Humpbacks before breakfast
Feb 14 2015 Antarctic Circle: 66o33'S/067o17'W
Feb 14 2015 Crystal Sound: 66o43'S/067o13'W
Feb 15 2015 Yalour Islands: 65o14'S/064o11'W
66.46°S – we crossed the Antarctic Circle at 8:37am yesterday (Saturday). A little early for champagne, but never too early to cheer! It was a cold, grey, windy morning, and hopes faded for a zodiac cruise south of the Circle.
But there were many, many icebergs around us – large, small & even ginormous. It really was glorious.
I was on the Bridge early - just two of us and Fabrice, one of our guides. At around 6:30am, we saw splashing off our port bow – two Humpbacks playfully rolling around, slapping pectoral fins on the water. I managed a couple of fuzzy shots in the poor light – but at least we saw them.
Unfortunately the weather continued to deteriorate through the day and we were unable to do anything outside. This provided time to update photos and attend some very interesting briefings including one from Fabrice about Emperor penguins – it brought back fabulous memories of my last Antarctic trip down the Peninsula & continuing on to the Ross Iceshelf, the Ross Sea & our first meeting with Emperor penguins at Cape Washington. Whoever starts running icebreakers in the Antarctic again will have me as a passenger!
Following dinner we viewed a movie made by Herbert Ponting – a very old black & white with footage of Scott & his men setting up their camp ahead of their push to the South Pole. This was an early movie with film not just shot in the Antarctic, but fully developed (using chemicals in salt water & fresh water) so that Ponting could see what he had while he was here. Really very interesting.
This morning we woke to rolling seas, poor visibility and icebergs as we slowly made our way to the Yalour Islands. One of the many joys of being on the Bridge early in the morning - another sighting of two lots of 2 Humpback whales!
After an early breakfast we were in the zodiacs with cameras at the ready. Visibility had improved and we were about to visit Adelie penguins – my favourite, little black & white penguins with attitude!
With a 30-35 knot wind it was a little tricky getting onto the zodiacs, even at the back of the ship, and we already knew that getting back onto the ship would require care - "lumpy seas" is an understatement.
The backdrop to this zodiac ride was the mountains and glaciers of the Antarctic continent, and the large and small colourful icebergs that surround the low islands that are home to the Adelies. We saw, & smelled, lots of penguins around their rookeries! They really are so cute – I’m looking forward to being able to walk amongst them once more.
With the wind speed increasing (gusting to 45 knots), it was time to get back to the ship and go a short distance north to Petermann Island where we planned to land. But as the wind speed continued to increase this was also abandoned and the plan was to sail north, back through the Lemaire Channel to Paradise Bay.
As we made our way towards the narrow Channel, the wind was gusting up to 70 knots – the Lemaire was not an option.
A U-turn, and a breaching Humpback in front of the ship, and we are now back in the main strait, travelling north. With the wind coming from our port (left) side, we are on quite a lean to starboard at the moment. And with unexpected time available, I’m about to upload and view the photos from this morning – possibly many blurred penguins – it’s not easy taking pics from a bouncing zodiac. But it was fun!
The plan at Paradise Bay is for us to camp out tonight. It is always possible that the weather will change for the better – this is the Antarctic after-all and Paradise Bay is about 40 kms north – but it’s not looking likely. Stay tuned!