Matias, Deckhand
Day 9
You’d think that by going zodiac cruising almost everyday we wouldn’t be surprised anymore, but every time there is something new. On this edition of daily cruise with drivers Voy and Julian, we saw a group of four crabeater seals on an iceberg, with the smaller quite intrigued by us.
We also saw a whale, making circular bubble patterns, similar to what they do when bubble feeding in groups, but this one was alone and not feeding at all. We observed it, trying to photograph the underside of the tail —the fluke— to submit to happywhale.com!
The glacier face then captured our attention, because we heard some loud noises coming from inside a cave. Big pieces of ice were falling from the ceiling, and we waited from a distance to see if it would fall down completely.
(It never did).
We landed on a small beach at Icarus point for a little group ceremony: this marked the first time that we were standing directly on the continent of Antarctica, and not on an island.
For some seasoned travelers in our group, this marked their 7th continent! (although of note all of it is indeed Antarctica!)
We still had plans for the rest of the day, namely a relaxed landing in Palaver Point, on Two Hummock island.
We visit a very loud colony of Chinstrap Penguins, and enjoy the calm weather and surrounding views.
Day 10
This morning’s plan is a landing at Hydruga rocks, a small rocky island filled with Chinstrap Penguins and Cormorants, as well as some visiting Weddel Seals and the occasional Snowy Sheathbill and Skua.
It is about a kilometer long but only 100 meters wide, so we have great views of the small hill with the sea on either side. It also means that a lot of birds are concentrated in one area, making for quite a dirty ground… Our boots will need a good cleaning after that!
On the left we can just make out our ship, so I decided to apply some photography tips that have been shared with me on how to compose a picture and choose the right background, and I got this shot:
We also found some itchy seals chilling on the beach, and one of them made its way back to the sea, letting us observe its clumsy manoeuver.
The rest of the day is spent crossing the Bransfield Straight again, this time in better sea conditions! Next stop: Deception Island.
Matias Moana Guerrero
