Cuverville Island

Our ship anchored in the Gerlache Strait

Today we sailed through the Gerlache Strait on our way to Cuverville Island. The morning was spent sailing and taking in the scenery.  I would say breath-taking, but I'm not sure that does it justice.  Every single landscape we've seen has been amazing.  We arrived at Cuverville Island a little before 1:00pm and did zodiac landings during the afternoon. We have learned that zodiac "tours" are seeing sites up close in a Zodiac that holds 10 people, and zodiac "landings" are in smaller ones that hold 8 people and can go onshore more easily.  

The island is home to a breeding colony of gentoo penguins.  It is still covered in snow, but there were a couple of rock outcroppings high above the sea that the penguins use for their nesting sites.  Penguins create a series of trails through the snow dubbed "penguin highways" that are traveled continuously in order to have clear areas for moving to and from the water as they feed.  

We took zodiacs through and around a series of icebergs to reach the shore.  From my perspective, this has been some of the coolest scenery so far.  Once on land we had to create our own trail through the snow in order to reach the bluff to see the rookery; however, once we reached the top, the views back over the water of the icebergs and surrounding mountains were amazing.  I basically spent the whole time on top admiring the views, while Mona went back down before me to see other penguin rookeries along the shoreline.  I could have spent the entire day just hanging out and soaking in the views, but our landing was only 90 minutes.

For the zodiac trip back to the ship, I was able to be in the very front which gave me unobstructed views of the icebergs.  There's not much else to say, but to let the photos speak for themselves.