and Greenwich Island has the higher hills on the right. These islands lie towards the Western end of this three hundred mile long chain of islands

Greenwich Island: A five mile channel separates Greenwich Island from Livingston Island

Half Moon Island: Half Moon is a crescent-shaped island that is just over a mile from top to bottom, but it is a two mile walk from the ends of each crescent. We landed at the primary landing site in the South East corner of the crescent

The Argentinian Camara Base

The ship soon had the zodiacs in the water

The zodiac after mine landing another ten passengers on Half Moon Island

The South Shetland Islands lie about one hundred miles North of the Antarctic Peninsula: They are still considered as part of Antarctica

Walking up from the primary landing site

An abandoned ship's boat: I've not managed to find confirmation of the age of this boat, but it is generally described as an abandoned whaling-era boat

Practicing the lifeboat launch: It is always reassuring to see the crew practicing a lifeboat launch

It was an easy half mile walk to the tip of the island from the landing site. We were greeting on the beach by the first Chinstrap Penguins and we followed their route to the colony, whilst ensuring we weren't on their main trackway.

Chinstrap Penguin: They had laid on a small scale welcome party

Gentoo Penguin: This individual was late to join the welcome party

Chinstrap Penguin: This individual was heading towards the colony

Chinstrap Penguin

Chinstrap Penguin: They are an elegant Penguin to look at

Chinstrap Penguin: Sometimes they look a bit scruffy when they have been hanging around the colony

Chinstrap Penguin

Chinstrap Penguin

Chinstrap Penguin

Chinstrap Penguin

Gentoo Penguin: There were a few Gentoo Penguins with the Chinstrap Penguins

Chinstrap Penguin: Sometimes it was easier to toboggan on the snow, than to make small hops

Gentoo Penguin

There were low numbers of a few other species around the Chinstrap Penguins.

Snowy Sheathbill: This monotypic species breeds on the Antarctic Peninsula, the South Shetlands, South Orkneys & South Georgia. They winter as far North as coastal South-central Chile & East-central Argentina

Snowy Sheathbill: And then there were two

South Polar Skua: There were a few South Polar Skuas around Half Moon Island, but I didn't manage to get any good photos of them. This monotypic subspecies breeds on the South Shetland & South Orkney Islands and coastal Antarctica

Kelp Gull: With only a few hours of darkness each day, sometimes you just need to get some sleep during the daytime

Kelp Gull: This is the austrinus subspecies which breeds on Antarctica & the surrounding Antarctic islands

There was also a Weddell Seal and a Southern Elephant Seal on the island.

Weddell Seal

Southern Elephant Seal

It was time to return to the ship

Over lunch, Ortelius repositioned for a second landing at the nearby Yankee Harbour on Greenwich Island. This has a modest Gentoo Penguin colony. I decided to give it a miss as I was still recovering from the ship's cough and the tiredness associated with it. I wanted to be on the bridge as we sailed North out of the South Shetland Islands and like the earlier Kelp Gull, sometimes a power nap during the day helps.

There is long, curved spit which protects Yankee Harbour

Our route, day by day, for the trip

Pippa providing a weather update on our route back to Ushuaia: The pink colours on Windy.com is over two metres of swell, whereas the blue is up to two metres. It looked like we might have a reasonable return crossing of the Drake Passage

The sea conditions were looking good once we were at sea North of the South Shetland Islands: Unfortunately, all I saw was a single Whale blow that evening

7 Dec 25 - Antarctica 25 - Orca Behaving Badly

The early morning wake up call from Pippa confirmed the news I was expecting. The ship had abandoned the plan of heading into Southern Weddell Sea to try to get close enough to the Snow Hill Island Emperor Penguin colony. I wasn't surprised, given it hadn't been a realistic option in my eyes, since I saw the amount of ice in the Antarctic Sound and Northern Weddell Sea. Pippa's Plan B was to lay on a second scenic flight around the Antarctic Sound. I was in the first group to fly, but I decided to give it a miss.

