Today we are at Half Moon Island, which is a Chinstrap Penguin and Fur Seal habitat. Chinstrap penguins have a small black line under their chins, hence the “chinstrap” name. Yesterday, we mostly only saw Gentoo Penguins on Elephant Island, as well as the fur seals and elephant seals.
We set an alarm for 6:20 AM so we could get ready and then get dressed into our Expedition Gear for the ride over to the landing area on Half Moon Island. This island is part of the same major island chain, Livingston Island, that also was the location of yesterday’s stop. Overnight, we basically transited from one side of the island to the other.
Early Morning Pictures From Our Window
We were still barely moving when I first woke up at 5:00 AM, and it was quite bright outside already. We are making our way eastward, so even though we are not officially changing time zones, we are a lot more east than we were in Ushuaia. Maybe that was why our cabin steward had closed our sheer curtains, and lowered our motorized blackout blind last evening.
I went back to sleep and got up just a few minutes before the alarm. I tooka shower and dressed so I could go and get some breakfast from the World Cafe. Stephanie was just going to have a banana we had leftover from yesterday once she woke up.
After breakfast, I came back to the room and Stephanie was up and getting dressed. Our first excursion today is a landing on Half Moon Island at 8:15 AM. It takes a bit of time to get everything organized and then to put it all on. We typically are wearing two pair of wool socks, one or two layers of merino wool pants, merino wool tops and then a shirt on top of the wool tops. Then we have to put on our waterproof pants, and then the special tall waterproof rubberized boots.
On top, we have to put on our expedition jackets which have a inner jacket and an outer waterproof shell jacket. The inner jacket is entirely separate form the outer jacket, the only attachment is a snap loop near the collar.
Then comes the fun part, putting on the self inflating life jacket, which is a little bulky. Of course we have neck gaiters, wool hats and glove liners and finally gloves.
It is a lot to put on and then wait around in for an excursion. We are actually doing three excursions today, one landing, one Kayak tour and one Special Ops boat at the end of the day, it is the last time slot. We headed down to Deck A at 8:00 AM, our scheduled meeting time. We did not have to wait long before we got onto the Zodiac boat for the ride to the beach.
The landing today was quite easy, it was a short run to the island, and it was not a difficult beach, mostly small rounded pebbles, so it was easy to walk on. We were given a short briefing on where we could walk and go, all delineated by orange stakes.
Seal On The Beach
There were chin strap penguins and fur seals near the beach where we unloaded. The seals were sleeping and the guide hoped they would not wake up, they can be a little aggressive if they feel threatened. We headed up a gentle incline to an area overlooking a lot of chinstrap penguins in several large groups.
Some were on a hill to the right, and more were on another hill far in the background. There was one group right near us where a lot of the penguins were molting, changing out their feathers for new ones. There were piles of feathers everywhere. They looked funny with their feathers all out of sorts.
Chinstrap Penguins
The guides did point out a few chicks, they were almost as large as the adults, but they had some brown feathers remaining that differentiated them from the adults. We got a good picture of one chick that the guide pointed out. Then we walked to an area that had a great view of the backside of the island, which was a multi level pebble covered beach. On the beach were quite a few fur seals, of course just laying about and resting like most of the others we have seen.
There was another larger overlook of the same beach a short distance away, so we headed over there. We took a lot of photo’s of the icy shoreline of Livingston Island across the couple of mile wide channel of water between the two islands. While this island did not have a lot of snow and ice, Livingston Island did. We got another couple to take our pictures with our Clemson, South Carolina and Antarctica flags with tall of the icy mountains in the background.
Chinstrap Penguins
At about 9:45 AM, we headed down to the beach to clean the mud off of our boot soles. They had some brushes in the water to help get the mud out of the rough cleats. It was too much mud to clean out just rotating our shoes on the pebble beach at the waterline. We then loaded up into the next returning Zodiac and headed back to the ship. It was just a few minutes ride and then we unloaded, went thorough the boot sanitizing machine and then used our key cards to check back in.
We just headed back to the room to rest a bit before we go do our Kayak excursion at 10:30 AM.
Our Dry Suits – Not Easy To Get Into!
