Adele Penguins, Icebergs, The Granddaddy of Icebergs (A68A)

 

Morning wakeup serves as the 90-minute notice to prepare for a landing, this time on Paulet Island, an island with adelie penguins.

 

 

 

 

 

 

What makes this landing special is that we get to see mother’s nesting eggs and mother’s feeding and warming chicks. Those are chicks down there in each of the next three pictures.

 

 

The expedition leader and Captain change the afternoon schedule. We’ll venture to Iceberg A68A. It’s an iceberg that calved from the Larsen C ice shelf in July 2017.  It is twice as large as Luxembourg and twice the of the state of Delaware.  It is 85 miles long and 26 miles wide.  The ice is 200 meters thick, 40 meters is above water.  It weighs 1 Trillion tons.

 

We run parallel to A68A for its length.  Fortunately we’re leaving it to port which means we watch it slide by from our stateroom; after the freezing period outdoors.

Orion runs south in search of emperor penguins until pack ice runs her off at around 61°16’S.  She turns north and will transit the Antarctic Strait overnight.