Brown Bluff and Gourdin Islands
It goes without saying New Year’s Day began at midnight with most of the ships compliment celebrating the occasion up in the lecture lounge. Out on the ship’s stern deck, just aft of the lounge, a spectacular sunset, which lingered long past midnight, helped to make the start of this year a very memorable occasion.
Our first landing of the day at Brown Bluff on the south of the Antarctic Sound did not look as it would hold much promise, as it was shrouded in thick fog at the start of our excursion. As is so often the case in this part of the world, the weather changed rapidly and by the time we were ashore the fog had cleared and we were treated to a calm, blue sky morning. We discovered that the nesting Gentoo and Adelie penguins there had remarkably large, adorably cute fluffy chicks that were at the stage when they constantly demanded to be fed. As well as the delightful opportunity to observe penguins and chicks apparently enjoying the fine weather there were many other agreeable distractions. These included a short hike on a glacier and Zodiac rides amongst the numerous icebergs and ice floes piled up along the shore. Basking on some of the ice floes were numerous Weddell seals, which apparently had not a care in the world. Some killer whales swam amongst the Zodiacs at one stage, much to the excitement to those lucky enough to see them.
During lunch and afterwards an opportunity to have a short snooze, our ship cruised out of the western end of the Antarctic Sound to Gourdin Island, which is found on the northern end of the Trinity Peninsula. This rocky island provides an ideal nesting area for Chinstrap, Adelie and Gentoo penguins. We spent an idyllic afternoon here in the Zodiacs cruising round the island and out to some of the spectacular icebergs around about. Amongst the rocky coves and shoreline of the island, numerous other wildlife was discovered which included a surprisingly large number of snowy sheathbills, some blue-eyed shags and a large flock of Antarctic terns that appeared to be nesting on one of the outer islands. Again, on grounded ice flows around the island, we came upon numerous, well fed Weddell seals basking in the warm sunshine. Purely by chance, we came upon a small band of hardy Viking warriors, in a similar vessel to our own, who freely offered fortified hot chocolate drinks that seemed to be much appreciated amongst those intrepid sea farers on the Zodiacs!
