11 February 2022 – Friday – Petermann Island

This ship does expeditions. So our itinerary is often fluid based on weather and ice. Our planned first outing was scrapped due to ice so we went to visit a place called the iceberg graveyard. Apparently it is a long cove that often traps icebergs and they become grounded. The icebergs eventually melt there.

We took a long ride in a RIB to visit the gentoo penguins and many icebergs. A photo of one of our RIBs shows the enormous scale of these bergs.
In the afternoon we arrived at Peterman island where the French explorer Charcot spent several winters with his crew intentionally iced in on his boat “pourquoi pas” (why not). PP is etched in one of the rocks near his landing site. On land we saw Adélie penguins along with Gentoos. They are about the same size as Gentoos but their heads are completely black. There was a group of young Adélie penguins wandering about….seen in my video.

The penguins are molting now in preparation for their winter at sea. New feathers that are well oiled will help protect them. While they are molting they don’t feed or swim. They stand around and look miserable. You can see they look scruffy and dirty.
We returned to the ship for dinner. The food is delicious and portions are actually reasonable. After dinner, Nancy and I went up to the “ice lounge” with our dinner friends and sat at the stern of the boat, wrapped in wool blankets, sipping after dinner drinks and enjoying the fire pit. A great ending to another adventure day.