Fin whales, Humpbacks and A68-a

Up at 8am for breakfast. The night passage was exceptionally calm and although the temperature had definitely dropped to 1 deg C, it was another grey, calm day.
We were greeted to increasing amounts of icebergs, of increasing size throughout the morning.
Just before lunch we were treated to about 10-20 fin whales swimming around us, identified by their clearly visible blows, their long, sleek backs and their small dorsal fins. The sea was flat calm and they swam so close to the boat it was a real treat to see.
We came into the lee of A68-a, the biggest iceberg in the world currently, at about 12pm.
The iceberg is reported to be 152kms in length x 48kms width with height of 300m (520 sq kms) and calved off the Larsen Glacier in 2017, floating around the Weddell Sea since. It has been calculated 1.1 trillion tonnes!!
Due to the decision being made to go and see this phenomenon it meant we were unable to go and see/ visit Elephant Island which was a disappointment for me as this is where 22 of Shackletons men were stranded whilst he sailed in the James Caird to South Georgia to get help to rescue all of the crew of the Endurance during his Trans Imperial Antarctic Expedition.
K and I had the speediest lunch ever which was good because after lunch there were more whales to be seen from every angle of the boat!
At 1.15pm we were told that there would be an impromptu zodiac cruise for everyone at 2.20pm- bonus!
Getting dressed in an extra bottom layer and extra gloves we got into the zodiac with driver Christian..... but also Stefan who is absolutely delightful but has the biggest camera lens and gets in everyone’s way with it to get the shots he wants!
We spent the next 2 hours driving amongst the icebergs and being treated to swimming fin whales within 10-25m from the boat and all within the lee of this huge floating iceberg reportedly twice the size of Luxembourg.
Fin whales are v basic in their behaviour so we were all super excited when we came across some humpbacks that were not only close but showed us their flukes as they dived deeper into the clear, frigid water. Lots of photos were taken by everyone.
We were pretty sure we also saw a Southern Right whale when it came out of the water and we saw it’s barnacled face.
On top if this we saw lots of cape petrels bobbing around in the surface.
We also came across 1 lone Adele penguin chick atop a good size berg whilst next to it there was a huge fur seal sat atop the smallest piece of floating ice- maybe an exchange of accommodation could be negotiated!
After about 1.5 hours I had really cold feet, hands and face so tmrw I will def need extra layers whilst K said she was quite warm except for her hands due to using her camera.
Back on the boat it was warming up with a hot drink and then intermittent warming and freezing as we had to keep going outside or heaps more fin and humpback whales.
At 6pm there had just been too much excitement so we came to the cabin .... where we watched more fin whales from the comfort of our sofa!
Now just having our daily recap and briefing before dinner at 7.30pm.
Another totally incredible day .... and we are still only in the Scotia Sea and not even far enough south to be in the Antarctic Peninsula. 4 days in the peninsula to go!

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