1-12-20 - Too close whale encounter
/We are awakened to the now very familiar accented voice of Michael wishing everyone, “a beautiful good morning to you.” But this time, instead of reminding us breakfast will be in 15 minutes, he tells us that we are entering the Lemair Channel famous for its absolutely stunning beauty. Kyle has already stated that there is no way we are going to be able to top the last two days and he fears we have peaked and are on a downward slope now.
Well, apparently the Lemaire Channel is doing its damndest to prove Kyle wrong. By the time the boat gets to the other end of the channel 45 minutes later, Kyle and Leanne have amassed over 500 pictures and we still haven’t had breakfast yet. Michael comes on overhead to tell us breakfast is now served and don’t forgot to use hand sanitizer and no rubber boots in the dining room.
Post breakfast, we are dressed and ready to go. We are waiting to board the Zodiac when then another passenger says to his wife, “oh look, we on the Zodiac with the Smurf family.” We look around and all seven us have the same big, bright blue rented winter jacket. Yes, we agree, we do look like the Smurfs and Kyle embraces our new nickname.
When it’s our turn, the Zodiac that pulls up has assistant expedition leader Morton from Denmark. Morton is the elder statesmen of the expedition guides as he has been doing this crazy expedition adventure stuff since the mid-80’s. Longer than some of the other younger guides have been alive.
Our morning Zodiac ride is one we will never forget. The seven of us are loaded onto Morton’s boat and ready to go. First up, we head away from Peterman’s Island out into the open waters. There are about five Zodiacs spread out pretty far from each other. One of them has spotted 2-3 humpback whales but they are way up a fair distance from us. The uber-experienced Morton leverages that experience and tells us that chasing humpbacks is not the best way to do it, rather we should stay put and let them come to us. With that he turns off the engine and we sit there floating.
As if on cue, a gigantic humpback glides to the surface not 10 meters from us. It is a full grown whale of 50 feet. The whale looks at us, puts his head down, fin up and starts to swim glide on the surface right at the boat. Holy crap! This is like yesterday’s Humpback encounter but 100 times scarier. Screw the jaws music, this whale apparently has it in for us. Dying from hypothermia in the freezing water as a humpback whale clubs you over the head with his tail over and over again sounds worse right now than getting eaten by a great white shark.
When the humpback whale is literally 1 meter (3 feet) from us, he does a massive dive down and his fin rolls down and tail flips out of the water and back down as the whale disappears a mere inches from the Zodiac. There is some debate on the boat as to whether the whale actually hit the side of the boat. There were twelve people on that boat and Kyle is convinced one of the group had to have crapped their pants over our near fatal whale encounter. Leanne says that her heart stopped beating for 10 seconds. The whale is down for about 3-5 minutes while our heartrates and breathing return to normal but still leaving 11 wary passengers and a smiling Morton.
With whale watching, you often hear the whale expunging water from its blow hole before you see them. Well, we are sitting there on the ledge of the Zodiac when we hear a massive blowing sound. We actually feel the whale blow hole water on our skin before we see him. The crazy loud sound startled Kyle so badly that he jumps up and nearly falls backward into the water. If he had, he would have actually landed on the whale who has surfaced inches from the boat. A badly frightened Kyle is now on the floor of Zodiac clutching his phone and trying to recover enough to take pictures.
The whale swims off but then turns around and charges in the direction of the boat. He is underwater so we can’t see him but soon the waters around the Zodiac start to spin and churn as the Zodiac is knocked about. As we look into the waters a massive wall of bubbles appears and whale circles around and swims right through it.
Morton explains to us that we have just witnessed the whale bubble netting for his food. The whale uses its size to spin and churn the water in circles forming a massive wall of bubbles. The krill, the main food source of the humpback whale, pile up by the thousands if not tens of thousands against the impenetrable bubble wall. The whale then circles around behind and comes and eats the massive pile of krill. Obviously more efficient that trying to eat them one by one. And also very rare to witness as you need to be practically on top of the whale to see the bubble wall under the water.
The kids ask Morton if that is one of the best whale encounters he’s ever had. “Yes,” Morton agrees, “one of the best.” Now that’s really saying a lot coming from someone who’s been doing this stuff 30-40 years. “Damn, I think we just won the whale lottery,” Kyle exclaims, “well worth it as long as no one died.”
We spend the rest of the time cruising the open waters continuing our whale watching quest. We do see a large humpback pod and even see 5 whales cresting the surface at the same time. There were a lot of whale tales in and out of the water (whales don’t always bring their tales out of the water when diving, only for very deep dives). It was fantastic but the whales were a fair distance from us and it didn’t even come close to the whale that almost was the end of us. Yes, we got extremely lucky indeed and we have Morton who we have no dubbed “Morty the Whale Whisperer” to thank for it.
We are dropped off for our land excursion on Peterman’s Island. More snow hiking up hills and mountains to obtain the incredible views from a higher vantage point. Each harbor and landscape has a different, unique aspect to it but all have one thing in common and incredible beauty that is beyond words. We see a lot of Adelie penguins. The Adelie’s are better suited for the cold weather than the Gentoo and Chinstrap penguins so the Adelie’s dominate the penguin colonies as we continue our quest south.
