We were once again encouraged to get up early, this time to view the scenic motor through the Lemaire Channel, which is a narrow channel with lots of icebergs and snow-covered mountains along each side of the channel. It was unfortunately raining, but it was indeed quite scenic. So I went out and stood on deck to watch for a while in the rain. Eventually we got to Port Charcot, where we spent the morning.
Our first dive was another iceberg dive, this time on a grounded iceberg. We were diving with Clinton and Sergio, and Rob and Clinton were hoping to get pictures of each other. We descended properly (following down the ice down), and went down to around 60 feet where we hung out for much of the dive. Rob and Clinton both did well getting pictures of each other! There were some really neat overhangs that I spent some time posing under. We went down to 80 feet at some point and still could not see the bottom of the iceberg. We eventually headed up to 40 feet but after not terribly long there, Clinton and Sergio headed up and we followed them up shortly after that, for an approximately 25 minute dive. My hands were just too cold!
There was a leopard seal on the dive that several teams saw zooming by around 10 feet. But of course we missed it :(
We went to shore after the dive, and this time we climbed up the snow a bit to look at the penguins. Still no babies.
In the afternoon, we moved to the Yalour Islands. There were a lot of icebergs nearby, so we thought we’d dive one of them, but they weren’t stable enough, so we ended up diving along a spit of rock that ran across from a small channel from the island we were landing on. There was a seal perched on top of the ridge, so we were hoping for some seal action. The site was sort of boring, but we had a fun dive anyway. There was a slope consisting of small boulders that were mostly scrubbed clean but had some kelp, lots of limpets, and the occasional colorful sponge or starfish. We found a giant isopod and played with him for a while. One interesting thing that happened on the dive was right after we dropped down, Rob pointed behind me and there was a small round-looking iceberg drifting along. It was cool and terrifying at the same time.
We once again went to shore after the dive and this was our best landing yet. There were tons of Adélie penguins, in many different colonies, and several were sitting on their chicks! There was a little path in a loop that was marked that you could walk along and see all of the groups of penguins. The chicks were very cute, but the adult penguins were doing all kinds of funny things too, like sliding across the snow on their tummies, or just waddle running across the path. There were views on both sides of the island that were really good too. I almost didn’t go to shore after the dive because I was so cold, but I’m glad I was talked into going by Rob!
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