Antarctica blog part three by Cathy de Lara
Part 3: Antarctic peninsula
We finally arrived in Antarctica, a land of mountains, snow, ice, glaciers and giant icebergs. On our first day we saw humpback whales trying to disrupt an orca hunt, and a leopard seal with its prey.
Dive 1 was another iceberg dive, we just swam around the ‘berg admiring the shapes and colours, it was so cold that I struggled to put my reg back in my mouth following a free flow. Post dive, all 7 of the divers got the chance to stand on “our” iceberg, a fabulous experience.
We also went ashore to watch the gentoo penguins stealing the stones from their neighbours’ nests! That afternoon as we were sailing south, we abruptly turned around and headed north, at the briefing we found out a crew member was seriously ill and had to be evacuated so we would be returning to the South Shetland islands, a little disappointing but it reminds you of how remote you are.
We did a couple of dives whilst waiting for the medivac, the first was amazing, we just sat on the bottom and watched the penguins swim around us, so fast and graceful, the exact opposite of penguins on land! The second was the base of Edinburgh hill, a huge cliff of basalt columns (like the Giants Causeway but bigger) once we were back on the zodiac another came around with mugs of hot chocolate with rum, now that’s service!
The medivac was the following day from the Chilean research station, following the morning dive (more penguins) we visited the most southerly Russian Orthodox church, tiny but beautiful.
The next 2 days saw us heading south and we eventually managed to cross the Arctic circle (another excuse for a party!) The dives here mostly consisted of icebergs and penguins, a winning combination! Above water was icebergs, seals, penguins and close encounters with humpbacks.
We tried snorkelling with a Minke whale, but it swam off to be replaced by a large, female, Leopard seal, these are big apex predators and a little scary, but she was just curious and had a good look at us as she swam around.
Our final day turned out to be the best, our morning dive was on a small iceberg where we were visited by penguins (there were also lots of long salps, a bit like strings of comb jellies) followed by penguins on shore. The afternoon snorkel was cancelled because of the pod of about 20 orcas, with calves, that hung around the zodiacs, then they were replaced by feeding humpbacks, both the orca and humpbacks were close enough to touch! An amazing day made better with birthday cake in the evening!
Our last 2 days were spent crossing the infamous Drakes Passage, famous for being rough, but again we were lucky with a smooth crossing. Then it was back along the Beagle channel and return to Ushuaia ready for the long flights home.