More Penguins at Paulet Island
Trip Start
Dec 26, 2006
1
14
17
Trip End
Jan 18, 2007
Paulet Island, Antarctica
Thursday, January 11, 2007
"During the night the Andrea sailed though the Antarctic Sound and into the various gulfs and bays that make up the Weddell Sea of the Antarctic Peninsula. In contrast to the previous day the seas were mirror-like with not a breath of wind. The targeted first landing of the day was to be at Devil Island in an indentation of Vega Island. However, upon arriving in the locality at 0500 hours, the pack ice was deemed too tightly packed to penetrate safely so the site was abandoned and the Andrea set sail for Snow Hill. But this too, was found impossible as well because of dense pack and many huge bergs. At 0800 hours, the ship's course was altered again with the destination being Paulet Island. At the time of this turnaround the ship had reached it most southern point which was 63 degrees 57.0' S 56 degrees 51.9' W
En route to Paulet, several Emperor penguins were seen at some distance from the ship, which gave a noticeable lift to the passenger's morale.
We reached Paulet after lunch and at 1400 hours the Zodiacs were shuttling to shore with excited passengers. This island is central to the story of Nordenskjold's Expedition of 1903-1904 and the stone hut that was used by its expedition members was visited. Also of note were the 210,000 pairs of Adelie penguins that inhabit the island.
Some Weddell seals wished to be counted as well and Colin duly did so while sharing this chose with some of the passengers. Although overcast for much of the day, the sun shone brightly on the scene as the last Zodiac retuned to the ship with the last passengers at 1730hours."
This evening we had a BBQ outdoors! We are burgers on the ship's deck with ice bergs floating by. This was a BBQ not to be forgotten! Even though our teeth chattered, it was a once in a lifetime experience.
