Watch Out for that Seal!

This morning, our ship passed through Lamaire Channel which is 5 miles long but gets very narrow at one point with mountains rising up on either side of the passage.  It is often ice filled which can prevent ships from passing through.  We are lucky today and started the journey right behind a National Geographic ship.  The cloud cover was fairly low, so we didn’t get a view of the top of the mountains, but we it was spectacular none the less.

Our first stop this morning is at Peterman Island where we’ll get our first glimpse of Adelie Penguins.  They are further along with raising their young, so we could easily see them under/by their parents.  There were also Gentoos and birds with their young nesting on the same rock by the ocean.  This morning was a time to sit and watch the activity.  The little guys are busy going down their highways, stealing rocks, going out to sea to eat krill and just hang out.  Oh, and they have fairly explosive pooping sessions.  You can definitely tell you’re near a penguin colony by the smell of guano which we all wash and scrub off our boots each time we return to the ship. 

There were a lot of icebergs in this bay, so cruising in the Zodiac’s was beautiful.  We also got our first sighting of Leopard Seals.  These long neck, spotted seals are quit pretty and innocent looking until they open their mouths.  They have giant teeth which they use to grab their prey – penguins.  We also saw sea-ice for the first time.  This is ice that is actually formed on the water so it is flat and thin.  Flipper (our driver this morning) ran us up on one so we could have a closer look.  I can’t mention enough how beautiful the icebergs are with their interesting formations and blue ice.  One we were watching was bobbing very high in the water and looked like it could turn at any moment.  The drivers have to stay fairly far away from them in case they do suddenly flip.

After lunch we were in Iceberg Alley, Planeau.  Our outing was Zodiac’s only, where we were able to cruise around the bay looking at the ice and also looking for seals.  And boy, did we ever find the seals!  It seemed like every other piece of sea ice contained a sleeping Leopard Seal.  They would look up at us as we drove by and stopped to take pictures.

One particular seal decided it might be time to take a swim, so he slithered off the ice and swam between two boats to take a look at us.  Vlad, our driver, had a Gopro on a stick that he put in the water.  The seal seemed to like looking at it.  He practically came into our boat to take a look at us.  After some time taking his picture, we set off across the bay and darn if he didn’t follow us for a while.  It was definitely a highlight of the trip.

Today, the crew setup the gangway for the Polar Plunge.  There were 78 brave souls who braved the cold in their swimsuits to jump off the platform with a rope around their middle to experience that cold water up close.  We didn’t have a desire, but our friend took the leap.  I think there was general agreement that it was very cold but they were glad they did it.

Dinner was exceptionally good this evening with lamb chops and seafood pasta being featured.  Flipper joined us and after dinner a group of us gathered around the table to share several bottles of fine wine.  The bar manager, Sixto, suggested we put together a group of 20 to have a wine and cheese tasting on the way back to Ushuaia.

Tomorrow: Our last day of outings before heading home.