The sun has broken through the clouds for the first time giving us sunlight, swatches of deep blue sky and brilliant reflections off the bright white clouds. After lunch, we head to the outside top deck to get pictures. These are the first landscape pictures incorporating the sun and they do not disappoint.
The afternoon expedition is a landing in Port Charcot. There is a long snow hike up to the peak where there is a monument of rocks constructed as a memorial for some unnamed person who perished here long ago. Yes, Antarctica is beyond beautiful but is not risk free. In fact, Kyle turns around to find a passenger taking a selfie right on the edge of the rock cliff that drops about 100 feet into the sea below. The guide monitoring this peak becomes apoplectic and starts screaming at her to get away from the ledge and get back on safe ground which she does but not without being a little embarrassed as 40 people watch the spectacle. Good thing it wasn’t The Viking Overlord or he would have been so enraged at the safety violation that he might just have chucked her off the cliff to teach her a lesson.
Every landing so far has resulted in scores of penguins, birds and seals. Often times, you can’t even walk without practically stepping on a penguin. We wrap up the hiking and head to the water to get a Zodiac. We end up with our favorite guides Sarah and Morgan again but this time it’s not because we’ve pre-arranged it but because we are slow. They are always the last Zodiac to go out as they have to load all their equipment in it. Sometimes getting our clan of seven assembled all together and down to the water results in our being the last ones to arrive and that is the case today.
Our Zodiac cruise is a place named the Iceberg Graveyard. We not sure if it’s a graveyard for penguins and seals or for tourists who fell to their death taking ill-fated selfies on cliffs. There are more icebergs in this section of water than we have seen up to this point. Thousands? Tens of thousands? Who knows but it is a sight to behold. The icebergs here seem to have a deeper blue tint to them. We have learned that the blue results from older ice where all the air bubbles have been compressed out. At that point, the ice absorbs red and green colors and reflects blue creating these deep blue vertical crevasses in the ice.
Sarah and Morgan inform us that we are unlikely to record acoustic wildlife on this Zodiac trip so we spend the time asking about their research. After “the season” in Antarctica (Nov – Mar), Morgan is headed for Canada close to the north pole. She will be spending the next 3-4 years researching the reactions and effects on blue whales from the introduction of man-made sounds. There are sections that far north that have only recently been opened up to people so the whales have never been exposed to man-made sounds such as boat motors. Sarah is headed to Cabo, Mexico to focus on researching dolphin sound communications. What an experience to get so much exposure to scientific researchers.
The daily recap contains more pictures and mini-lecture on humpback whale migration. “That whale today almost migrated its way onto our Zodiac today,” Kyle points out. We were told yesterday that we will be having a special Antarctica dinner tonight and to dress warmly. Kyle joked that they were going to send us to the dining room and turn the air conditioning on full blast.
The morning expedition brought us as far south as the trip will take us marking the halfway point and the boat turned around and started to head back. Our special dinner is a full on BBQ on the outdoor deck as we enter the famed Lemair Channel again on our way back. We grab our food and settle into a corner table with a perfect view of the channel. We can barely remember to eat the views are so breathtaking. After dinner, the kids are getting cold so they wander off to warm up inside a little and Leanne goes up to get more food leaving Kyle alone at the outdoor table. A bunch of fellow passengers materialize and occupy the seats.
Kyle ends up across from two older women from Illinois. The subject of our trip comes up and Kyle is telling them some of the highlights. When Tibet comes up, one of the women asks Kyle where the Dalai Lama resides. Kyle answers that he fled Tiber in 1959 and lives in exile in India and gives a little of the history we learned while we were there. The subject turns to the Panchen Lama and Kyle says that the Panchen Lama is disputed. In May 1995, Gedhun Nyima was named the 11th Panchen Lama by the Dalai Lama from India. The Chinese authorities ignored this and selected Chokyl Gyalpo as the Panchen Lama in Nov, 1995. Gedhun Nyia was taken into custody by the Chinese and has never been seen again. Neither the Chinese nor the Tibetan exile government recognize each other’s selection of the Panchen Llama.
The other woman stares at Kyle and simply says “your wrong.” Kyle is taken aback and not sure how to respond. “I’m pretty sure I’m not wrong, I researched this topic pretty extensively on the Internet, I spent two weeks in Tibet, I talked to the locals, I visited the places we’re talking about.” The lady is giving Kyle a withering death stare and re-asserts in a stronger voice, “you’re absolutely wrong.” Kyle is not sure what to say at this point and just returns the stare. The situation has gone beyond uncomfortable so Kyle pulls the parachute ripcord and excuses himself to get more food.
It was the strangest thing. The woman didn’t explain what she thought Kyle was wrong about, why he was wrong, or what she thought the right facts were. Kyle is open to having a goods intellectual debate over the facts but this mad woman looked like she wanted to hang Kyle from a rope over the side the ship. “Who knows, maybe she hated the fact that they we were taking our kids out of school and traveling around the world for a year,” Kyle tries to speculate and make sense of an encounter that made no sense.
No matter as the BBQ turns into a party on deck and we enjoy the views and try to seek out conversations with passengers that don’t wish to inflict harm on us for no apparent reason. As we retire to bed, Kyle says, “I was convinced there was no way today could have topped yesterday but we actually did it.” And Leanne has 2,063 pictures to prove it. A number that smashed her previous record of 1,004 pictures in a single day.
