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Published: March 27th 2008
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Callum and the Whale
The Humpback's Wildlife Survey We are just entering Neptune’s Bellows at Deception Island - the spot where the Norwegians hit the big rock last year - but I think our captain is smarter than that one…or has better charts. Least, I hope so.
We had an amazing day yesterday. “Amazing” is the closest word I can find, but it’s so overused that it’s not nearly enough to describe yesterday.
We were in Wilhelmina Bay, where we’ve had great whale encounters before, but yesterday was something beyond anything I’ve ever experienced. There were two humpbacks off in the distance as the ship positioned, and as soon as we launched the zodiacs, we were off to see if they’d welcome our approach. The last few times we’d found whales, they were either “logging” (sleeping), or they’d take off like a shot as we came close.
This time, we pulled up quite close to them, and they immediately came over to inspect us. I do mean INSPECT. It was, as I said to the group in my zodiac, as though they were conducting a wildlife survey. We had nine zodiacs in the water (with driver and twelve pax each), one pulling five or six kayaks, as that group
Whale inspections
They were just as interested in us as we were in them... had planned a kayaking excursion but wanted to see the whales first. The whales swam under, around and between every single boat, but seemed especially attracted to the kayaks. We could see them beneath the clear water, coming up almost vertically, then twisting sideways, to inspect the zodiac hulls and the bright colours of the red and yellow kayaks. Then an enormous mouth would come right out of the water as the eye was just under the surface (they can’t see if the eye isn’t in the water, but they got it as close to us as they could) so they could “count” each passenger in the zodiac. It really seemed that way.
Occasionally a flipper or tail would lazily wave, close enough to touch. (One pax, Mark from Australia, who is “living his dream” visiting Antarctica - left his wife and baby behind, and came to see all this, with his wife’s blessing for his 40th birthday, actually did reach out and touch one of the whales. I have a photo of the expression on his face.) These encounters lasted over an hour, and during that time the only water that splashed on anyone from the whales was the
Ice Ice Ice
Callum and I took our groups to see some local icebergs respiration from their blowholes, which fell in a mist over us all. It was like a slow-motion ballet. It was so astonishing that at times, despite the excitement, there was an awed silence among the 100 or so of us gathered together, the only sound the whooshes of the whales’ blows.
Finally, the kayakers felt secure enough with the gentleness of the whales that they decided to go a short distance apart and get into the kayaks. As their zodiac pulled away, so did the whales - FOLLOWING THE KAYAKS! So they couldn’t be sure it would be safe to get in, and finally went back to the ship. The whales followed.
There wasn’t much point in staying out, so we all came back to the ship (people were getting cold by then, anyway), and started getting ready for the “polar plunge” where a few people jump in off the gangway, so they can claim they swam in Antarctica. Still the whales hung around. When our littlest passenger, thirteen year old Alex, came down the gangway in his bathing trunks and lifejacket for his dip, one whale suddenly surfaced fifteen or so feet out, blew, and dove - as though
Surviving the Polar Plunge
How to Recover from a Collapsed Lung... it had been waiting for him. After he and a few more people had been in the water, the whales both disappeared. They had simply wanted to check out what we were up to next; that’s the only explanation. Incredible!
Callum: then some of the dafter staff got stripped and went off in the zodiac a bit from the ship and dove, fell or jumped in off the pontoons, me amongst them. Prrrretty cold - I dived deep and the strong current caught me so I had to swim back about 15 m and was glad there were strong arms ready to haul me flopping back in the zodiac. After that we headed off to Enterprise Island for, for me, one of the best excursions yet. It’s a place that was heavily used by whaling ships I the early 20th century, so there are rusting chains, iron anchorage points and navigation beacons all around the dozen or so islands, a 1916 wreck of a whaling ship complete with nesting terns, a heap of old barrels used to store and transport the whale oil rendered from blubber, half a dozen wooden dories and boats used for hauling water, and a place
Seal and Ship
Leopard seals seemed to be everywhere today... that Mum spotted, with an old wooden platform or building floor covered by snow. Then we set off to see what else we could find and saw a few fur seals on the rocks and in the water, then a field of grounded icebergs of all shapes and sizes surrounding one at the centre with a perfect circular hole about 20 feet wide, through which the pax could get stunning shots of mountains and glaciers. What an afternoon - the passengers were just raving about it.
Jane again: It’s been, overall, a terrific trip for wildlife, and this afternoon there will be a last chance to see chinstrap and maybe even macaroni penguins before we head for our last day before the Drake Passage. We visited Deception Island this morning and now are nearly at Hannah Point, and the wind has been picking up so it may be pretty dicey whether we’ll get off the ship; we’ll have to wait and see when we get there what the conditions are like. But I’m really hoping to land - I’ve only been here once before and I loved it: there are huge elephant seals here too, and so if we get
in, and if all species are present (elephant and weddell seals, macaroni and chinstrap penguins), the pax will have seen pretty much everything there is down here. Once again we had leopard seals playing with the boats and showing off; that was at Paradise Harbour earlier on. Neither Callum nor I completely trust in the innocence of the show - we are both suspicious of the cold, serpentine stare as they glide up beside the boat - but they are undeniably beautiful, particularly in the water; and they do seem to enjoy showing off their skill as they dart from the zodiac to the greeny-blue underside of an iceberg, twist in a backwards dive and then back to and under the boat…all in the time it takes to say “leopard seal” and point. We’ve had a generous helping of penguins - mostly adelies and gentoos up to now -- lots of crabeater, weddell and fur seals, flying birds galore, especially my favourites, the blue-eyed shags (more properly, Antarctic shag or cormorant). And just a few minutes ago we had a small pod of killer whales quite close to the ship.
So it’s been a great trip. We’re both tired, and I’m not sure how I’m going to get “up” for two more trips after this! But we feel lucky to have been able to do another season here; it’s magnificent. Another world, in every sense. Winter is descending fast, and we’ve been getting the odd day of snowy, cold conditions, which will only increase over the next three weeks.
How are things back home? I think of you all so often, and I so wish we could bring you down here with us. I hope, one day, you’ll all see Antarctica - it would be wonderful if we could be with you, but when you see these places and these animals, you’ll remember our descriptions, so in some ways, we will be.
Later -
Well that was a spectacular visit too…to a chinstrap colony where we saw a giant petrel take a tiny chick…got movies and pictures (couldn’t look). Another side to the gentle Antarctic. Wild seas, bumpy rides in and out.
Every expedition is completely new, in Antarctica.
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