Antarctica Ahoy!
Day 4 – 05 January 2023
Today was a day of milestones for most of us. During the night we had crossed into Antarctic waters (South of 60°)!
We awoke to a much smoother sailing than yesterday with seabird and marine mammal surveys kick-starting at 6:30am. These surveys foreshadowed what was to come in the rest of the day with two humpback whales being observed as soon as they began. Then, moving onto our mid-morning surveys Kat spotted the first of many more fin whale groups that were travelling very close to the ship. This was one of the first major sightings of the voyage and us marine mammal surveyors seemed to be joined by the rest of Hurtigruten’s guests within a matter of minutes.
Today was also a busy day in terms of the seabird surveys as we started off with seeing the Antarctic prions, blue petrels, white-chinned petrels and cape petrels (our favourite and namesake). We ended up seeing copious numbers of Southern fulmars flying and, when we finally saw land again, we were greeted by chinstrap penguins porpoising in the waves and alongside the ship.
The afternoon began with a good omen as Laura was able to join us for lunch and the afternoon surveys after being debilitated by the quaking of the Drake’s Passage. In the afternoon, as we approached the continental shelf of the South Shetland Islands the marine mammal sightings really picked up with many groups of both fin whales and humpback whales being seen from all angles and varying distances. There was even a suspected blue whale and ‘sealy object’ sighting!
Another MASSIVE milestone of today was our first sighting of land. Land Ahoy!! Our first site of the land was Smith Island of the South Shetland Islands on the starboard side and Snow Hill Island in the far distance on the port side of the ship. We also caught sight of our very first iceberg!
The late afternoon and early evening proved to be magical as the marine mammal surveyors were rushed on their feet with a number of different sightings of fin and humpback whales being logged. The highlight for us was watching a group of around five humpback whales, including a calf, breeching, fluke slapping, side swimming and milling approximately 10 metres from the hull. This moment was so special that the ship was brought to a halt so that we were able to hear the whale’s exhalations and see their full size below the surface. This moment was so magical it brought a certain *A* to tears.
After the huge flurry of marine mammal observations we headed off to relax and eat our tea whilst watching chinstrap penguins swimming past us from the windows of the restaurant.
The evening ended with a briefing of what is to come tomorrow, a review of both the mammal and seabird sighting data today, and planning for penguin surveys tomorrow.
Written by Maddie