We enjoyed a beautiful early morning cruising in heavily glaciated Paradise Bay. Some very interesting skies – dark and foreboding at times with bright sunlight showing on distant peaks. Ringed by mountains and glaciers the bay’s scenery is stunning. The bay was named thusly by whalers because it is such a protected anchorage and is truly beautiful. The Petzval Glacier tongue is massive. It’s the result of multiple glaciers joining together then spilling into the bay. There is brash ice and ‘bergy bits’ everywhere.
We took a late morning zodiac cruise of the bay. The mountains and glaciers look even more impressive from the water. There were a few Gentoo colonies in some of the weirdest places – high on the slopes & small outcrops. You’d think they’d pick a better neighborhood.
Pushing through the brash was a blast. Occasionally, the motor would jam up from the ice and had to be tilted out and cleared. We were told that in a few days this entire bay would likely be socked in with ice.
The zodiac drivers ate it up.
There were quite a few smaller bergs with interesting shapes and coloring. Some were the most incredible blue.
Our zodiacs worked past one of the two research stations in the bay, the Argentine research base ‘Almirante Brown’ followed by a snow petrel. The small staff must have been pretty bored as they came out of the building waving & taking pictures. There are a lot more penguins than staff. The other base, the Chilean Station ‘Gonzales Videla’ was inaccessible due to a thick brash barrier.
After lunch the Seaventure entered Neko Harbour which lies along the eastern shore of Andvord Bay. The harbor was named after a floating factory vessel, ‘Neko’, that operated in nearby waters.
Conditions were good enough for kayaking so we split up with Mary off on a zodiac cruise of the bay with a landing to follow. Three humpbacks followed her zodiac for a while – one a baby. At times the critters were as close as 15-20 feet from the zodiac. They also spotted a Crabeater Seal. Suddenly, what was light snow turned very heavy and the expedition team thought it best to get on with the landing. The landing site was a small, steep beach and required an almost knee-high wet walk onto the shore. The guides were a great help. Mary didn’t spend long there but stepped onto the Antarctic continent itself.
In the meantime, Dick and Ralph headed out with the Orca kayak team. Things started off great. It was sunny enough that head guide Danny warned us to make sure we had a good layer of sunscreen on. It didn’t take long though for the dark clouds to start rolling in.
Within minutes a pair of humpbacks began feeding in the nearby waters.
These two humpbacks hung around for quite a while.
Here’s another view.
Beautiful creatures. It was surprising how loud their exhales were when spouting.
Then, they got close. Real close. Close enough that Ralph suggested Dick back up – quickly. One of them had a tail fluke we had seen the day before, miles away. The group watched the whales for a good half hour. Amazing.
The same heavy snow that caught Mary’s zodiac nailed the kayakers. FINALLY – some real Antarctic weather. Blizzard-like conditions. Zero visibility. Couldn’t see the ship or shore. It finally eased up enough so the kayaks could get unloaded. Totally awesome.
The guys moved from the kayaks to zodiacs for a shore visit and to claim their ‘Antarctica continent landing’. This area is home to a colony of Gentoo penguins. They are everywhere. A trail marked by the staff crossed part of a glacier, avoiding crevasses and penguin highways, ending with incredible views of the surrounding peaks and calving glaciers. Dick was one tired puppy by the time he returned to the ship.
Penguin count: 1200 (Gentoo)
Total trip penguin count: 638,450