Antarctic Peninsula - 2 March 2007
by Kate Laird

Gorgeous day on Thursday...blue skies, warm, no wind at all. It took us 10 hours to motor the 40 miles down here, as we spent at least half that time drifting around with the engine off watching whales, penguins, seals, and icebergs. Anna even made an appearance to whale watch in bare feet - followed shortly thereafter by mother with snow mobile boots. We cut through a channel we've never been through before with lots of bits of ice about, came down to Enterprise Island, and tied up to a wrecked whale boat. We almost didn't recognize the cove from the outside because the melt back has been so severe here in the last six years.

A wide-eyed crabeater seal takes alarm at the appearance of a leopard seal.

One of the best bits was coming upon a crabeater seal sitting on an iceberg. He slept through our arrival but perked up when a leopard seal came over to check out his iceberg - I've never seen such a wide awake crabeater! The leopard seal swam off, and then a fur seal jumped up on the iceberg and joined the crabeater for a bit, and then swam off. A few minutes later, another crabeater turned up, jumped on the iceberg and bounded around so much that the iceberg flipped over and tossed both crabeaters in the water. (Attached picture is of the crabeater and the leopard seal. I have never seen a crabeater with such wide eyes - normally they are asleep or half asleep when we see them.)

We were even slower yesterday: 12 hours to cover 25 miles. Our first five hours, we only managed 3 miles. The day started off with Wilson's Storm Petrels dancing on the water, then a session with a leopard seal swimming with a crabeater seal carcass, lunch at an ice fall, and then we decided we really ought to get cracking, so we headed out through brash ice towards our anchorage for the night.

A humpback whale sports near Seal's bow (photographed by Hamish in the spreaders).

Out in Gerlache Strait, we met up with a humpback whale. We turned off the engine and drifted around, while he visited with us. After about 20 minutes he (or actually probably she - it was one BIG whale) was joined by two others. They spent an hour and a quarter swimming around the boat, showing off all their abilities. It was magic. We got down on the scoot and they were inches away, sticking their great heads just off the boat, and holding station, even though Seal was drifting through the water. Sometimes we had three great heads all next to each other, and they took turns swimming under the boat, rightside up, and then upside down. They put on a burst of speed and headed away from the boat, and then started tail lobbing a bit, and then came around again to swim around the boat.

When they were up close, we could see the hairs around their mouths and the barnacles (some with weed hanging off them) on their heads, under their chins, on their pectoral fins and even sometimes where they had scars, the scars would be filled with barnacles. They spyhopped up so their eyes were just below the surface to get a look at us, and once one rolled to get his eye completely out of the water. They flapped their pectorals in the air, arched their tails in the air, all just feet from the boat. They had an amazing awareness of where the boat was - never nudged it once, though they were swimming under it and around it, sometimes at high speed. We had never seen whales so completely relaxed. They seemed to be as curious about us as we were about them. Although the other theory is that they were listening to Harry Potter: Helen and Anna had been out on deck for about 9 hours already and had retired indoors, preferring to watch the whales through the window while listening to Prisoner of Azkaban. We managed to drag Helen outside for about 20 minutes of it (she's just that much older than Anna to be really excited by the whales, though neither has any idea of how rare it is to see whales like this).

It got later and later, but the whales were still with us, so I fed Helen and Anna their supper and we came in and anchored up by 9:30. It takes a while to secure the boat around here - lines ashore and a couple attempts to get the anchor set in smooth (yet kelp-covered!) rocky bottom. The lifting rudder means we can back the boat right up into the shallows, which keeps us out of range of the car/truck-sized icebergs which could chase us out of an anchorage, and the lifting keel means that if we bump at low tide hiding in the corner (as we did this morning), it doesn't matter.

Seal's bow cuts through the ice.

While we were having dinner (lamb curry and creme brule), the stars came out. Everyone went on deck with the starfinder computer program, and stargazed to the sound of gentoo penguins.

The raised saloon is everything we'd hoped it would be - all during dinner, we were able to watch the day dwindle through the windows, and had the door open part of the time so we could listen to the penguins.

As I'm typing this, I am looking out at the morning light of Ronge Island. There is a seal on an iceberg off to starboard, and we have the door open so we can hear the hillside full of penguins and the chatter of ice. There are a few fur seals here (new in the last 6 years; they've spread considerably since we were here last). Hamish has just cleaned the windows - necessary because they were rather covered with whale snot!

One of the big differences we see since we were here last is having the digital photos and videos. Everyone sits down at the table and looks at everyone else's pictures during happy hour. It's great to see the slightly different perspective each person has behind the lens, and lets us enjoy the day five times over.

Hamish took 500 pictures yesterday, Stu took 300, and everyone else numbered in the 100s...

It's another bright sunny day today, so off to see the penguins!

You can learn more about the Lairds and Seal at their website www.expeditionsail.com.