Whales!

 

Ice arch

Leopard seal napping on a nice cold iceberg.

Seal next to ice tower

Interesting iceberg

Couldn’t get satellite service yesterday so we have 2 days to report.  In our opinion, today was the HIGHLIGHT of the trip so far.  First we went ashore and hiked around to see 3kinds of penguins, all nesting, in various stages of growth of babies.  They coexist for the most part, and totally ignore humans.  The types are Adelie, Gentoo, and Chinstrap.  See pictures below.  They are busy little guys, always coming or going, and bringing food to their chicks.  The best part of the day (indeed the entire trip) was the zodiac ride afterward where we saw 2 humpback whales frolicking and staying at the Surface.  They were within 10 feet of us.  When they would blow through their blowholes, we could feel the mist and it smelled fishy.  One kept rolling over and swimming upside down.  We got to watch this for 45 minutes!  Also see pics below.  We also saw a leopard seal on an iceberg.

last night we ate with a National Geographic photographer and a Nat. Geo. Naturalist.  We also got to watch videos of the robot deployed on the ocean floor beneath us, which was pretty cool.  Daily briefings by various experts.

daily temps remain around 38F.  The ship goes right over big chunks of ice, makes a strange sound.