There’s a Humpback Under our Zodiac!

Position 8:00am 2 March 2024: 64°6’20”S 61°1’10”W (MAP)

I woke at 5:45am to sunshine and no wind. A quick shower, and I was out on the back of Deck 6 to see what I might find. We were in Cierva Cove on the Antarctic Peninsula – and what a wonderful morning it turned out to be. But more on that in a moment.

I was so hoping I’d be able to tell you that we saw the giant A23A iceberg – but sadly, there was no joy there. Although we were assured that we’d be woken if it was visible, we passed it during the night and low cloud meant that spotlights could not be used to see it. Woody has an image from the radar, and once I have this, I’ll add it to this post.

Yesterday we arrived at Brown Bluff, on the Antarctic mainland – winds had driven ice up to and onto the shore, so landings were not possible. But we did have a Zodiac cruise amongst the ice, and it was good to be moving around once more.

The crew tried hard to find another option for us to land. We sailed by giant tabular icebergs, in and out of coves where it was hoped that the winds might be less severe – but we continued to be dogged by strong winds and poor visibility.

So this morning it was an absolute joy to wake up as we made our way into Cierva Cove. Initially I was the only person out on the back of the ship, enjoying the peace of no wind and a pink glow on the top of a mountain peak in the distance.

Then I saw penguins “porpoising” through the water, and black lines that looked like logs lying still on the surface. But there are no trees here, and as I started to wonder if they were whales sleeping, I saw blows coming from them – indeed they were whales “logging”, sleeping on the surface.

We were the first group for the Zodiacs this morning, and were ready to load at 8:30am. What a beautiful day – no waves, no wind, sunshine that came and went as the low cloud meandered by revealing and then hiding huge mountains with glaciers coming down to the sea. Occasional booms and cracks could be heard coming from deep inside the glaciers.

And then there was a humpback – lying quietly on the surface, its gentle blows visible from time to time. Perhaps it was sleeping.

We moved towards it and it started to move around a little, it’s back lifting and falling, the characteristic lumps and bumps visible on its skin. At one point it was coming towards us – it knew we were there, and we stayed on our course as it dove behind us, following our path. Our guide was standing at the back and said: “look in the water”.

I looked down to see this huge animal swimming below us, its white pectoral fins clearly visible. Wow! I still have shivers up and down my spine as I write this.

Then it moved ahead of us, coming to the surface as it swam off into the distance, blowing its characteristic V-shaped blow before diving once more and showing us its tail.

We saw another humpback a little while later, but it stayed further away – or perhaps it was the same one trying to avoid us. It had been a simply beautiful morning, but even seeing cute gentoo penguins swimming ahead of us, was not going to “best” this experience.

Of course you never know what the Antarctic might surprise you with! And as I finished the previous paragraph, the unmistakable sound of whale blows came from the window – yes, another two humpbacks near the ship.

Portal Point

One of the many wonderful thing about these trips is that things often don’t go as planned and good decisions are made for us.

The plan for the afternoon was for us to stand on the Antarctic continent at Portal Point following a Zodiac cruise. For most passengers this would be their first time.

Phyllis and I decided that we’d go on the Zodiac cruise first and at the changeover, she would make a decision about getting off the Zodiac at Portal Point, or heading back to the ship.

We were the last boat in our group, and there were only six of us rather than 10, plus Neil our guide. This immediately felt good – it gave us room to move around on the Zodiac and I was able to take the space at the front and have uninterrupted views.

Off we went, gliding quietly between glorious blue and white icebergs of many sizes and shapes. Neil was chatting with Gordo in our “paired” Zodiac (we always travel in pairs for safety) and they agreed that we’d sail towards a rocky area that had squawking Chinstrap penguins walking up to their nests.

While we sat watching these industrious little birds hopping up along their trails, Neil spotted two humpbacks not too far away. Off we went!

They were feeding – arching their backs, sliding down into the water – no tails showing as they focused on finding food. One rolled, its huge white pectoral fin coming out of the water.

They started moving towards us, the muscles of the massive blow hole from one whale filling the frame of my camera. They came close more quickly than we could manoeuvre away. Neil cut the motor.

As we’d seen this morning, the whales knew we were there and did not see us as a threat – they continued to feed, sinking down and floating up to the surface. As we came closer and closer, one animal’s pectoral fin was stretched out towards us just under the surface – I could have reached out and touched it.

I wondered what would happen if it touched the boat; would the whale react or ignore?

After many minutes, they both dove deep, swimming away from us, and leaving us to just sit there with the largest grins on our faces saying “wow, wow, wow”. There were no other words to describe this glorious encounter.

Neil turned the motor back on and we continued to watch them swimming amongst the beautiful icebergs, arching their backs before diving down, sometimes showing their tail flukes.

Now it was time to go to Portal Point to drop the other 4 guests – and for Phyllis to stand on the continent while we changed from one Zodiac to another, now with 8 other guests.

We motored back to the area where the same whales were still diving, rolling and feeding. Jonathan and Sandy, two guests we’ve come to know well, were in the bow and kept asking if they could get out of my way so that I could photograph the whales. I said: “Thank you. It’s ok – I can see from here.” He looked a little puzzled but continued to photograph the antics of the humpbacks.

Over dinner we explained what had happened earlier that afternoon, and our wonderful encounter with humpbacks.