Part Six
Today we sailed through the Lemaire Channel, where the jagged cliffs were covered in fog. It did make it more ethereal and spooky, like Peter Jackson’s King Kong screen where they run into Kong Island.
Here’s a clearer view on the way back out once the fog was gone.
A thin layer of sea ice had formed in the channel; as our boat sailed forward, it pushed the thin ice lily pads together to create thicker ice off the wake. In the photo below, you can see the thin ice lily pads, and near the bottom of the image, it’s thicker as all the thin ice was smushed together.
Another example is sea ice forming over the ocean; saltwater freezing at 28F or -2C, so it’s frigid.
I wasn’t feeling that good this morning so I passed on the first trip off the boat, but it did give me time to watch the penguins swimming. All the penguin tv shows, movies, and photos are of penguins on land that you forget penguins spend most of their lives in open water. I also didn’t realize that penguins are fast underwater.
To evade predators, penguins randomly leap in the air and sprint in the opposite direction. If you want to get a photo, they jump 3 or 4 times and then sprint; they also jump as a group.
They also seem to like a pool party.
The penguin colony I could hear from the cruise ship. I’m guessing they do some snowboarding in the U-shaped dip.
That’s all for today! Stay tuned to this bat channel next week for Petermann Island.