Wow, just wow.

Thursday, January 7, 2016

As Joost so eloquently wrote:  Wow.  Just Wow.

Today was such an amazing day.  We have been so amazingly lucky to have the most incredible weather during our time in Antarctica.  Today was no exception.

Bright early morning had us surrounded by ice bergs, snow, glaciers and amazing sunshine and blue skies.  Breathtaking!

One of Peer's cartoons.
 If a glacier calves, it would cause a wave that could come way up on shore,
 so we were warned that if the penguins started racing uphill....

We took the zodiacs for our last shore excursion in Neko Harbor.   As we hike through Gentoo colonies, we were careful to step over the multiple penguin highways.  Although I have over a thousand photos of penguins (afraid that is not an exaggeration) I could not help but take more!  They are so cute and their antics are so entertaining that I cannot help myself!

We hiked to the top of the hill for incredible views of the ship in the harbor (she looks sooooo tiny from up there), over tops of glaciers, a skua nest and the line of trekkers.  We sat up on the rock for a long time.  With the sun shining on us we were pleasantly warm… until the wind would blow!  Whew, right through you!

On our way down we got to do some great slides!  The slide most of us took was bumpy and we got some air!  WooHoo!  (Also a bit of snow down my pants, yikes!)  Heidi, who has been climbing up masts and out on the bowsprit daily, was worried about sliding, but she finally did it!  Yay, Heidi!

It was really hard to leave the landing… our last landing in Antarctica.  But return to the ship we did.  It was Rosemary and Keith’s 44^th anniversary and they had champagne for everybody.  What a wonderful way to celebrate!

One of Peer's fun cartoons.

Captain Eric

Elisabeth, Heidi and I climbed up on the yardarm of the foremast for a group photo!  Elisabeth had not climbed before and she was worried.  But she did it!!  Great job, Elisabeth!

Annukka and Gordi, our two awesome guides!

Elisabeth, Stacy and Heidi out on the yard arm!

Some whales were in the harbor and an ice berg was calving.  Very exciting.  THEN the whales started feeding right next to the boat!  They were making the bubble net then coming up the center with their mouths wide open to scoop in the krill!  My camera card was full (OMG!!!) so I did not get photographs (oh no!) but Jeroen and Elisabeth shared a few of theirs with me (Thank you!) but most are memories in my head. 

The rest of these photos, including all of the whales, are from Elisabeth.  Thank you!!!!!!!

These gentle giants are right next to the ship!

The bubble net.

Gaping mouth to gather up krill "trapped" in the bubble "net"!

Open wide!

Almost feel like you can look down to his tonsils!

Waving good-bye!

What an amazing day, sensory overload, what an incredible experience.

Again, like Joost said, “wow, just wow”.

Stacy, Vet at Sea