2-1 Antarctica (day 2)

2-1 Day 27 Antarctica (Day 2)

Yesterday we saw Antarctica under sunny skies. This morning we woke up to snow and ice on all the decks. Staff had shovels scraping it off. But we were told that to see the whales, you needed to be up on deck by 6 a.m. And so, of course, I was! But the whales decided to sleep in, I guess, because I didn't see any!

Our original plan was to go to Couverville Island first, but because of wind and another ship already there, the captain altered the plan. So, we headed off further south to Paradise Bay (which was going to be our 2nd stop.) On the way, we did see some whales. From what I've observed so far, the whales are not like the ones I've seen in Hawaii, where they come out enough for you to see almost their whole bodies. These are smaller, and dark in color and usually you can only see their dorsal fin as they swim near the top of the water. You can find them from their blowholes spouting, but by the time you see that little dorsal fin, they are usually gone or you see the tip of their tail as they take a dive. Nonetheless, it is a joy to see them. It helps with binoculars, but pictures are almost impossible.

Paradise Bay is protected by tall ice covered mountains (these are all really volcanoes). Because it was overcast, it was harder to see the contrast between the sky and ice. But while we were in the bay, we saw all kinds of beauty and animals. There were seals on ice floats – one even had a bird on the float with him. And penguins – and more penguins! What funny little creatures they are. They were always in groups on ice floats – standing, waddling around, flapping their little black wings, sliding into the water, throwing themselves back on the ice float, etc. They were such fun to watch. They also would swim in groups and they would bob in and out, in and out as they swam along. It was fun and easy to see them along side the ship.

The scenery was as spectacular as the animals. The ice bergs came in all sizes and shapes. It was almost like looking at clouds and “seeing” things in them or seeing them as something (i.e. one looked just like a turtle.) Sometimes we would see the beautiful turquoise color either in the ice berg or around it, often submerged under the water. There is no way I know to describe how beautiful it was. In addition to the ice bergs, the ice covered mountains themselves varied in size, shape, some bare spots, etc. With the ice bergs in the forefront of these magnificant peaks, it truly was a Kodak moment.

In this bay, we also saw what is left of an Argentinan and Chilean base. They are no longer used, but some of the buildings remain. The former was in a position for a relatively easy landing by smaller boats, and some of the smaller ones stop there for their passengers to put their foot on this continent. The latter was on a rock outcropping and seemed much more desolate and exposed.

As we made our way out of this beautiful bay, we saw more whales and penguins and birds. We then went back in the Gerlache Strait toward Courverville Island (weather had improved and the other ship was gone.) To get there we had to go through a very narrow channel called the Herrera. It wasn't clear until we got there whether or not we would be able to go through it – it could have been blocked by ice. But we were fortunate, and our captain took us through it. On one side we saw a hillside with the “penguin trail of poop” which makes it easy to find these little creatures. We could follow their trail from the water's edge up to the top of this hillside where there were hundreds of them. We could also watch them going up and down the hill. I can't imagine how those webbed feet allow them to climb up the packed ice to those high peaks.

In this protected area, we saw our most amazing sight so far. It was a HUGE colony of penguins on their nests. There were over 3000 of them. The hillside they were on appeared to be on three levels, and there were so many penguins on each level, it would have been impossible to count! It looked like something out of National Geographic. The chicks were being born about now, and the parent penguins would go in and out of the water in search of food for their young, so there was a lot of coming and going along the water front. Because they are small, and we had to be a certain distance away, it was hard to make out the adults from the chicks. The captain stayed in this spot for a long time so we were all able to get good pictures of this spectacular colony of Gentoo penguins. Their nesting ground was out on a rocky ledge area. We saw moss on the cliffs for the first time near their large nesting rock. It was hard to leave this spot – it was that impressive.

We spent the entire day in the Crow's nest with two other couples from our dining group (the ones we really like!) in a little corner watching out the big windows. We would run in and out for pictures and come back in to warm up. Mid-morning hot chocolate really hit the spot! It was so cold out. We also took turns going to lunch (we didn't want to lose our perfect viewing spot!) We all decided early on that we did not want to get all dressed up for dinner – it was a formal night – their Winter Wonderland ball. But we thought the winter wonderland was right outside our window – not all the decorations they put up all over the ship. So, we made reservations for the Italian restaurant (which has big panel windows) at a time that was between spots the ship was stopping to see.

We had barely finished dinner when we heard the narrator discussing our next stop – Deception Island. We raced over to the other side of the ship to see this island. It is like the top of a volcanic crater and there is an entry way into it. Our ship was way too large to enter inside, but we could see inside. It would have been a very protected area for smaller ships. We hadn't brought our coats to dinner, so while I tried for some outdoor pictures, it was just too windy and cold. While we snapped our pictures from the inside, we could look down beside the ship and see all those little bobbing penguins swimming along – and also look up to see a huge flock of birds (not sure what kind) flying all around in front of us.

Doug and I thought that was our last stop for the night, so we went to see the movie (Scoop with Woody Allen) the ship was showing. It was pretty funny. When we got back to our room, I called Barb to find out the ship went further north and made another stop to see penguins. Aghhhh! Even having seeing thousands and thousands of penguins, I hated the idea of missing “just one more!” Oh well . . .

This was a fantastic day – very relaxing watching beauty all around us. I'm so glad we were able to come to Antarctica – even if we didn't put our foot on it.