At 10:30 AM, we headed down to the Kayak prep area and were checked in. They gave us dry suits to put on and rubber booties. My dry suit was quite tight, I barely got it up over my shoulders, and then zipped up. I put on a couple of sizes of rubber booties before one pair was large enough to fit. After all of that, I felt like the rubber seals on the wrists were just too tight. They gave me a larger suit, but first I had to get this one off, which was not easy.
I put on the next suit, and it fit much better, the wrists were no longer so tight it was a problem. Then back on the the rubber booties, and we were all ready to go. We were still waiting on a couple of people that had come a little late to put on their gear.
Then we went through check-out security and headed to our Zodiac for the ride to the Kayak area. Once there, we got some safety briefings and then it was time to get into the Kayaks. We went second, and it seemed a little easier than the mock up test had been, Once everyone was in their Kayaks, we started out.
In Our Kayak
There was not a lot to see here, it was mostly a rocky shoreline, and there were a few penguins and seals on the same shore we had seen from the island landing earlier in the morning. There were some small chunks of ice floating in the water, and it was fun to get up close to them, they make a constant popping sound as the water splashes on them.
Stephanie & Chuck In Our Kayak
Our Kayak group was quite large, there were two guides and a total of 16 people. Some people were really slow, and we just did not go that far in distance, we were constantly slowing down to let others catch up.
After about 45 minutes, we loaded back up into the Zodiac boats and headed back to the ship.
Some Of Our Kayak Group
It was an OK experience, but for the amount of time it took us to put on our gear and get ready to go, then the ride out and back, it was just too short. Maybe in other locations, this would have been better, but that is hard to tell up front because we don’t know what there is to see at each location, and especially if the schedule changes on the location we go to on a particular day. I guess we will have to be content with having done some kayaking in Antarctica.
After we all got off our dry suits and other gear, we headed back to the cabin to freshen up. then we headed up to the World Cafe for some lunch. I tried the breaded chicken sandwich from the grill and it was good. Stephanie tried the same, but did not each much, she still has not been able to eat a lot yet and feel comfortable afterwards.
We went back to the room to wait on our next excursion at 4:15 PM, a Special Ops Boat ride. We had a long wait time between excursions, and it is not like we can go have some wine since we have to worry about the lack of bathrooms on these excursions.
We did work on some pictures and on the blog from yesterday while we waited, impatiently of course.
Beautiful Blue Iceberg
At 3:45 PM we started donning all of our gear for the boat ride. It was a little cool, so we bundled up for a cold boat ride and headed to the waiting area. We were checked in and this time we also remembered to bring out audio listening devices. For some reason, the boat was late and we were getting quite warm waiting inside with all of the gear on. Finally, our boat and guide arrived and we headed down to the loading area and got onboard.
We were more to the back of the boat today, so we could net see much out the front. We started around the island and this was the same place we had seen from the kayaks. Then we sped across the channel to a large rock formation off of Livingston Island, which was caused by a volcano. We also stopped by a fairly large floating piece of ice, and it was really blue, even with the overcast skies. It was really making the constant popping sounds.
Glacier Ice On Livingston Island
Then we raced back across the channel and continued our trip around the island. Someone asked if we could go closer to the ice walls on Livingston Island, so we raced over there and got a few hundred feet from the ice cliffs. While the boat was going fast, it was quite cold. We had a guide on board, and she was telling us all about the ice, the shorelines and some of the island’s history. We headed back over to Half Moon Island and continued around it and then headed back to the ship. It had been a much better experience today than yesterday on the Special Ops Boat.
The Octantis At Half Moon Bay
We got off of the boat and headed back to the cabin to drop off our gear and to take showers to warm up.
After getting dressed, we headed to the Explorer’s Lounge for a glass of wine and to relax and enjoy the scenery outside. We left the island area at about 6:00 PM, we are heading south tonight to stop at Enterprise Island tomorrow.
Dinner
After some wine, we headed to dinner at the World Cafe. I had a filet mignon with split lobster tails. Stephanie nibbled on a few bites, but was not really hungry.
After dinner, we went to have some drinks at the Explorer’s Lounge, and met up with some of the people we have talked to during this trip.
At about 10:00 PM, we called it a night and headed back to the room. We don’t have an excursion until 11:00 AM tomorrow, so we can sleep in a little more. We did get put on the list for a sub ride, and that is what we will do first thing tomorrow. We are really excited to have been chosen for the sub ride.