We arose early to get ready for the 8:00am call for Zodiacs. After a quick breakfast and suiting up, we got ready to kayak! The water was very clam, like glad, perfect day, sunny, and no wind. We kayaked around the part f the island, saw two shipwrecks and the remains of a hut, lots of underwater kelp and small fish, and penguins n Shags and Petrels galore. The kayaks were very stable so a lot of fun to guide through the ice field. We tracked a sea lion for a bit and got some good photos of him.
Back to the ship for the Polar Plunge! Barney was brave enough to do this, and I took photos. He tried to dive in and realized this wold put hi far beyond the Zodiac crews so ended up half-diving, and then quickly back up to the platform. He said it was amazingly cold, he could not even hold the cup of hot chocolate and the shot of vodka they offered afterwards, his hands were shaking so much. After getting back to the cabin and putting on some warm clothes we went off to lunch. Afterwards, I was trying a few arias to see if there was something I could do a cappella for the staff wedding, I settled on “Venus’ Birds” which I thought I could sing in my post-bronchitis state.
Time for our actual continental landing! We went to the …. Portal, and hiked up a the snow a bit, seeing some spectacular ice floes and mountains. We had an incredible 360 degree view over the snow fields, and we were glad to have the walking sticks to help navigate as it got rather slippery. There were some incredible icebergs, including one that looked like the tower in a European cathedral, and we saw seals sunning themselves. We descended the peak, and then our Zodiac ride happened, and oh what a ride! We saw two humpback whales in the distance, blowing and diving. They came closer, so we had to stop and stay put per the rules. The one humpback was very curious about us, swam very close and dived, swam around and even under our Zodiac. Three times he blew through his blowhole and we actually got whale spray on us! At one point he swam next to out Zodiac, turned on his side, and we could see how beautiful, intelligent eye looking at us. It was breathtaking. Hard to take good photos when such excitement is happening, but I will never forgot the look in his eye, just checking us out and playing with us. What an extraordinary experience!
We came back, warmed up, and while I prepared for a prospective client zoom meeting, Barney headed up to the bar to met with the Aussie gang. I joined them for dinner, and we had a great time … these are folks who really know how to enjoy life. What a day - kayaking, the polar plunge, the continental landing, the whale. It could not get better.
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