Physically, we both feel surprisingly good for having run a marathon yesterday. I think that, in spite of the incredible difficulty of the course, the fact that we had to do so much walking yesterday actually minimized the stress on our bodies. So, while we are a little stiff and sore, it is nowhere close to what we have experienced in the way of morning-after pains after other marathons.
We are moving into Wilhelmina Bay, our destination for the day. (The bay was named for Queen Wilhelmina, of the Netherlands.) We are coming here because they anticipate there will be Humpback Whales in this area. As we steam along, we begin to see the dorsal fins and the spout blows of a number of whales. We can see the Vavilov ahead of us in the distance, but it will eventually find a different spot in the bay, and will be out of sight for the rest of the day. By late morning, we are among dozens of humpbacks, with many surfacing. Quite a few “fluke shots” – i.e. Views of their broad tails as their backs roll and they dive down deep into the water. The most incredible moments are when one, and then two, humpbacks float up and lay quietly just below the surface of the water, just a couple of feet off the port side of the ship, allowing all of us to see their entire, 40-foot long bodies, nose to tail. Joan is on the lower deck and looks directly at one as it rotates its body to show its eye looking up at the boat! I am up on the bridge looking straight down at them, and snapping pictures. It is a truly remarkable moment.
After lunch, we have the first of 2 afternoon zodiac excursions, where we simply cruise around the bays. We have a terrific, knowledgeable driver, Rob, who takes us out to areas where there were so many whales surfacing that it even shocks him. Frequently the whales surface in groups of 2, 3 or 4. They are very accepting of our presence, at times seeming to be curious or almost playful with us. They exhibit the traditional humpback movements: Rounded dives exposing dorsal fins; rotating their bodies and extending their flippers into the air; popping their heads straight up out of the water (“Spyglassing”); and making deep dives from the surface in which the fluke goes up into the air as they nose down. They frequently blow water spray from their spouts, the spray going up as high as 10 or 15 feet. And perhaps most surprising, as their heads surface, they issue loud, sometimes thunderous groans, making this an amazing audio, as well as visual, experience. A couple of times we would watch a whale surface on our right, dive down, swim under our zodiac and resurface on our left. Being down at virtually water level with so many of these giants, as they share the bay and their time with us, it is almost a mystical experience, really like no other wildlife interaction that I have ever witnessed. All of the “passengers” on the ship are completely in awe by the end of the cruise. The seasoned Peregrine staff are pretty amazed, too. They tell us later that while they were fully expecting to see humpbacks here today, the numbers and the level of close-up activity surpassed what most of them have ever seen before in one time & place. So, we truly have had a pretty magical experience.
We reboard the ship at 4:30 to get a quick afternoon snack, and then quickly go back out into the zodiacs again at 5:30 for another cruise. This time the whales are around, but less visible, and our guide is not as good, nor seemingly as interested in approaching the whales as Rob was. We see some interesting icebergs and some seals. Get a great picture of a crabeater seal. But overall, this outing does not come close to the earlier experience.
We return to the ship at 7 pm, have dinner at 7:30, and then an early retirement for us. What we realize today is what we’ve read so many times prior to the trip from past-years’ participants: The trip is about so much more than a marathon. We are excited about what the days still to come will hold for us.
=========== PHOTOS =============
There were so many astounding photographs taken on this day that I am choosing to simply make a separate photo section here at the end of this entry. (Remember, to enlarge any picture, simply click once on it. Return to the blog by hitting the "back" arrow in your browser.)
To begin, if I had to choose just one picture to share about our experience in Antarctica, it would be the one below. We were waiting for our turn to load into a zodiac for our excursion in the bay. Standing at the ship's railing, I snapped this photo of a zodiac, already loaded and underway. The thing about Antarctica that is hardest to describe is its immense scale. This picture does as good of a job of that as any we took. The zodiac has 13 people on board. Towering over it is the iceberg it is approaching, but that entire scene is completely dwarfed by the immense snowfields and cliffs in the background. Note that this cliff was actually about twice as high as what could be shown in this picture, as you will see in the photo that follows this one.
This photo adds more perspective to the one above. It was snapped just a few seconds before the one above. Compare the two, using the horizontal line of snow half-way up the cliff to relate the two. You can see how much more extensive this mountain is than what was shown above.
Ok, now for a more chronological view of the day, through pictures.
That morning, we were greeted to outstanding scenery from the deck of the ship. We found that the grand distances, along with blue waters, sun, clouds, shadows, sculpted ice and snow-swept landscapes, provided the eye with the most amazing kind of art. Here are some examples:
For a while we could see our sister ship, the Vavilov, before she moved off to another part of the bay:
Then, we began to see humpback whales approaching our ship. We first saw dorsal fins and spouted sprays a distance out in the water. Then, one, and later two, of these giants came directly alongside the ship.
When they came this close, it was virtually impossible to get the full body of the whale into the camera's field of view for any meaningful perspective. Here is the whale's head as it comes to the surface alongside the ship.
