LeMaire Channel/Pleneau Island and Peterman Island

Hey Everybody!

It is now November 18th [you know, in blog land]...Before sunrise a small number of us were out on deck to watch the ship pass through the ice in LeMaire Channel. I could not take a picture that did justice to the beauty of this place. Trust me, it was beautiful....

A little later today... we anchored to take a look around in the zodiacs. Occasionally the captain moved the ship to keep the ice away. 

Pleneau Island could have been a shore landing, but conditions were determined to be unsafe. In the end I think that worked out okay because it meant moving on a bit, which resulted in a big Orca Whale surprise. For many people on the trip, the Orcas turned out to be THE highlight of the trip. That was not so for me, but we'll get to that in a bit.

While cruising through the channel we had spotted a small pod of Orcas [3-4] in the distance.Certainly the guides hoped that the whales would stick around in the bay through the morning, but there was no way to know whether they would - or what kinds of behaviors we might see if they did. Our final calculations suggest we were surrounded by a pod of at least 16 or 17 whales. Among that group were a handful of calves. These next two pics were taken by Austin &/or Natalie -- I know I didn't take 'em because I am in the zodiac to which this pod of whales is headed.

Some of you might remember from the Discovery Channel or elsewhere that the Orcas in Antarctica have a unique way of hunting. The Antarctic Orcas create waves with their tales that knock seals off floating ice. It is rarely witnessed by anybody.....our zodiacs just happened to be in the right place at the right time. These pics [taken by Rens & Jing] show the Orcas spy hopping after their waves. The seal is on the ice in both photos. Six times the whales made waves and 4 times the seal flew off the ice but QUICKLY returned to the ice. 

I'm probably wrong, but I think the adults were teaching the calves how to hunt. Orcas are good hunters; I've seen them hunt and play with their catch in Monterey, CA. The seal was very fast, but I find it hard to believe that the whales missed so many opportunities to feed. To further support my argument.... there were a bunch of penguins [scared & swimming FAST!] in the bay, but the whales never touched one of them. What I know for sure is that the hunters on the trip were quite disappointed that they didn't see a kill.... 

Speaking of disappointment...I think I mentioned a few posts back that the trip has been challenging and disappointing at times. It turns out that even on this day people were moaning and groaning about whatever wrongs they think were perpetrated upon them. In fact, sometimes it's just too easy & for brief moments I joined in the conversation. What about? People complained about where the zodiac drivers stopped for viewing, the speed with which they went toward the whales, and with just one day left and not so great weather nobody knew if we'd get to walk on the mainland, etc. As an aside, I will say that there were significant differences in zodiac drivers and I had some less than ideal zodiac trips during the past three weeks.... but at the end of the day & whether the ride has been ideal or not, we were in a pretty amazing place. 

In order to return to my senses I ditched the group for a while when we got to shore at Peterman Island. I told some friends about it later that night, so this isn't going to shock anybody when they read it. Peterman is home to lots of penguins & they were busy courting and building nests. We got to see the cute little Adelie penguins:  

And, of course, the ever-present and adorable Gentoos. Here they are getting to know each other....

This guy is hard at work building a nest for his partner; what you can't see is that he stole this rock from his own nest.... guess he was tired and needed to look productive for a moment while he caught his breath. In his defense, penguins really do seem to have hard lives! 

As you can see by the final picture... at the present time my life is much simpler than the penguins! And, this was the highlight of my day. On a day when everyone was talking whales and "what else do we get" I laid down in the snow away from everybody while the penguins talked amongst themselves [they get quite loud sometimes] and the snow fell. By the time we left Peterman I was grateful for the trip whether I got to touch the mainland or not... speaking of grateful, I didn't know he did it until later, but thanks to Rolf for snapping the photo!

As always, thanks for stopping by.......will wrap up the Antarctica posts in the next 24 hours.