2025_26 Oosterdam, Cuverville Island and Dallmann Bay, Antarctica Day 3 Part 2...

Continuing on from this morning, our next stop was Cuverville Island…  Cuverville Island was also discovered as part of the Gerlache Belgian Antarctic Expedition.   It is named after a Cavelier de Cuverville, a vice admiral with the French Navy. We sailed among the drift of icebergs…seeing icebergs is something worthwhile each and every time. When one has never seen them, one may imagine them as little more than giant drifting ice cubes, you soon realize that each one has a unique form and size, many have a glacial ice blue color as a result of being compacted for tens or hundreds of years, instead of the usual white tones. Cuverville Island is a small, rocky island on the northern end of the narrow Errera Channel. It appears like a steep-sided dome with a long boulder-strewn beach. There’s really not much to say except that the site epitomizes what’s so amazing about Antarctica; the scenery, unmatched anywhere in the world, the huge scale of the area, and, of course, the penguins.  They’re all gentoos, and the island has one of the largest gentoo rookeries on the Peninsula. Leaving behind Cuverville Island, we headed north across the Gerlache Strait towards Dallmann Bay. On our way to Dallmann Bay, the Captain made an unexpected stop at Orne Harbor. Orne Harbor is a scenic cove on the Antarctic Peninsula, known for its stunning views, glaciers, and large chinstrap penguin colony. Crossing the Gerlache Strait we entered Dallmann Bay. Situated between Anvers and Brabant Island Dallmann Bay was discovered in 1874 by a German whaler, Captain Eduard Dallmann. Dallmann Bay is your quintessential Antarctic Bay with whales and there were a fair number of whale sitings in the Bay. It was a spectacular day weather wise to be in the Antarctic…