Lindblad Cove and Mikkelsen Harbour

After 2 and a half days at sea, including 18 hours of high winds and 4 - 5 m waves, we have arrived in Antarctica! A world of white and black terrain punctuated with blue water and bobbing icebergs and brash surface ice.
We headed out on our zodiacs to explore and what a treat was in store. Straight up we had sightings of whales and seals. One then two minke whales played around and under our zodiacs - I had taken the telephoto lens but really I should have had the shorter one because they were right next to us. The water is so clear we could track them underwater as they swam around us! Then we saw a crabeater seal on an iceberg with a leopard seal attempting to jump and join it, unsuccessfully, but we found a nice leopard seal sleeping on another iceberg. All the time we continued to have sightings of minke whales and then to finish our trip we trailed a humpback for a while. Here they rarely breach or do any of the acrobatics we associate with them at home - here they are concentrating on eating krill so tend to skim along the surface or just breathe then dive down to feed. All around us was the amazing ice formations and the clear still air. An amazing introduction to this almost alien world.
In the afternoon we had a short shore excursion to Mikkelsen Harbour - another old whaling station which is now a meteorological outpost. Highlight was seeing a Weddel seal which was actually quite cute - otherwise lots of gentoo penguins and lots of penguin poo! Smelly! Also the emergency shed on the site had an outdoor dunny with a great view!
Addendum - just leaving dinner when the bridge said feeding humpbacks at front of boat - so straight out into freezing cold at 10pm to see humpbacks bubble feeding in front of us! What a day!!Read more