Rosamel Island: We hadn't moved far from the previous evening

Plans for a long relaxed breakfast were curtailed when an announcement from the bridge said, that flights were on hold as the previous evening's Orca pod had reappeared. Fortunately, I had eaten, so I headed straight back to the cabin for the camera and cold weather gear, before heading up to the top deck.

Orca Type B (Large): Four of the pod with the second individual having a distinctive-curved dorsal fin

Orca Type B (Large): One of the males

Orca Type B (Large): These Orca have strong pale saddles

Orca Type B (Large): After a while the pod came much closer to our stationery ship

Orca Type B (Large): The saddle on the last individual

Orca Type B (Large): A different individual with a couple of nicks in the back of the dorsal fin

Orca Type B (Large): This looks to be the same double-notched individual

The Orca pod were hunting, but it wasn't easy to see what they were chasing. This was made a lot harder given I was mainly focusing on photography, rather than looking with the bins. But it later became clear they were chasing Gentoo Penguins. Having seen video on the BBC of this Ecotype hunting Penguins, the Penguins agility makes them very hard to catch. I did wonder afterwards if the Orca were pushing the Gentoo Penguins towards the ship and using the hull as a barrier to limit the area the Gentoo Penguins could use.

Orca Type B (Large): Two more Orca

Orca Type B (Large): A close crop of the near individual shows it has killed a Gentoo Penguin

Orca Type B (Large): A clearer photo of the back individual's head patch

Orca Type B (Large): The last two individuals were joined by this calf

Orca Type B (Large): A second youngster joined the group

Orca Type B (Large): A better photo of the second youngster

At the end of the day briefing, the Expedition staff suggested that the adults Orca were using the dead Gentoo Penguins to teach them to catch the Penguins.

Orca Type B (Large): Another photo of the individual with the distinctively-curved dorsal fin or is one of the pod swimming on its side and I've photographed a flipper

Orca Type B (Large): This individual was right next to the ship and too close to photograph

Orca Type B (Large): This individual has a set of scars on its back which should be possible to identify it to a known individual on Happy Whale

Orca Type B (Large): This individual has a single notch in the back of its dorsal fin

Orca Type B (Large): The saddle of the last individual

Orca Type B (Large): The tail fin of the last individual

Orca Type B (Large): Soon after this photo, the Orca pod moved off. Presumably, all the Gentoo Penguins had disappeared or were dead

Gentoo Penguin: When the Orca moved on, all that was left was this sad remains of a Gentoo Penguin

The Orca pod attracted in a few Seabirds looking for an easy meal.

Cape Petrel

Cape Petrel

Cape Petrel

Snow Petrel

Snow Petrel

Wilson's Storm-petrel

Wilson's Storm-petrel

Wilson's Storm-petrel

Finally, the Orca pod moved on, which allowed the helicopter team to start flying operations.

Helicopter operations resumed after the Orca had moved on

More impressive scenery in the Antarctic Sound

Once the flights had completed, we started to work our way West through the Antarctic Sound, as we started our journey to the South Shetland Islands.

It was going to be a slow journey travelling along the Antarctic Sound with these ice levels

There were areas of more open water

By this stage in the trip, I had picked up the ship's bug, that many of the passengers had gone down with. The many very early starts and very long days probably hadn't helped me avoid it. It was more than a bad regular cough and was leaving many of the passengers, including myself very tired. My plan was to have a lazy day, catch up with lost sleep and try to get rid of the bug before we headed North. This plan worked and I got over the worst of tiredness and cough. However, some of the other passengers were clearly struggling to clear it out of their systems. I wanted to be able to spend as much of the time as I could looking for Cetaceans as we crossed North through the Beagle Channel.

A rare occasion when we all wanted to use the cabin at the same time: The four berth cabins can be a bit tight if everybody wants to move around at the same time. However, as I generally only use the cabin for sleeping and for the bathroom facilities, it wasn't a particular problem and certainly not worth the significant extra costs of a two berth cabin

We spent the rest of the day heading along the Antarctic Sound and towards the South Shetland Islands.