The schedule is totally off during this expedition part of our cruising, we have an Ice Pilot on board as well as the mentioned expedition team and then third is our Captain. There was the base or plan “A”, dates and routes and then there is the weather complication which can move things to plan “B” or even “C”. Yesterday we hit all the high notes as evidenced in our pictures, there was a slight deviation to the plan as the weather was so good the captain wanted to linger in some bays, one of which the expedition team member announced that this was the furtherest a captain has ever ventured into that particular bay. Now this is where your captain and his experience comes in both with having been down here several times and with really knowing the full capabilities of his ship. The captain really wanted us to see it all or as much as he could yesterday. Today, we had weather (low fog and snow this morning), so slight change of plans. We first picked up representatives from the Palmer Station here in Antartica , they gave two talks this morning, very interesting to hear about the work they perform down here both in the summer and the winter months. So for us the fog and snow were fine, we did have to change a routing from one of the channels due to too much ice, looks like winter is coming early this year here. We were told that the winter can start as early as mid February until mid October. So we just had a relaxing time most of day with a few great talks (lectures), the penguin plunge for those who wanted to swim in the Antarctic (well kind of) and getting caught up on some domestic stuff, until about 4pm when we got into Wilhelmina Bay where the weather broke and gave us some more amazing sights both from a land and wildlife points of view. Again these pictures from today will only show a small window of what we see down here. I say this because it is just so Big down here, there is no real measure of perspective here, I can take a picture and look at it and on its own its a great representation of what is in the picture, in fact if no other picture is taken it would be great representation but look everywhere and everywhere is so unique and a picture on its own, majestic and incredible, again we are left breathless at this beauty and feel absolutely blessed being here is this magical land. Again words and pictures only can show a fraction of what we see.
So I found this new spot (well new to me) on the front of deck 8, most of yesterday afternoon I had the whole deck to myself with the occasional transient guest. Today at 4 pm again alone on this deck until the announcement from the bridge as to where we were going and what we will be seeing, about 40 other guests are now in an area I just had all to myself. This is fine, I don’t mind sharing but by about 6:30, I along with one other guest had this deck to ourselves once again, I just could not leave until we were out of the bay at 7 pm (and yes it was getting really cold at this point), just too many great views. So it was time for a hot shower and get ready for dinner. As mentioned we are on expedition time, so eat when you can, sleep when you can etc., in fact the team leader had already announced at about 7pm, that this was a good time to grab your dinner as we going to be entering another bay, Hughes Bay where there is a good chance to see whales at about 8:30 - well we have a fixed table so what to do. Well the whales all showed up at about 9pm during our desert so no problem, grab the camera and run outside and get clicking. We had come upon two sets of Humpback whales bubble net fishing all within about 10 minutes each other and both times the Captain slowed and a times stopped the engines so we could all just watch this amazing display right bedside the ship, like at times maybe 30 yards (100 feet) from the ship, you could see all 5 whales surfacing and breathing (hearing the breathe) and then watch as they dove down to begin creating the circular bubbles to trap the krill and push them to the surface where the whales are surface for a good feed - an amazing feat of teamwork. So then back in and finish desert and show our pictures. Great show tonight in the show lounge but now it is time for lights out as we have a new adventure in store for tomorrow, until then….
Hope you like our pics of the day…
Quote of the day: “travel far enough, you meet yourself” - Cloud Atlas
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