2022 Antarctica: Antarctic Peninsula, Cierva Cove (12/16/2022)

Friday, December 16, 2022 (continued)

Approaching Cierva/Hidden Cove on the Danco Coast
of the Antarctic Peninsula (some passengers felt they had not
set foot on the "real" Antarctica because we had only landed
on islands; perhaps this landing was chosen for them)

One of the lines of ice fragments

Our Zodiac passed much bigger icebergs, like islands

Hey, we know some of those people! (by TLH)

A very large iceberg with a "turret"

We had to negotiate through a bay of brash ice, a
mixture of sea ice and chunks that have fallen from glaciers

A Pygoscelis antarcticus/Chinstrap penguin on the left
with Gentoo penguins on an ice floe

Pygoscelis papua/Gentoo penguin (by Kelvin Wong)

Three glaciers empty into Cierva Cove creating
a single glacial face

A view from our landing spot of most of the glacial face

A large striated rock, a "Wishing Stone"
that can grant many wishes? (KSS)

Legend has it that if you find a rock with a white or pink line all around it, you have found a Wishing Stone. The stripe is usually quartz or calcite. If you trace your finger around the line while closing your eyes and making a wish, then throw the stone into the sea as far as you can or give it to another person, your wish will come true.

A small hanging glacier? (KSS)

Cierva Cove is known for some Antarctic plant life:
Deschampsia antarctica/Antarctic Hair Grass and
perhaps a Lecanora sp/Lichen in the foreground,
unless it is a dying moss

Varied plant life on the cliff

Clumps of moss?

Green algae on tidal pool rocks

Yellow lichen

Smooth but uneven stones on this
beach made walking difficult

Shani proves he is actually standing on Antarctica
(by SteveAndEmma)

A Nacella concinna/Antarctic Limpet shell

Inside the limpet shell

Striated iceberg seen from the Zodiac
on the way back to the ship

A fine haze of ice particles creates a ring around the sun,
called a sun halo (KSS)

Sun halo (by Hauptli)

Icicles on an ice floe

Iceberg

A blue streak in glacial ice is created when water fills
a crevice and freezes before bubbles can form

Another blue streak of water frozen in a crevice (by Roger)

We were informed humpback whales were in the brash ice
with us; we saw blowspouts, but others saw the whales
(by SteveAndEmma) 

Roger caught a bit of a whale's back

I think this is a humpback whale flipper (by Simon Gillespie)

A particularly blue iceberg, which has developed
in an older deep glacier that experiences
tremendous pressure to eliminate air, and Kent

Kent is sitting second from the left and Tamiko is
fourth from the right (by SteveAnd Emma)

Gentoo penguins on an iceberg

Three species of penguins, Chinstrap, Gentoo and
Adélie, share an iceberg as a rest stop (by Charlie Wu)

Back on the Ocean Diamond, our dinner was an Argentinian parilla/ barbecue.

The barbecue was held on the Zodiac deck,
and despite a few heat lamps, it was cold outside!

The start of the barbecue buffet

Salads

Fruit sculpture of a sailing ship

Watermelon sculpture

A long line of chafing dishes with barbecued meats of all sorts

Fruit sculpture of a feathered bird

The dessert table

Bar Talk: The British Columbia Clean-up Project (by Sarah Hauser, Canadian Expedition Guide).

Next: Half Moon Island.