April 2, continued

After our amazing whale adventure, which lasted 3 hours, we headed back to the ship and had dinner. During dinner we hit the infamous Drake Passage, and instantly everything started sliding off the tables, glasses and plates were crashing to the floor, chairs were sliding, it was crazy. Trish and I both grabbed for the wine bottle and made  good save! We were about to have the full Drake experience. Here is a photo of my soup tilting-

The ship was rocking and everyone had to hold on all the time, and hold onto our dinner. There was an auction as a fundraiser for ocean study, but the weather kept getting worse, and as soon as the auction was over most people headed to their cabins since the boat was pitching so much. I found it quite exciting and was trying to find others who shared my enthusiasm for wild weather so I headed to the bar, of course!

The only people in the bar were the stalwart bartender and Helen, a great woman and friend. We had a drink and talked and watched the waves. Finally we took pity on the bartender and said we would leave so he could close up, but not until I wrote on the bar chalkboard that Helen and I closed the bar that night!

I finally started winding down and brushed my teeth holding onto the railing by the sink, which was interesting. My berth was perpendicular to the side of the ship so all night I slid back and forth in bed as the ship rocked, and also the up and down feeling of being on a rollercoaster. I loved it!

best whale day ever

April 2
In the morning the weather was too windy and snowing too hard so all morning excursions were cancelled and the Captain moved the ship to find a better spot in a bay. At 3pm we got the announcement to get ready to go in the zodiacs. The water was very calm but had a lot of small pieces of ice. One of the people in my zodia had a waterproof camera duct taped to a ski pole so he could take underwater photographs. In the video link I will send later you can see someone in another zodiac with the same setup for underwater pictures. In this video I am in the zodiac from which the photos and video are being filmed, so what you see is what I saw and it was amazing.

Our zodiac guide was so excited by everything the whales did and told us it was possibly a once in a lifetime experience to have 2 huge humpbacks playing around, under, and so close to our boat for over 30 minutes. At one point a whale rolled over on its back and laid with his fins stretched out, kind of like a "scratch my tummy" pose, Our guide said he could die now, since he had the ultimate whale experience!

I am infamous for saying over and over," I was so close to whales I got whale blow on me THREE TIMES!" but it's true- of course I needed a good shampoo after that, and it didn't smell that good, but it was totally worth it.

 It is hard to put into words the thrill of being that close to the whales. I get the question frequently about if we were afraid or in danger and the answer is that we never were afraid and never felt in danger. The whales would pop their heads up and look to see where we were, then dive under our boat. They were playing and having fun - if you can imagine something 50 feet long and 50,000 pounds "playing"...

i will send the video link and more whale pictures later!

amazing whale video

Here is a link to a video of our whale encounter in Antarctica. This was put together by our zodiac guide, Derek, so what you see is exactly what I saw- it was incredible.  I think there is a bit of the noises of the "blow"on the video but they also made deep sounds that were cool to hear. I will spare you the whale blow smell and liquid that coated my hair and camera!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_i-MUsd2U_Q

more penguins and a dangerous seal

After we warmed up from our amazing kayaking experience we dressed in our big red suits again and took zodiacs to Cuverville Island. When we first heard it everyone thought it was "Cougarville Island" and many jokes among our group of "women of a certain age"! When we got to the island we were not sure we would be able to leave the beach and go up on the main part because a seal was blocking our way to the path, and the naturalist said we couldn't go any farther unless the seal moved on its own. I did not hear what kind of seal it was but whatever it was it was fast if it decided to attack and too dangerous to deal with. We all waited, stacked up on the small shore. I guess he finally got tired of seeing so many big red suits staring at him and eventually he begrudgingly, slowly, with many backward looks, edged toward the water and swam away.

We all breathed a sigh of relief and climbed up to the main part of the island. There were penguins everywhere, many more than the first time we saw penguins. They are so funny and cuteand I have way too many penguin photos!

April 1, 2013-kayak day!

Fortunately I was not in the 6:45am kayak group, so I was able to have breakfast and then attend the 30 minute lecture about how to get into our kayak suit - seriously, 30 minutes! The suits cost $1,000 each we were told, and have gaskets at the wrists, ankles, and neck so if you fall in the water the gaskets keep water from getting inside your suit and you float. You won't be particularly warm but you won't sink, either. We also wore life vests over the suits, and neoprene boots. Everyone needed help getting into the suits and making sure the gaskets were sealed, the zippers were locked, etc. It was a long process but finally we were ready.

The kayaks were towed behind our zodiac and we went to a calm bay with beautiful icebergs and humpback whales. One by one we got into our kayaks, which wasn't as hard as I expected - going from the round rubber side of the zodiac you just kind of drop into the kayak. We all paddled around randomly until everyone was in a boat, which took a while but it was a great chance to paddle close to the sheer cliffs and towering ice and snow of Antarctica. We saw whales immediately and it was an amazing viewpoint to be on the water with them, almost eye-level. They are curious and very playful and don't make much of a wake or ripple when they go under water so we never felt in danger. It was incredible! 3 humpbacks played around us for a long time-so cool to hear their noises and see them next to our boats!

We kayaked for 90 minutes and it sleeted on and off, and we could hear rumblings of glaciers, which sounds like thunder. I wasn't cold but with the sleet and then some wind I started getting chilly.

Getting into the zodiac from the kayaks was harder, and I was able to boost myself up enough to get onto the side of the zodiac, but my roommate just dove headfirst into the zodiac and ended up on the floor of the boat! It was funny and then other people decided that was a good way to get out of their kayaks so more people slid into the zodiac!

Easter Sunday, Antarctic Peninsula

A couple of the teens on the ship hid Easter eggs so all day we were finding them in boots, pockets, etc., it was fun.

The first kayak group went out in the morning, and the rest of us took zodiacs to an island to see penguins and seals. The photos will do a better job of relaying how cute the penguins were and how un-interested and bored the seals were by our visit! Penguins have no predators on land, so they are very casual about all of us in our big red suits gathering around. People cannot approach the animals but they can approach us. Since it is the end of the summer in Antarctica the penguins were not very active because they were storing up energy and fat, but we still saw some walking around and being just exactly like you would expect them to be- cute and randomly wandering off one way and then another.

In the afternoon we took another excursion in a bay and rode around in the zodiacs looking at all the amazing iceberg formations. The color is just incredibly blue, and some had holes in them, and all had odd shapes. It was a beautiful day with some sun, temperatures were around 25 - 30 degrees most of the time on the trip, and sometimes there would be snow or sleet but it never lasted long.