February 21 - Cuverville Island, Neko Harbor, Paradise Bay

We awoke this morning to no wind and beautiful sunshine - a total opposite of yesterday. Cuverville Island looked so beautiful in the sun and I was surprised to see that I was not assigned to drive zodiacs, but instead to hike to the top of the hill with Rick. What a gorgeous day to hike! And what great views of the penguins and the landscape with the sun just rising. However, the irony of the morning was that the first Cuverville landing that I am not driving zodiacs is the first time that Humpback whales show up to play with the zodiacs for three hours. I watched with some jealousy as the humpbacks played with the staff zodiacs. Eventually, I was able to head out to them and got to spend about ten minutes with the three whales before it was time to head back to the ship. It was an incredible experience just to be that close to them in the water. You really get a new perspective on how large they are when they are swimming so close to the zodiacs. Just for some perspective, I've attached a photo of the whales amongst the zodiacs.


Zodiacs with whales

Neko Harbor was also beautiful, and again, I got to hike. It was the day of the hike for me. What an amazing day. The sun made the cold temperatures feel almost tropical and I was able to shed my jacket, hat and gloves. Cheli and Rusty even went in their shorts and Cheli spontaneously swam! Well, it was sort of spontaneous. It was low tide and there was an exposed rock just off of shore. For a fun photo, Rusty dropped her off on the rock and then pushed a small ice piece up to it so it looked like she was standing in her shorts on a very small berg. All the people watching started saying she should swim since she has never swum in the Antarctic, so she just dove into the water and swam to shore. Brrr.the water temperature was 2 degrees centigrade.

Anyway, the trek up to the top was amazing and the subsequent views of the glacier and the harbor incredible. Words and photos cannot really describe it, as is the case with much of what I see and do here. What made it even more special was that it was the continental landing, so now I really feel like I've spent some quality time on the continent. On my way down back to the landing site, I saw a young penguin chick running around in circles flapping its wings. It was so funny I had to stop and photograph it. I've attached a small photo trying to catch the action - this is a time where I wish I had video.


Cute chick

In the evening we went to Paradise Bay and cruised around the glaciers and ice. Here, we were treated to a beautiful pink sunset. I've attached one last photo of the day of the scenery.


Paradise sunset