Petermann Island

   
Entering the ice.                                          

February 14

Word for the day: circumcision

I'll explain the word for the day first this time, since I'm sure you are all curious. It's Valentine's Day. We went ashore at Circumcision Harbor on Petermann Island. 'Nuff said.

Right after breakfast,  we cruised the spectacularly beautiful Lemaire Channel. This waterway, located between the peninsular mainland and Booth Island, is surely one of the most photogenic spots in Antarctica. Unfortunately it was very overcast with low clouds so we didn't see much of it. It measures about one mile wide by about seven miles in length and the walls consist of high, steep, snow-covered mountains with many glaciers lining the way. There was a fair amount of ice here which forced one ship to turn back, but Endeavour plowed right on through.

The area south of Lemaire Channel was made famous by the great French explorer Jean-Baptiste Charcot He ran two separate French Antarctic expeditions in the early 20th century. The first was in 1903/1904 with the FRANCAIS (which over-wintered at Booth Island) and the second was in 1908/1909 aboard the POURQUOI-PAS? [The Why Not?] (which over-wintered at Petermann Island). We landed on Petermann Island around mid-mommg. This island has everything a good landing, interesting history, neat geology, and plenty of wildlife.

We went ashore in Circumcision Harbor, named by Charcot (I have no idea WHY he named it that), where our OCEANITES scientists have a research base. Lindblad has been a huge supporter of Oceanites, who run the Antarctic Site Inventory project which is a "cutting-edge project examining the key components of the peninsula ecosystem - penguins, flying birds, seals, lichens and mosses." Their work ensures that Antarctica "is conserved as intended international agreement and that potential environmental disturbances are either minimized or totally avoided." We visited their camp and saw how they live and work. They count a LOT of penquins to make sure visitors like us aren't harming the birds or their nesting grounds.

An abandoned Argentine refugio hut is near the landing, as well. There are plenty of Gentoo penguins here, but the Adelie penguin breeding colonies had mostly dissipated although we saw a few of these guys around. You can see from the photos that the weather was quite grey and overcast.

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