National Geographic: Antarctic Wildlife Adventure

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and they prefer to return to the

same nest sites each year

to hatch the young.

The nests are rings of small stones

set just out of pecking range

of incubating neighbors.

The females usually take the

first shift sitting on the eggs,

fasting for up to 8 days.

Then, the males take over and the

females can feed again.

Some of the small, shrimp-like krill

they find at sea is regurgitated

for the penguin chicks.

Sally does not spend much time with

the colonies here on

Deception Island, though.

This time her work lies further south.

Jerome is French; Sally is Australian.

They sail aboard the 50-foot

steel hulled Damien II.

It can look like a frail ship in

amid all the ice and rock,

but the ship can take the poncets

places that others cannot go,

which helps them make a living:

They charter the boat for scientists

doing coastal surveys.

Indeed, Jerome knows his way along

this coast, intimately.

He first came here almost 20 years ago

accompanied by his friend,

Gerard Janichon,

who has rejoined him for this voyage.

It's unusual to sail in the

Antarctic now,

but it was truly extraordinary then.

Theirs was the first yacht to sail

the peninsula coast.

The adventure made them heroes

in France.

Fees from a book allowed

each of them to build bigger

and better versions of first vessel.

But new boats don't eliminate the

four hour watches throughout

this two-month journey

or the sameness of stored food,

or the confining conditions

of life at sea.

These they simply get used to.

But anyone who's lived on a yacht or

on a boat can tell you,

you get used to shifts:

four hours on, four hours off.

Or whatever you happen to do.

And it's just something

you get used to.

You can't have exactly what you want

to eat or drink

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