And here, the massive body and tail can be seen:
Another view of the head:
Here, the first whale has been joined by a second visitor.
Everyone with a camera seemed to like the "fluke shots"! The fluke is the tail, and as the whale does its characteristic dive, its entire body rolls through the water until the tail finally goes up into the air just before submerging into the water.
Not long after the first whale sighting, virtually all passengers on the boat came out with cameras and binoculars to witness the event. The railings were lined with people on all decks.
As well as on the main deck. (Joan is in the blue coat and blue hat leaning over looking into the water on the front left side of the ship.)
This is one of the better pictures of the two humpbacks off the side of our ship. This was taken by a fellow traveler, who made it available to be copied by others.
After a while, the whales moved on, and we passed an iceberg with a lone fur seal.
We passed very close, and the seal got nervous and started to move away to the other side of the berg. This picture ended up being one of my favorites. The texture and the curved contours of the ice, the shadows on the ice, the horizontal lines and deep blue of the water, and the seal in motion as he scampers away, all combine for an interesting shot.
Preparations for our excursions. Every day, we had two excursions where we would leave the ship via the motorized, rubber zodiacs. The next few pictures show the process. When the call is made on the ship's intercome that it is time for an excursion, everyone gets themselves dressed in the appropriate clothing for cold and wet, and then converge to the "Mud Room", where they put on their life jackets and boots. It is a sort of controlled chaos, but it works.
Meanwhile, the crew prepares the zodiacs to be launched.
Each zodiac is launched by the ship's winch, with the driver(s) already on board.
As the zodiacs are placed in the water, they wait around the ship for the loading process.
One by one, the zodiac drivers take their turn pulling alongside the extended gangway to load their passengers. A staff member stands at the top of the gangway to check each passenger out, one by one, recording name and cabin# as they go. They also meter the flow of people, so that no more than 3 passengers are on the steps at any one time. Another staff member stands on a platform at the bottom of the steps, to help each passenger into the boat, and the driver stands in the boat to receive the passenger as he/she climbs in. The process is treated with deadly seriousness, because a mistake could indeed be deadly in these waters. A person falling into the icy waters here would become critically hypothermic in a matter of just a couple of minutes.
Excursion #1: Our first excursion on this day was in the early afternoon, and consisted of simply cruising the bay in the hope of seeing whales. Did we ever see whales!
It did not take long before our zodiacs encountered an entire group (pod?) of humpback whales. They approached us, much as the two did the ship earlier, with what seemed like curiosity and perhaps even friendliness. We would frequently see two, three, or four floating in the water just a short distance away from us.
Now in the zodiacs, we were viewing these creatures from water level, and their massive size could really be appreciated. Our initial fears of vulnerabilty of being hit or capsized by these guys soon gave way to confidence that they knew how to maneuver here, and they seemed to have no intention of harming us. We witnessed several dive underwater on one side of us, swim deep below our zodiac and re-emerge on the other side -- that was an amazing and humbling experience!
A very special picture... as this whale dives, its fluke perfectly accents our ship anchored off in the distance.
Over and over again, the whales around us surfaced and dove.
Here, one whale rolls to one side and extends its barnacle-covered fin into the air.
Another view of this whale's fin:
This is another "broad perspective" photo. You need to click on this to appreciate it. A couple of the small dark specks at the shoreline are actually fully loaded zodiacs. The wall of snow at the base of the cliff that towers over the zodiac is probably 100-200 feet tall. The mountain is probably a couple of thousand feet high.
It was always interesting to see our ship from a distance out in the water. It made me feel a little like an astronaut looking back at Mother Earth from out in space.
While in the zodiac, we passed a small iceberg with a group of fur seals. They eyed us carefully, but did not scatter. Probably, they felt more secure than the one we saw earlier from the ship, since we were at water level and their perch was several feet above us.
We were out in the zodiacs for a couple of hours, and then were brought back on board the Ioffe for a snack, some rest, and a warm-up period. But no one wanted to rest! After the amazing first excursion, we were ready for more. And so, we loaded back into the zodiacs for Excursion #2.
We found the waters to be much quieter this time. A few humpbacks were around, but most had seemed to have left the area by then.
We did get to visit this amazing specimen of a crabeater seal. He seemed quite comfortable to just lie there and watch us watch him.
But with less wildlife around, we spent more time looking at the scenery. This is another of my favorite photos. The sparkle of sunlight on the floating ice fragments, and the wispy nature of the scenery in the background, even the lone bird caught in flight in the background, convey a "magic" that we all felt that day. (Click on this one to see it enlarged.)
We did get to visit this amazing specimen of a crabeater seal. He seemed quite comfortable to just lie there and watch us watch him.
But with less wildlife around, we spent more time looking at the scenery. This is another of my favorite photos. The sparkle of sunlight on the floating ice fragments, and the wispy nature of the scenery in the background, even the lone bird caught in flight in the background, convey a "magic" that we all felt that day. (Click on this one to see it enlarged.)
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