A tail of a whale?!

Today is our third day in Antarctica and we’re cruising from Half Moon Island to King George  Island. You might think it’s too cold for anything to even survive here, but the amount of wildlife we’re seeing is incredible! The scenery off our veranda changes constantly. I could wear my shutter finger out just trying to shoot a small representation of this place.

How can I even begin to describe it? And the photos – well, at best they might give someone the tiniest hint of how magnificent Antarctica is, but I could never in a million years even begin to capture its essence with a camera or with words. It’s huge! It’s majestic! It’s cold! It’s breathtakingly beautiful and amazing! And… it’s constantly changing! Sometimes it looks dark and gloomy through a heavy fog and mist. Sometimes it’s snowing and sometimes it’s raining. Other times the sun is shining brightly and you almost need sunglasses – that is, if you could stay outside long enough to put them on!

Sometimes the sea is choppy and I wonder if I’m going to need to take a Meclizine tablet. Sometimes we sail through ice or huge chunks of glacier float by. And other times the sea is almost as smooth as glass! Sometimes the water looks a light bluish green (think Banff or Lake Louise); other times it’s dark gray and still other times a beautiful (almost) navy blue! Sometimes the mountains are obscured by the fog; other times you can see hundreds of little penguins sitting along their ridges.

The photos I’m posting now were taken yesterday (Saturday). Again, I took way too many and I’m wondering if I’ll ever get them under control! Yesterday was a very exciting day because we were in waters where whales are very active. We also spotted penguins floating past us on icebergs.

Last night I set my alarm and ordered breakfast earlier than usual in order to make the 8:30 worship service this morning. However, I thought the time had been changed (guess I misunderstood the announcement) and when we got to the Insignia Lounge, it was a presentation on the life of Houdini. Lol. He was one weird dude and it was anything but uplifting! Tonight we have a special dinner for 180 day guests but I’m hoping to get this posted this before bedtime. Our one and only “negative” that you’ll hear me complain about is the ship’s lousy internet service. Ronnie is working on a research paper so he really needs access to it. We are constantly having to knock each other off in order to check our mail and work on our respective projects.

Hopefully I can post some penguin pics tomorrow!

 

red dots signify itinerary

        
 

 

The part of the iceberg that is above water is only a fraction of its size. We're told that the part below is 6-9 times deeper!

an iceberg with a tunnel inside

a penguin hopping in and out of the water

penguins catching a ride of an iceberg

this is what the water looks like with whale below

This is called fluking.The whale arches his body and it looks like it's rolling over. Supposedly this helps it to dive at a steeper angle. The results are its tail coming up out of the water.

Took forever to upload these videos below - I hope they work! I have one more of a whale fluking but I will try to post later if I can find it.