I spent all morning on the deck watching seals and penguins and looking for whales. It was a bit overcast but the icebergs were beautiful and we had a great time chatting. Once we got into Graham passage, they served hot chocolate on the bow while we checked out the beautiful passage.
We didn’t go all the way through the passage, but we went in to the mouth and it was quite small for our large ship. There were a few whales, and some beautiful icebergs. We also saw a few fur seals laying on different icebergs, floating around. Once little fellow happened to be right at our turning point so we got a very close look at him.
He awoke to a huge ship in his face, rolled over and went back to sleep. We also saw 2 young fur seals playing “King of the Iceberg” and seemed to be having a pretty good time. It was a bit cloudy so we couldn’t see the top, but there were towering mountains with snow and ice and they were huge and beautiful and amazing.
The icebergs were awesome too. Some huge, some small, some just ice cubes, and one bloody iceberg. We all agreed that while initially we were jealous of the other ship for getting to go in the zodiacs, once we got into the bay in the comfort of our own ship, way in with the mountains and ice all around us, we were thrilled to be on the Ioffe!
So we slowly turned around and headed out of Graham passage and out to Wilamena Bay. I enjoyed the cruise down from the deck and the bridge. Once at Wilamena Bat (also known as Whale-a-mena Bay due to the frequency of whale sightings there) they launched the zodiacs with amazing expediency because they’d sighted 2 pairs of humpbacks logging around in the Bay.
We ran and got dressed and were on the 1st zodiac out. Poor Ziggy tried to explain the man overboard procedure while we were all craning our necks to see the whales.
We finally got through it and headed over to them. We proceeded to have the most amazing whale experience. Even Ziggy, our guide was excited. The whales, 2 Humpbacks, were fascinated by our boats and they swam all around and within 5 ft of our zodiacs.
They spy hopped to look at the boats, so we saw the coloring and lumps on their heads and the pleating on their throats (for expansion when filling with h2o and food.) They showed us their dorsal fins and their wide backs,
even a few tail flukes, but the tail flukes don’t usually come out of the water unless they’re diving deep and these guys were staying up with us which was just fine with me.
They stuck around for at least a half hour and every zodiac (there were 6 in the end) got an amazing view. Finally 2 Minke whales showed up and they all 4 swam around us for a few minutes, then they headed off. We also saw a mother and calf pass by as well, but they weren’t as interested in us.
Once the 4 had gone, we cruised around the bay, saw some fur seals then headed over nearer the boat and in the lee of a small island. When we arrived in Wilamena bay, the water was literally like glass, flat and beautifully reflective with a light snowfall. By now, the wind and snow had picked up and it was getting a big chilly. We did find some amazing icebergs. The blues just glow from the ice.
We also found a leopard seal who was mildly interested in us. We snapped some pictures and headed back to the boat for the party.
The passengers from the Vavilov came over for a cookout and awards banquet. It was fun to see Carla and Ian, Muhammad and Rom again.
The food wasn’t great, so I didn’t end up eating much, but I started in on the beers. Once the awards were given, they took the Vavilov passengers home. It was snowing pretty hard and was getting dark. At this point, I was really glad that the party was on our ship and I didn’t have to pile back into a zodiac and ride home. It was the first cook out I’d ever been to in the snow. Very fun. The Marathon Tours crew had some great things to say about their Under Armour gear which was nice.
Once the Vavilov people were back in their zodiacs headed to their ship, the REAL party started and we were all in very high spirits. (oh yeah, the 2 whales from our zodiac adventure came back at the beginning of our bbq and did another show.
They actually hung around the whole time and were still there when the Vavilov people left. So we were all in the bar getting our drink on, loud and laughing and carrying on. Dutch and Mary got into a tattoo contest (Duncan was drawing them on Dutch) When Mary one-upped Dutches taped on beer tab piercings, Dutch checked out for the night. The group had thinned considerably so we joined the younger crowd who were in the lounge where they were playing a drinking game. I stepped on a basket of chips which I later ended up vacuuming up. We were all quite loaded.
At one point in the night, Duncan snuck me out on the deck to see a tiny snow petryl, a pure white bird with jet black eyes and beak. He was laying in the snow on the deck. You could barely see him. It was very beautiful and very peaceful. Then we got back to the party. We ended up going dunking in the plunge pool on the boat. The water was pumped directly in from the sea. At first we went in in shorts. Then ran back into the sauna laughing and panting. Someone then said we had to do it again for pictures. It was a really fun night.
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