The day opened with a glorious orange and rose sunrise, stunning in its color and remarkable simply because we've seen neither sunrise nor sunset for the past two days. We spent our morning steaming north towards landings at Peterman and Booth Islands. These two islands where Jean Charcot visited nearly one hundred years ago are perfect sequels to yesterday's adventures below the Antarctic Circle, in the vicinity of Pourquoi Pas Island, which is named for Charcot's second ship.
Arriving at Peterman Island in the early afternoon, we deployed our ROV and four SCUBA divers in the very same cove that sheltered Charcot on his first winter stay. In water depths of roughly 30 meters we found a beautifully mosaiced bottom of glacial rubble, coated with green and pink calcareous algae and decorated with kelp, crinoids, starfish and algae. Onshore, we walked across the smooth glacially-polished bedrock of the island to Adelie and Gentoo penguin rookeries and shag nesting grounds. A few miles north, on Booth Island, we found fascinating artifacts of human encampments, including remains of a cast iron stove, fire bricks from Battersea, England, tent canvas, linoleum, burlap and bottle glass, and a stone hut built onto the north-facing shoreline. Whose camps were these? When were they built? Did the party survive? Is their story told somewhere, or might we be among the first people to find these remnants and wonder?
The Antarctic Peninsula presented us again today with a mesmerizing kaleidoscope of scenes and impressions: bright sun and intriguing shadow, vivid color and metallic sunglint, fresh insights and new questions. With midnight fast approaching, we cannot tear ourselves away from the windows and decks, and we cannot wait to put on our Big Boots again tomorrow!
