With Pleneau Bay full of ice, we headed back towards the French Passage and to Petermann Island.
Just before we arrived, we saw a few humpbacks that were lunge feeding and slapping the water with their pectoral fins.
Everything looked good for for a landing and for camping, so all of us campers grabbed tents, mats, and sleeping bags to set up camp during our afternoon landing, where we would return after dinner. There were a whole bunch of Gentoo Penguins there (and even a couple moulting Adelie Penguins), and after the tents were set up, we had many tent inspectors ensuring we got it right.
Mike and I ensured we would be able to find our tent in the dark.
And we had more fun with the curious Gentoos.
We got back to the ship, quickly had our supper, got bundled up and headed back out to spend the night. The penguins were welcoming to us again in the low light.
We wandered around for a bit as the light went. You are not allowed to bring any food or drink ashore, but we broke the rules a little bit… it was Polar Ice which seemed quite fitting.
It was pretty eerie being alone in the middle of the Antarctic Peninsula, but just down to the shore you could see the M/S Expedition anchored just a short ways away.
As things got darker, the penguins started to quiet down a bit. I’m glad they did, as they were quite loud throughout the day. There was a great moonrise across the straight.
We hunkered down into our down sleeping bags and went to sleep. The odd penguin chase would go through the camp but it was a pretty decent night with a low of about -3°C. We were woken up about 6:30, and packed up everything to a very nice sunrise as we took the zodiacs back to the boat for breakfast.
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