Valentine’s Day in Antarctica.

 Still overcast.  A few snowflakes.  But again, a surprisingly tolerable trip over to a Gentoo penguin rookery.  That meant that now both of us have legitimately stepped foot on the continent.  Our seventh and final one to check off the list. 

These are the same penguins we see everywhere swimming and porpoising in the water. But here with fur seals. The youngest chicks are already pretty big.  The adolescent ones are going through their few week molting period to get their waterproof feathers …hopefully before their parents head back to the sea for the winter coz the adults are leaving when they leave with no regard to the maturity/readiness if their offspring. 

Unfortunately, someone took a bad enough fall at the landing site, hit his head and needs to be put on a medical transport somewhere else. 

Our afternoon visit to see chinstrap penguins (☹️) and the Antarctic plunge ( gosh darn it…where is that sarcasm emoji?) are canceled as we motor back to King George Island. Hopefully, he will be ok. And we will still get to somewhere todo something starting up again tomorrow morning.

Meanwhile, I will search for whales… where are you orcas? And keep my fingers crossed for still more to come.