If I Were Going...: Port Charcot, Orcas and Yalour Islands

A baby Orca breaking the water's surface by its mother

The next day was a mixture of sights and the most diversity in weather we had seen.

Port Charcot

The morning’s excursion to Port Charcot was, perhaps, the most difficult. It was colder, but at 39°F, still pretty warm for Antarctica. It was windy, gusting up to 40 mph. And, the sky was an angry gray.

Rough seas, dark skies

Surprisingly, it wasn’t that difficult to get on and off the Zodiac, but riding was quite choppy. The G Expedition’s trip report said we had “challenging winds that only served to enhance the day's adventures.” OK. Lipstick on a pig.

Bobbing along in the chop

Port Charcot is on the opposite side of Booth Island from Lemaire Channel.

Some perspective on where we were

The harbor wasn't charted until the third French expedition to the region. The crew was forced to winter in Antarctica in 1904. Although the men were moored, they established a shore station at the port for research. The crew slept on the ship, while reserving the station for scientific observations and as a last-ditch shelter.

A cairn commemorates the crew; Photo: Ship Photographer Sheeren Mroueh

It was during this time that the port was named by Jean-Baptiste after his father, Jean-Martin Charcot.

Once again opting not to hike, we cruised the nearby “Iceberg Graveyard.”

Across open water, approaching the bergs

... where the giant ice castles looked turquoise against the dark blue ocean and gray sky.

A variety of shapes

It was fun zipping in between the massive ice columns, occasionally encountering rafts of Blue-eyed Shags ...

They were struggling with the chop, as well

... and passing a sleeping Seal (presumably a Weddell) with a massive wound by its flipper ...

Ouch!

A Shag rookery was set against a spectacular snowy mountain ...

Nice view

So, even with crappy weather, it was beautiful.

Not much flying, except Kelp Gulls

Port Charcot is supposed to be home to a small Gentoo colony plus a smaller number of Chinstrap and Adélie Penguins. We didn't see any from our vantage point on the Zodiac.

I think the wind and chop was keeping them out of the water.

It made us wonder, however, if worse weather was on the way.

Maybe we’d even see a dreaded Katabatic wind, an intensely cold wind that occurs when high-density air from a higher elevation is pulled down a slope by gravity. While not all are strong, they can top 180 mph.

It could have been much worse; Photo: Antarctica Cruises

If you look at it that way, our little excursion wasn't that bad, but it did put a bit of a damper on photography. The dark was hard to compensate for and the salt spray isn't great for cameras (even if they are wrapped in a plastic protector). But, the light did create some interesting opportunities.

The green is shallow water above the iceberg underwater

After our exhilarating Zodiac ride, the ship started motoring toward the next stop, passing some pretty spectacular icebergs.

A delicate arch; Photo: Scott Stevens

Most of the guests were preparing to go to lunch and we were waiting for ours to be delivered to the room (I think this was the day they forgot my main course; fortunately the salads were the best delivery dish).

Who needs food when you have this?

A Cetacean Confrontation

Right in front of the ship, a small drama played out (this one without bloodshed). Several Humpback Whales were sparring with a large pod of Orcas.

The smaller cetacean at the lower left is an Orca

Now, some Orcas prey on Humpback calves, so it was understandable that the adult Humpbacks were trying to rebuff their smaller cousins.

According to Matt, these particular Orcas (Type B Gerlache Orcas, one of five types in Antarctica) were not the type that hunt Humpbacks.

Not really a threat to Humpbacks; these Orcas eat Penguins and Seals

No matter. The big guys wanted them gone. There was lots of swimming and, also according to Matt, some tail-slapping action underwater.

Because Scott and I were supposed to keep our distance, we couldn’t go to the bow. So, I was trying to get a good look from above (between spectators) and I was failing.

Not much clue of activity here

I wish I had been recording with my phone rather than trying to get photos because the male Humpback, apparently satisfied that he had sent the Orcas packing (they didn’t appear to be going anywhere to me, but maybe he stopped their forward progress), swam away, trumpeting loudly every time he surfaced. I wish I had captured that.

