Ocean Tramp – Penguin Highways and Byways

Blog 15th Dec
After our 55-mile sail the day before to a well-sheltered mooring on the west side of Trinity Island near Spurt Island, we breakfasted at a civil hour before motoring to Mikkelson Harbour on the south side of Trinity and anchoring again. We went ashore on the sole island there (D’Hainaut), where a colony of Gentoo penguins were nesting in such mucky conditions that many were nearly all black. They were the dirtiest birds I’ve seen so far!
The penguin highways from the shore to island hilltop nesting areas were so deeply carved into the deep wet snow that in certain stretches you could barely see the tops of their heads bobbing along. Moreover, the sunken walking routes were so narrow that there were bottlenecks of penguins where passing each other in opposite directions was difficult. We dubbed them the “bridge and tunnel crowd” – minus the bridges. On the north side of the small island a dozen or so Weddell Seals were laying about in the falling wet snow and balmy 1 degree weather.
Back on board, the Captain informed us that another 50 mile sail through choppy seas was in order immediately, should we hope to find safe harbor in or near the crater of Deception Island, ahead of the increasing winds expected over the next few days. At this writing after 9:30 pm we are still at least 20 miles south of Deception, probably about three hours of sailing, which should put us there in the narrow gap between sunset and sunrise.
Fred Meyerson