Antarctica East 2026

Jan 17: Cape Bird

Just as we were all going to bed last night, the captain announced that the US icebreaker Polar Star was in the area and that we should give them a wave as they pass by!! Of course, it wasn’t just a chance encounter…..Our captain had contacted them to help us get through the ice which had gathered around the ship all day.

The icebreaker is Polar Class 2 (PC2) ship and this class are  heavy duty icebreakers designed for severe polar conditions, capable of breaking multi-year ice up to 2.5 to 3 meters thick  ( Scenic Eclipse is Polar Class 6 for ice-strengthened ships, indicating a strong hull capable of navigating through first-year ice)

The icebreaker did a complete circle round our ship to break up all the ice….

The crew tell me that had the icebreaker not been so close, Scenic could have extracted itself from the ice but it would have taken much more time, used up fuel and required the itinerary to be adjusted!

Btw, the US icebreaker is considered a military vehicle and therefore not visible websites showing ship locations, but was visible to our ship through a local network.

We left the Dry valleys of McMurdo Sound and reached Cape Bird this afternoon to spend some time with of rookery of Adelie penguins.

The penguin chicks are the brown looking balls of fluff. They are about 1 month old. They cannot go into the water until they have completely moulted, as it is only when they have moulted that their coats become waterproof (isn’t nature an amazing thing) . I have circled where one of the chicks has started to moult.

One of their predators is the Skuas bird, who sit alongside them and wait opportunistically for a chick to wander away from the group. Here’s the Skuas bird getting stuck into a dead seal

Here’s one penguin shaking himself dry after a quick dip in the ocean

And these guys look like they lined up at the start of an Olympic swimming race!

Some “creative” pictures for you ( I borrowed them!)