Had a bit of a sleep in this morning as Brekkie wasn't until 8am. After this we all got dressed in our outside clothing as we were going to spend a few hours cruising around the Yalour Islands in the Penola Strait. I'm getting the dressing down to a fine art and I have a routine sorted out. The temperature outside was around 0 deg C and there was a slight breeze and light snow. The snow made taking photos a bit of challenge, trying to keep the camera dry as well as getting the focus in the correct position. We saw quite a few seals, penguins and interestingly shaped ice bergs with the snow coming down harder the longer the cruise went on. Then it was back to the ship to warm up and have some lunch while it sailed to Petermann Island for our next adventure.
Petermann Island is the site of a Adelie penguin colony and we went ashore to see the birds on their nests. There were some chicks hatched as well as some birds still sitting on eggs. The penguins were wandering ab out not really caring about us humans at all, although they were very wary of the Skewers as they were trying to steal the chicks for a quick meal. We did a bit of walking on the snow here and I think I just about have the hang of it, short steps, being ready for each step to sink down into the snow and going slow. You get very warm walking around even though it was still snowing fairly heavily, which was making it hard to take photos. We then got onto the zodiacs for a cruise around the island and I put my big camera away in the dry bag and used the little Olympus water proof camera because there was too much snow and wind to keep the camera dry.
Once again we saw penguins and seals along with some great coloured ice bergs. For a little bit the cloud and mist lifted and we saw some great mountains behind the island. Our zodiac driver was the same wild one we had the other day and he got us in close for photos by simply pushing the small ice floes out of the way with the zodiac. There was a very impressive inlet around the back of the island that was ringed with tall icey peaks. Very Spectacular. It is a little worrying when you lose sight of the mother ship and everything looks grey but the drivers always seemed to be able to find their way back.
Before dinner we were sitting in the Observation deck having a chat about the photos we had taken when the ship started going through the Lemaire Passage. We had a great close up view of the glaciers and mountains on either side of the ship. There were also seals and penguins not only on the ice floes but also swimming along beside the ship, we even had a Mincke Whale go past. There was lots of intersting ice bergs to see but it was still chilly outside taking photos as the wind was still blowing in quite a bit of loose snow. After dinner we had a another photo session in the warmth of the Observation Deck as the snow continued to come down outside. The ship anchored up near Damoy Point as that is where we w ould explore the next morning. Then it was off to bed as there was an early morning of exploring coming up.
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