When my alarm went off this morning at 5:30 a.m., I wondered why. Then I remembered. We were taking a zodiak to Humble Island to study Adelie Penguins. I first jumped into the shower. Unfortunately, we have a short water supply so it was only for about five minutes. I then went back to my closet, put on my outer layers of clothing, and then put on my "gumbee suit". I walked downstairs and had breakfast. My friends were waiting for me. We grabbed a walkie-talkie, emergency supplies, our equipment, and then left.
We left base and told the people in charge that we were headed toward Humble Island. When we got there the adult penguins were gone. All of the babies were huddled together. They were molting so they had patchy, fluffy hair all over them. There were also several very large seals laying around. We unloaded our gear and set it all up. I looked for a baby seal that had not yet been marked. I found one, caught it, and put a radio transmitter on it. Then I measured it. Judging by the width and length of it's beak I assumed it was a male. I gave it a pat, said "goodbye," and let it go. We marked ten or fifteen more penguins and then went to go study the seals. By the time we were finished it was 4:30. I couldn't believe it! I told everyone what time it was and we all decided to leave. We also agreed to come back to this spot tommorow.