Antarctica 2-3-22

This morning we rode in Zodiacs around Fournier Bay.

Toby, the whale expert,  drove our group of 8 is the expedition.  

Above: Toby (who also is a professor at The Atlantic Marine college in Maine).  

First up we saw a male leopard seal resting on an iceberg 

Leopard seals have elongated heads and a sinuous body.  They always seem to be smiling because the edges of it’s mouth curls upward.  


This was our first sunny day and the shadows on the bergs and mountains were magnificent 

We encountered lots of “brash” - water which is similar to boating trough a thick sloshie.  

We saw a lot of leopard seals on this zodiac trip. 

These seals are about 10 - 12 feet long and weigh between 800 and 1000 pounds.  Female leopard seals are slightly larger than males.  

Below is a juvenile leopard seal. 

Next up- champagne on the Zodiac while driving  around Fournier Bay , Antarctica!   Cheers!  (Slainte for Reamon:)

The scenery this morning was magnificent with sun and clouds and glaciers.  Again, pictures do not do justice to the beauty!

Deeper around the bay we got to see 2 Fur seals ( which are not true seals).  Fur seals are more closely related to sea lions than to true seals.  They have ear flaps and can walk up on back flippers.  

True seals, like leopard, elephant and Crabeater seals, have no ear flaps and move along on their bellies. 

Below are fur seals

Can you spot penguins and elephant seal below?

Coming back to the ship we saw a humpback whale in the distance but could not go more towards it since we already turned a 90 minute Zodiac cruise into over a 2hour one. 

With only 48 people aboard the ship we are having much more time available for excursions

Next up-hot tub:

View from hot tub:

During the afternoon we rode around Dallman Bay and turned to head farther south 

The weather turned and the winds blew at steady 40 knots with gusts of much more.  There were humpback whales at bow.    I went outside and was having hard time walking in wind on port side.   When I turned the corner to the bow of ship I was nearly blown over!  So I looked from inside and no humpback pictures unfortunately   

Ending another perfect day in the bottom of the earth!