I did get a nice dive

Anyway, I was feeling frustrated as everyone started heading to lunch. I went down to a side deck where I could get closer to the water and not be near people when, suddenly, the entire pod appeared right by the ship.

Wow!

There were at east 15 and, because the rule of thumb is that a pod is probably 50 percent larger than the number you can see at once on the surface, there were probably 20-30.

Nine here!

And, there were lots of babies and juveniles.

A baby with (presumably) its mom

Two little ones surfacing

It was interesting that the Expedition Crew always used the term "Killer Whale," rather than what I thought was the preferred name, Orca. Killer Whale is probably a mistranslation of a Spanish term for "Whale Killer." Ironic in that these particular Orcas were not Whale killers, but the Whales feared they were. Read more here.

Females (smaller, curved dorsal fins) and juveniles

It was a spectacular encounter! And, to top it off, the weather was improving.

Birds were out again! This is a Wilson's Storm Petrel

Yalour Islands

By the time we got our next stop, Yalour Islands (also known as the Jalour Islands), the winds had calmed. Unlike the morning’s rough seas at Port Charcot, the water here was as smooth as glass. We marveled at the giant icebergs floating around us.

The pictures do not even begin to show how grand these giant icebergs are

A group of islands discovered by the French Antarctic Expedition, the islands are named for an Argentine Navy officer whose unit came to the rescue of the shipwrecked Swedish Antarctic Expedition in November 1903.

This was not a stop where we had to choose whether to cruise or not, because the rocky islands are not conducive to Zodiac landings, so it was strictly cruising.

Between the rocks, ice and current, it wasn't safe to disembark

The main thing we were looking for was Adélie Penguins ...

Such a little cutie

... because Yalour Islands is the best place to find them in the northern part of the Antarctic Peninsula. It did not disappoint.

Adélie Penguin rookery

About 8,000 pairs of Adélies Penguins nest in the Yalour Islands.

The rookery is to the left on top of the low hill

They were all around, climbing up and down the rocks ...

... walking up steep snowy hillsides ...

... sleeping, conducting seances or whatever this is ...

... feeding their huge chicks ...

Yes, chicks! This was our best look at Penguin chicks

Because we were patrolling the shore, we really wanted some close-ups of Penguins diving into the water.

We saw one bunch that we thought was going make the leap ...

... but I think our Zodiac scared them away

Still we were so excited to see so many of these cute little Penguins.

We could sing or jump for joy

And, of course, there were some of the ever-present gentoos.

But, for once, the Gentoos didn't own the place

Sorry for so many Penguin pix!

Birds

Of course, Penguins aren't the only birds we saw. There were some Antarctic Terns and other birds that I believe were Arctic Terns in non-breeding plumage; they could, however, have been immature Antarctic Terns (eventually eBird will let me know).

Arctic and Antarctic Terns

We saw a couple of additional birds while cruising Yalour Island, including Kelp Gulls.

The only Gull found in Antarctica

And, of course, we saw more Blue-eyed Shags, which we saw almost everywhere we went.

Way up high

Nesting on top of a tall lichen-covered cliff, an attentive parent cared for its two chicks, which were quite a bit smaller than all the other huge chicks we had seen other places.

Taking care of the kiddos

More interesting, however, was a lone Shag on an outcrop ...

He was doing some kind of dance

Our guide had no idea! Shags? What can you do?

More Seals

As we motored around the spectacular bay, we had a couple of Seal encounters. We saw the prettiest Weddell we had seen so far and it certainly showed some personality.

A real beauty

But, even cooler, we saw a new Seal: a Crabeater. It was lounging, but not sleeping, on an ice floe.

A cold, but stunning boudoir

As we passed it clowned a bit for us before dozing off.

I wonder how it feels to be a tourist attraction

I already talked about True Seals, where I gave a good rundown of the Crabeater Seal.

The most common Seal in the world and I never heard of it before

Slimmer and lighter than the Weddell with what appeared to be much larger flippers, it was a beauty, marred only by bloody wounds around its neck. Perhaps a Leopard Seal attack. Maybe a fight with another Crabeater. Maybe the result of rough mating. Who knows?