A Whale of a Day!

What a day we had! Mindful of the fact that this was going to be our last day in the Antarctic Peninsula, there seemed to be more of a buzz than ever. Our last chance to get those photos, to make a special effort to spot things and to make the most of this very special time here.

The day began with an unusual early morning announcement from the Captain, on the ship-wide loudspeaker. Except for his daily noon update, the Captain doesn’t make announcements like this, so it was bound to be important.

We had been progressing along our anticipated route towards the eastern side of Elephant Island, where we were planned to make three stops. However, during the night, ice pilot Maggie spotted a raft of solid sea ice ahead, large enough to block our way forward. We were advised that sea ice is hard and very much not to be messed with and so we made an 180° turn and made our way through a channel to the other side of these islands. It would mean that we’d miss two of the stops on Elephant Island but Whale Expert Penny was ecstatic, because it meant we’d be sailing through an area she knew to be filled with whales, particularly, the very special Fin Whale.

Sure enough, we’d hardly had breakfast when they started appearing.

These fin whales are huge, second only in size to the Blue Whale, and we’d learned from one of Penny’s earlier lectures, that they also have some distinctive features; the shape and placement of their dorsal fin, for example.

Everywhere we looked, there were “blows”, often several at a time, and Penny’s experience meant she was able to identify the type of whale from this alone.

Until now, we’d sat in the warm, comfortable observation lounge, but eventually I decided it was time to wrap up and step outside.

With the down lining in my waterproof jacket, ear warmers, gloves and scarf, I headed out to the top deck and found a small spot along the rail by two serious photographers.

My little camera is great for most of the time, but here, amongst the huge lenses and “serious” cameras, I simply set mine on “boost” and hit the button whenever I saw something. The chaps around me were supportive, pointing out things they spotted, which was really helpful.

A bird! I have yet to speak to ornithologist Tim to identify it, but when I do, I’ll update it here.

(Update: Tim identified it as a young Black Browed Albatross )

But mostly, all around were fin whales. Penny had described the encounter the other night as “sailing through whale soup” and we felt that this journey could be similarly described.

We were advised that in a few minutes, we’d sail by a tabular iceberg. That’s one with the flat top that probably formed by breaking off an ice field in the Weddel Sea and would then have floated around, moving with the current, possibly for decades.

We were standing, gazing down into the sea, hoping to spot something close by when…

right there beneath us was a shape, mostly black with distinctive pale markings. A whale!

For several minutes it swam close to the surface, right there beneath us, allowing us to see the markings and the overall size and shape.

This creature was enormous! At the time, we had no words and the only sound was the clicking of camera shutters. Oh, and the occasional blow from the whale beneath us.

Of course, eventually he swam away, leaving us to marvel at the iceberg and wonder if our photos had captured the same incredible sights we will remember forever.

But soon, there was another swimming by…

And then two…

And another iceberg, this one with lots of Chinstrap penguins on it.

I couldn’t see any of them but used my camera zoom and only later did I see penguins.

We thought it might be a good time for a spot of lunch. I had already taken 344 pictures this morning and we seemed to be coming to the end of the whale area.

We sat by the window in the restaurant and listened to the story of Ernest Shackleton’s expedition, because here, on Point Wild, was where his team overwintered and were eventually rescued. We tried to spot the monument to the Chilean Captain who is remembered here, but we think it’s behind that large rock.

Around here were great areas of ice floe, broken pieces that wouldn’t damage the ship were we to sail through them…but we didn’t!

We did, however, sail silently along, close to Point Wild for quite some time before the Captain announced that, at 3pm we’d have to leave this magical place and set sail for Port Stanley, in the Falklands. The weather forecast is good, the Drake Passage promises to offer a Drake Lake rather than the Drake Shake we had on the way over, for which we are thankful.

For now though, we warmed ourselves up and reflected upon our remarkable experience.

I took my photo down to the Expedition Hub where the team were having fun reviewing photos and helping identify the creatures we’d seen. Craig found the page with the information about Fin Whales for me and confirmed that the whale which had swam so close to us was indeed that species.

We joined the team later for the daily summary of sightings and interesting facts and empathised with whale specialist Penny, for whom this had been such a special day. As she spoke, her emotion was clear to see and I think most of the audience had a tear in their eye too. But the biggest round of applause was for Maggie, the ice pilot, who was making her first appearance here. What a fabulous job she’d done and how grateful we were for her expertise.

To steal one of Penny’s dreadful puns, we’d had a whaley great day!