We were awe-struck to watch three beautiful humpback whales from the boat’s starboard as they glided through the water, their small fins surfacing and disappearing, at times in unison. Jackie proudly presented us with a double-fluke photograph she took of two of the humpbacks’ tails – one with its characteristic white underside, the other a shiny black dorsal side.
During the commotion, Bassem was calmly preparing his masterpiece in the galley below – focaccia bread topped with tomatoes and olives, which he had kneaded and let rise the night before. Our whale celebration lunch included this and garlic butter to accompany Lucy’s delicious minestrone soup – we were in heaven.
The Ocean Tramp glided past “bergy bits” of ice as we entered Gerlache Strait near Cuverville Island to the pescarian aroma of penguin-poop. Helen took Lucy and me to Orne Island to observe a Gentoo colony for an hour – this is now my idea of paradise.
Our crew made a mooring for the night between Rongé and Cuverville Islands, attaching one of our lines to shore – an original mooring next to the remains of a water boat. The next day, our zodiac delivered us to one of the many Gentoo colonies on Rongé Island. We sat watching from the rocks as they waddled, swam, crooned, and shimmied, transforming from tuxedoed clowns onshore to jet planes as they “flew” in the water.
After pulling up our anchor, our eagle-eyed crew navigated through ice sheets, bergs, and growlers with Fiona ice-watching at the bow. Their vigilance was rewarded at Andvord Bay near Port Neko where we basked under five or six glaciers nestled into the valleys. Then our next stop – Paradise Bay and the Chilean base established there in 1950. This would be our first landing on the Antarctic continent!!!
Caesar amazed us as he effortlessly chatted in Spanish by radio, securing us an impromptu invitation. We were warmly greeted with tea and biscuits by Lt. Alberto (Air Force Captain), Lt. Diego (Naval Captain), and Sgt. Claudio in their museum. The base was really a penguin-peninsula, with its star – an albino penguin which Fiona accidentally ended up naming “Alice” – but Lt. Diego liked the name so it may stay that way! He also came on-board, and offered gifts (a bottle of wine and a gold coin emblazoned with his name) to our captain Damian; he then swapped tech-notes with Caesar.
The group happily trudged up the mountain nearby for sunset photos after an amazing dinner of Lucy’s Irish cottage pie – my favourite dish so far – complemented by red Chilean Carmenere wine.
