Today we saw the other side of the Antarctic Peninsula, the rainy and windy side! Throughout the day both persisted, and grew in intensity. This is not a real surprise, seeing Antarctica is the windiest continent on the planet, but some were amazed at how much it was raining, seeing that it’s also the driest climate on Earth. The key here is that we are on the peninsula, which gets much more maritime influence, and is a lot moister than the rest of Antarctica.
The morning activity was at Petermann Island, just south of the Lemaire Channel. The groups were split between a Zodiac cruise and landing on the island to look at Adelie and gentoo penguins, as well as Antarctic shags. With the rain and the warmer temperatures, the remaining snow was very soft with pockets of standing water, a little challenging to say the least!
Later in the afternoon we arrived at Booth Island, and were greeted by some very strong winds coming over the island and blasting through the bay on the other side. There was a little adjustment to be made; no Zodiac cruises, but the Captain did an amazing job of getting National Geographic Explorer in close enough to shore that we could at least do a landing in the ever increasing winds! There were all three species of brush-tailed penguins on shore, as well as an historic site from the Charcot Expedition in the early 1900s. It was a real taste of the extreme side of Antarctica!
Finally, we were all back on board, and heading north again through the Lemaire Channel, looking forward to what tomorrow would bring!
