Hydruga Rocks & Graham Passage

Jan 28, 2023
Our first full day of the cruise did not disappoint. We woke up for a full buffet breakfast at 7:30. They had absolutely everything you could want for breakfast, and my husband and I decided that we might just gain some pounds on this trip if we are not careful!

We then wait for the decks to be called to head down to the mud room for our first landing at Hydruga Rocks in Enterprise Harbour. This is not a peninsula landing, rather is a great location for a chinstrap penguin colony and cormorant nesting grounds. We shuffle down when our deck is called at around 9:45. It has taken them about 45 mins to get others off the ship as they shuttle zodiacs of people to and from the island. The mud room is a nice staging area to get boots and other outerwear on/off.
 
We load up in the zodiac by stepping out a side door and using a sailor’s grip to sit in the zodiac. Then we jet off to the island, which takes about 10 minutes to reach. We do a wet landing on the island and immediately are surrounded by the sounds of the penguins and the sights of sea lions lounging in the sun ready to greet us. We also spot two Weddell seals (that look like snow slugs) lying in the sun soaking up some of the sun’s rays. The temperature is nice, about 30 degrees F I’d guess, and we feel well dressed in our parkas provided by Aurora, as well as an underlayer and mid-layer. We were prepared as if we were hitting the ski slopes for a day in Montana and the gear is appropriate and kept us warm the entire time. We walk around the island for two hours, which spans maybe a few football field lengths, and is mostly covered in slippery, uneven ground and rocks that are covered in guano, as well as some lingering snow at the top. Anybody concerned about balance or mobility would have a difficult time getting around. We see many baby chicks, some of which already look close to being adults. And many cormorants flying around overhead. The seals and sea lions give us little notice, and one almost appears to be posing for us in his sleep with a smile. The views are amazing, and I think we are all in awe of the amount of wildlife just steps away. Due to avian flu concerns, we must be careful to not come closer than 5 m to penguins, but it is difficult at times to avoid them as we have little walking area on the rocky path, and they seem to walk right up to us and cut us off.  Many times, we must backtrack to keep our distance intact. The scenery down here is simply breathtaking, and you get this sense of being so, so, small in the world as you span the landscape. Even the vessel in the background looks so small compared to the massively tall glacier and ice pack on the island next to her.
 
This afternoon we stop in Graham Passage for a zodiac around the harbor. We set out on the boats through lovely calm water to see what we can spot. I join the Citizen Science boat, where they take us out and discuss many of the different ways, we can participate in data collection in this area. Nasa uses a Cloud tracker to discover what kinds of clouds are visible from the surface in certain areas and compare that to satellite imagery of the same location. We discuss types of clouds and as a group decide what we see overhead and upload images and descriptions to the app. Our expedition leader is hilarious in telling us then, we can now claim “I have done research for NASA in Antarctica”. Next, we measure the visibility of the water using sucky discs. This is a project where likewise you can upload the readings to an app that helps track changing conditions in the water. We also discuss the algae on the ice edges and can track and mark the extent that we see in our area to report the changing algae conditions. This makes the ice looks reddish-pink and is critical for the ecosystem, as the plankton eat this, the krill eat the plankton, and pretty much the rest of the ecosystem relies on the krill in the food chain. We continue to zodiac around, taking pictures of the beautiful hues of blue in the icebergs before returning to the ship two hours later.