Day 8: Port Charcot

This morning we were hoping for an early morning landing at Cape Tuxen before breakfast. This was our first attempt at a continental landing, but it was not to be. It was too stormy and the water too rough to land there. Alex came on the PA for our 6am wake-up call with the news that we couldn’t do that landing after all, so we could all go back to sleep.

Instead, we repositioned to a more protected area where we would be able to land safely. After breakfast, we did a split-landing—half time on land at Port Charcot, half time on a zodiac cruise. Allen, Jeff & I were in the land-first group.
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This is probably my favorite photo from the entire trip. (If I had to choose just one.)
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Taking photos from the ship as we wait for our zodiac group to be called
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Hey, seals.
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Getting some GoPro footage
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This was a private French yacht with a team on board who were filming underwater wildlife. Snorkeling in Antarctica is serious bzness.
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I did not know until this trip that penguins jump out of the water like this as they swim! We saw this many times, and every time it was just as fun to watch.
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It was snowing lightly this morning.
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Penguins like to enter the water in groups, in case there’s a predator waiting.
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Penguin highway…white means coming, black means going.

And then it was time to hop in a zodiac for a cruise through some spectacular ice.
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There’s a waterfall coming off this one…see it?
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More of the awesome jumping penguins
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And even more penguins.
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Double arch!!
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Look at all the seals swimming together.
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Then we came upon this seal chilling on a hunk of ice. We cruised right by him, very slowly.
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He was mildly curious about us.
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And then it was time to go back on the ship. Next up…humpback whales and the polar plunge!

6 Comments

  1. kat April 14, 2015

    Loved these pix! So many neat pics from this day! I really liked the one of all the seals on the broken ice.

    The iceberg picture that has a dark line going from top to bottom – do you know what is causing the dark line?

    Reply
    • Karen April 14, 2015

      It’s dirt. The icebergs shift and even flip over, so that part of it was probably underwater at some point. I am sure there’s a geologist out there who could give us a better explanation…it did not occur to me to write notes about this kind of thing in my trip journal as the guides were explaining it all.

      Reply
  2. Shawna April 14, 2015

    Gorgeous, as always!

    Did you ever see any critters getting eaten? (By other critters, I don’t mean at dinner.)

    Reply
    • Karen April 15, 2015

      No, I never saw any animals catch any others, although we saw a couple of chases (like orcas chasing seals).

      Reply
  3. Nancy and Joe Wargo June 9, 2015

    Hi Karen,
    You have done a fantastic job here!!! Absolutely jaw dropping!!! And we were there with you!! These pics are just gorgeous! Definitely like being there more than any other pics I’ve seen!! Thank you so much for sharing these with everyone. How lucky can we all be??? And your day to day descriptions and all the additional info is so much fun to read. You captured every aspect of that life changing adventure perfectly! You have helped me organize my pictures too so thanks bunches for that. It was certainly exciting to share this adventure with you, Jeff and Allen. Where are we going next??

    Reply
    • Karen June 22, 2015

      Thanks! And I love that you were there with us! We had such a great group of passengers on this trip. Loved meeting so many cool people, like you guys. 🙂

      Reply

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