Chronic Negress

Our first stop today was Mikkelson Island. I managed to find the snow with my butt four times  — twice with the assistance of the expedition crew — once I first tried walking around the island. There is a significant gentoo penguin colony there, a small hut with the Argentinean flag painted (there’s a lot of putting flags on things in Antarctica, kind of like dogs marking their territory) on the side, plus the remains of an outhouse some meters away. We saw several Weddell seals laying on the land, and one baby elephant seal. Even more of a surprise was seeing a pair of chinstrap penguins in this colony of gentoos. The penguins all get along, so it’s not a problem. However, our expedition leader, Brandon, pointed out that some of the gentoos were nesting too late to hatch viable chicks. Also, the skuas, a penguin predator bird, were hovering over the penguins hoping to snatch chicks and eat them if the penguins dropped their guard. The penguin chattered by way of warning, but the skuas usually do find their prey at some point.

Penguin and Argentinean hut

Away from the hut on the other side of the small island are whale bones, remains from a pre-1900 whaling operation. There are boats as well as the huge bones from when the whalers would haul their catch to shore and process them on the beach. The practice stopped when the whalers realized they were losing as much as 30 percent of the oil from leaving whale bits behind. Thus, factory whaling, with on-ship processing, was born.

Whale bones on Mikkelson Island

Some of our gang went kayaking. I was envious but realized I really do need to work on my kayaking skills so I can do that on some other trip. I love it, but not this time.

Anyway, the pizza and pasta bar calls for lunch. I skipped breakfast (slept very well after some extraordinary Glen Kiln single malt Speyside Scotch and a bit of wine) so I’m ready to eat. I missed the Cierva Cove Zodiac cruise sleeping of the aches from falling.

By the way, here’s our baby elephant seal, who is very cute.

Blondes do have more fun in this case