Enterprise Island

This morning consisted of a zodiac boat cruise with Justin, in the snow and later rain as we cruised amongst the icebergs in and around Enterprise Island. The icebergs were such beautiful sculptures it was like being in Nature’s art gallery. The varying hues of blue were indescribable ( so I won’t try to describe them!!) and the grey sky behind looked pink in the many photographs taken.
Justin was pretty slow and cautious driving the boat which wasn’t maximising people’s enjoyment as a. Everyone wanted to see more whales 🐳 and b. The driving snow wasn’t too comfortable.
We were also v aware that all the other zodiacs were steaming out into open water..... and yes there were humpbacks 🐋!! Finally we joined everyone else and were treated once more to some close encounters with 3 feeding humpbacks 🐋
Sadly we missed the spectacle of the morning- a fully breaching humpback 🐋 as we were returning to ship.
We did manage to spot this huge whale ( about 36,000kgs) lift it’s full body out of the water x 2 out on the horizon...... watched by the passengers in 5 other zodiacs..... gutted!..... it’s just the luck of the draw on the driver you get each excision on the experience you have.....and this time we were so far away.
Back on board we ironically warmed up in preparation for .... the Polar Plunge at 11.30am.
I will do another post re the Polar Plunge photos but basically I jumped off the ship into freezing waters whilst K in 4 layers took photos from the top deck!
After a hot shower it was time for lunch and the captain pulled up the anchor and sailed approx 3 hours south to Cuverville Island where we were due to have an afternoon excursion.
After lunch we went up to the Observation Lounge for a coffee and spent an hour or so watching numerous humpback whales feeding in the Antarctic Waters as we passed them - not a care in the world- any of us!! The blows were easy to spot at the sea was so calm and we realised a lot of the whales 🐳 fed around the icebergs, no matter how big or small. We all ended up with whiplash looking from side to side as people spotted blow after blow, tail slaps, fin slaps etc.
Just before 3pm we returned to the cabin to recharge camera batteries etc and I was watching the news whilst K was whale spotting from the verandah.
K called me out as there were some humpbacks 🐋 v close on the left of the verandah. I was half complaining on getting my socks wet when on looking to the right we spotted 2 humpbacks heading straight towards us just near the edge of the verandah, when suddenly....... a 3rd unseen humpback fully breached with a pirouette right outside the verandah not 5m from where we were both standing!!!! It was so close K missed the first photo as she was zoomed out but managed to get a second shot as the whale lowered its huge body back into the water. OMG what a treat?!!! We couldn’t believe it and both broke out into spontaneous cheers and clapping!!!
Watching the whales, it breached again near the stern of the boat before it dived never to be seen again. How lucky are we.... our own breaching whale outside 502!!
Back up in the Observation Lounge everyone was talking about the breaching whale .... but the only person to get a photo of it because it was so close to the ship was K!!!
Everyone with massive lenses were less than courteous as they were gutted they didn’t get “ the shot”!!! A win for cameras with small lenses..... and K’s exceptionally sharp timing.

Photos to followRead more