RWSE Day 13: Magical Cruise & Penguin

Mui and I were taking our time getting ready for the zodiac cruise … waiting for the invite to go down to the embarkation deck. When the PA crackled to life, it was EL Sara announcing the last zodiac! Whaaat! We must have missed the earlier announcement while we were making our way to the cabin.

The good news is that we made it to the last zodiac. The better news is that the only other people on the zodiac with us were members of the expedition team — Tennessee driving; Phil and Matilda hitching a ride.

Nothing quite like a private zodiac cruise … unintentional though it was — ice floes and icebergs bobbing as they followed the swells and the current; the blue berg with the window providing an excellent photo op for us. To top it off, we found penguins — both emperors and Adelies — rafting by on ice floes. They were quite amenable to our presence and patiently posed for us.

The highlight was six emperors that went about their business as though we weren’t nosed up to their ice conveyance. What made this encounter even better was the changing light conditions … warming up the landscape and the penguins as the sun moved lower on the horizon. We stayed out as long as we could with these emperors. Eventually, though, our nearly-frozen fingers — gloves removed to operate cameras — broke through the ‘haze of emperor penguin delight’ … time to head back to Ortelius. By this time, the light had faded to almost nothing and the penguins had laid down on the ice to sleep.

Mother Nature sure gifted us a memorable day! My photos don’t do justice to what we experienced, but I will share a few of them regardless.Read more