Ocean Tramp – Do gentoos fly?

Blog 11th Dec. 2022
Another day of adventure. We spent the morning watching the sleepy scratching of obviously pregnant Weddell seals and the underwater acrobatics of Gentoo penguins, noon marveling at the fantastical shapes of an iceberg field lit with the pearly light of a Salvador Dali painting, and the evening gazing at the white expanse of Anvers Island after a trek up the side of Booth Island.
We awoke late-ish in our secure anchorage on the north side of Pleneau Island and headed off by zodiac to a sheet of ice where a dozen Weddell seals dozed, many of them obviously heavy with pups. We then landed on a beach on Pleneau Island, home of a lively Gentoo penguin colony. Some of our group hiked up the slope to see the view from on high, while a few of us stayed on the beach, enchanted by the antics of swimming penguins in the crystal-clear water.
We finished out the morning with a spin through a stretch of mirror-still sea populated by massive icicle-fringed icebergs and returned home to a spectacular fish pie.
The Ocean Tramp then made its way to a sunlit cup of land alongside of Booth Island, the site where the 1904 expedition led by French physician Jean-Baptiste Charcot wintered before he pushed back north. To pay tribute to Charcot and his venture, the doughty crew and passengers of the Ocean Tramp trekked up the steep side of Booth Island and the cairn, pillar and plaque that lie at its summit. Then home for another splendid dinner of turmeric carrots and ale-roasted beef.
We can’t wait for tomorrow’s visit to Petermann Island, located at 65 degrees 10 minutes latitude (sooo close to the elusive Antarctic Circle) and home to one of the world’s southernmost Gentoo colony.