A bad day for Krill

S64°21"; W57°00" temperature 32F, snowing

During the night, the Cal Star traveled south between James Ross Island and Vega Island, through the pack ice to reach Snow Hill Island where Nordenskjold's science party erected a prefabricated hut for the six who wintered here in 1902-1903. The Swedish staff aboard ship are very proud of this construction which has been preserved as a memorial. There are no penguins or animals in evidence, but the shore is rich in fossil remains of such creatures as clams, chambered nautilus, whelks etc. (I'm using the modern names because I can't spell the scientific names.) Our naturalists explained that these are the ancestors of these modern forms and the fossils are some 65 million years old the animals they represent having become extinct at the same time as the dinosaurs. The presence of these tropical crustaceans confirms Antarctica's long ago equatorial position as part of Gondwanaland. This continental jigsaw puzzle comprised Africa, South America, India and Australia. According to Olle and Stefan's book: "Driven by currents of heat, Antarctica moved from north of the equator to its present position at the bottom of the earth."

This is as far south as we will go on this side of the Antarctic peninsula. During this day the ship will travel north, perhaps stopping once or twice, to position itself on the western side.

The trip took us through loose sea ice with large tabular bergs on either side of us. The ship plowed through ice 12-18 inches thick to the delight of passengers gathered on deck. We saw Crabeater Seals, Leopard Seals, Minke Whales and, of course, penguins. After lunch we entered Fridtjof sound, a narrow passage between Anderson Island and the Tabarin Peninsula, part of the mainland. In this area, amid spectacular ice, we encountered penguins by the thousands in a feeding frenzy porpoising alongside the ship together with Leopard Seals, and a large pod of Minkes. The weather is calm and sunny. All agree it is a perfect day.

The Cal Star anchors at 1600 off Brown Bluff at the northern tip on the Trinity Peninsula. S63°30"; W56°52". We took the rubber boats ashore and encountered the returning penguins who swarmed ashore by the tens of thousands to bring food to their chicks. It was a huge parade and we red coats were in the middle of it. An extraordinary sight. Pete explains that the penguins do that daily at this time of year, but still, it seems a happy accident of timing. No one has any idea how many penguins, but 100,000 would not be out of line. While we were ashore a large piece of ice calved from the shore glacier with a huge thunder clap.

At 2100 the ship stopped off Goudin Island, S63°11"; W57°17". The tide was in and the advance party in a scouting boat reported that the only landing spot was flooded right up to the penguin rookery. Some hardy souls opted for Zodiac rides up to the rocky shore. Rosemarie and I decided to view from a distance, with binoculars, while sipping a brandy. We spotted another ship. Red hull. It is reported to be a British icebreaker.

1030, 20 January 1999, temperature 38F. Course: 220deg.

S63°50"; W61°30". Approaching Gerlache Strait on the north western coast of the Trinity peninsula, the Danco coast. Tom Ritchie gave a morning talk on whales.

At about noon, two humpback whales were spotted in the Gerlache Strait and the ship stopped to follow them. we got good video. During lunch, a pod of orcas (killer whales) was spotted from the dining room close in on the starboard side. The Captain was at lunch and the bridge duty crew decided not to divert.

Mid afternoon another pair of humpbacks were sighted and the ship followed them for about 45 minutes. These would not display tail fluke for us, but did allow the ship to approach very closely (less than 100M).

By 1645 we stopped at Couverville Island S64°35"; W62°35". A group went ashore to visit the rookery, Rosemarie and I opted to cruise in a Zodiac along the spectacular coast. We encountered a Leopard seal on a small ice floe and were able to photograph it close up. The seal lay in a pool of its own excrement and occasionally yawned. Some passengers thought he was wounded and the red stain, blood. The red color to the excrement is caused by feeding on krill, the plentiful crustacean that fuels most larger animals here. Between the penguins, whales and seals, it has been a " very bad day" for the Krill, but a very good one for us.

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