Day 9 snapshots

Throughout the night, the ship Orlova continues to move. Our first move is through the Antarctic Strait from the west side of the Antarctic Peninsula to the east. We wake to find ourselves anchored on the east side of Paulet Island. It has a large (200,000) population of Adelie penguins.

The first step is to line up and wait to board the Zodiacs to be shuttled to the island. With 120 guests and 4 Zodiacs, it takes about half an hour to get everyone to the island.

Once on Paulet Island, we walk around, observing penguin colonies. Nearing the end of summer, the chicks are losing their downy feathers. The parents are still feeding the chicks, but also making the chicks follow them around before feeding them. Eventually, the parents will lead the chicks out into the water, not to feed them again.

While we were having lunch on the ship, the captain moved us to a place on the Antarctic straight called Brown Cliff. this the first that we step on land connected to the Antarctic continent.

Here, we found a large colony of Gentoo penguins. Shortly after this picture was taken, the parent on the right ran off with the chick following. Together they ran, weaving in and out of other penguins and finally to the periphery of the colony where the chick was fed.

This area also has Adelie penguins. Here are some Adelie chicks on a rocks near the shore. The pattern in which the chicks lose their downy feathers is entertaining. The penguin in the center has lost down on both sides of its head giving it a comical Mohawk look. I guess that youngsters around the world copy this style.