Antarctica: Whales!

What an amazing morning! We stayed in the shelter of deception island for a while, then about 4 in the morning the boat started rocking (about the time I fell into a deep sleep) and we arrived at Greenwich Island about 7 am and explored Yankee Harbor. It was named for sealers from the USA that were here in the 1820’s.

My cold is full-blown now, sleeping with the box of tissues. Better living through pharmacology - removed the scopolamine and took some cough meds.

We saw some whales in the distance, and several types of seals (crab eater and elephant). Supposedly there was a leopard seal but I didn’t see it. We landed on the island which was mostly inhabited by Gentoo penguins. They form their nests out of little pebbles and most of them were sitting tight. Others were doing mating calls and some other pairs were gently bowing to each other. Getting acquainted, I guess. Others were walking around which I found to be hilarious as the place was milling with people in brightly colored parkas and here are these penguins milling about among them, seemingly oblivious.

By the way, the smell is supposedly quite bad but there is a decided advantage in being ill. I didn’t last long however and returned to the ship about the time that I couldn’t feel my nose anymore. The wind was pretty nippy. Went to run on the treadmill (amazing view of icebergs from the top deck out of the exercise room, never thought I would be running like that, on a boat - challenging with all the rocking, like the incline is changing without me telling it to) but the conveyor belt acutely destabilized and shredded. NOT MY FAULT.

This afternoon was even better. We went to Half Moon Island. There was a decaying abandoned wooden dory on the shore, leftover from earlier days. There were Weddell seals hanging out that you could get so close to - of course we are required to stay 15 feet away which is prudent anyway. Brown skuas are evil birds who like to feast off of baby penguins and eggs, as well as snowy sheathbills who resemble very ugly chickens - these are the scavenging vultures of the rookery. Antarctic terns are these little guys who seems to hate the kelp gulls (they don’t eat kelp) and are constantly screeching at them. Antarctic shags seem to keep to themselves but look just like penguins in terms of their coloring. I think there is an advantage if you are a swimmer in Antarctica to be white on the belly and black on top - like orcas, penguins, and shags.

It was amazing to watch the little chinstrap penguins which are numerous in this area. They also build their nests out of little pebbles. The male builds the nest and will sometimes steal pebbles from other nests when the owners aren’t looking. We watched for a while as a very dedicated male kept adding to his nest, which was already bigger than all the others. When a mated pair sees each other, they greet each other by warbling, flapping their wings, and moving their heads back and forth. We also saw a pair mating! If you looked carefully, you could see that some of the nests have eggs. Sometimes from the ship or zodiac you will see penguins “porpoising” like dolphins in the water.

The final highlight of the day - humpback whales!! There were several both up close and in the distance. No breaching or anything but still impressive nevertheless. I stole up to the top observation deck (which no one seems to know about) and got a video of them swimming. Wish I could upload videos! We saw so many whales that when someone spotted another not everyone rushed to see them. It is merely a judgement between how cold you want to be and how likely you want to see the whale. I could stare at them for hours.

There are so many videos that I would love to post on this blog but alas, I can’t seem to do it with blogger. Not to mention the fact that it would take hours with the dismally slow internet and I am paying by the minute.

Antarctica is truly a special place. I find myself writing and cataloguing all the wildlife however I neglect to mention the sheer and awesome beauty of it all. The landscape is both forbidding and beautiful. It doesn't really get dark, but the ship has heavy curtains to allow sleep.