ANTARCTICA: Rolling icebergs and more penguins

ANTARCTICA: Rolling icebergs and more penguins

Antarctic Peninsula, Antarctica, Antarctica

We got up today for an early breakfast, at 7:30am, and then went back to bed for a nap. This morning they were running zodiac tours in the bay, but they split it so at 9am they were doing tours for the starboard side, and our port side wasn’t going until 11am. It was nice to have a relaxed morning with a little more time to rest after a pretty big night of drinking and karaoke.

The zodiac tour was amazing this morning! We went out in Ceirva Cove and first came across a leopard seal who was just relaxing on an iceberg, as they like to do. He didn’t really care that we were around. He just lifted his head a couple of times to see what was going on and then went back to sleep. I was really hoping to see him jump off the iceberg and devour a penguin, but it just ever happened.

We also saw a bunch of penguins on icebergs, and we saw some icebergs rolling in the water. I’ve never seen anything like that before. These huge icebergs melt faster under water than above, so when the top gets too heavy for the bottom to support, they roll over in the water. It is absolutely amazing to see. Some of these icebergs are the size of buildings, so it is like watching a building collapse. I managed to catch the end of one of the rolls on video, which was pretty lucky, because you never really know when it’s going to happen.

We went back to the ship for lunch, and then had another excursion in the afternoon to an island in Mikkelson Harbor. This used to be used by whaling ships, so when we got on land there were lots of whale bones, and the remnants of whaling ships that were caught in the ice, or broken so they were left on shore. We saw more gentoo penguins today, and it was the first time when I was a little tired of the penguins. They are noisy and smell bad, and we just kept seeing the same kind, so I was ready for something new. We hung out on land for about an hour and then headed back to the ship to get ready for dinner.

We had dinner with the normal crew (Ryan, Reuben, Ainsley, Missy, and Dan). After dinner we all went up to the bar for another fireside chat with Dr. Joan. Tonight she talked about her time as a doctor on the remote island of Tristan de Cunha. It was really interesting, and made me realize again just how fascinating this woman’s life has been. I thought I had seen some cool stuff, but after hearing about what Dr. Joan has done, I realize I still have A LOT to see and do.

We all hung out at the bar until about 11:30pm and now I’m heading to bed. Tomorrow is our last day at land, so I can’t wait to see what Antarctica has in store for us. No doubt there will be more penguins. But hopefully there’ll be more stuff that we’ve not seen yet.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *