Orne Harbour

Very calm today the wind has dropped from the 10 to 15ms we have had so far to 1 to 2. Also has been dry so far and a colder start. Outside seeing some more whales early morning, the whales were not very co-operative only giving glimpses of a an odd fin or dark shadow just below surface. But by mid morning some weak sunshine broke through and took the temperature up to around freezing. A slow cruise through the channels to Orne harbour, but even so we have been waiting for another ship to leave so the shore landings and zodiac trips are now running about an hour late. Our group is first out for the zodiac cruise so we have been half ready for quite a while. Finally called and probably one of the best trips, first visited the steep cliff at the entrance to the bay, here there were cormorants and both Genko and Chinstrap penguin colonies side by side. Also saw a fur seal, originally asleep but did raise himself for a picture. We then went into the bay which was full of ice, the wind and the current blowing the ice that breaks off from the glacier back into the bay. Here we saw several orcas amongst the ice, unfortunately no good photos, just a quick show of fin before submerging again. Then further towards the glacier a leopard seal was resting on a larger slab of ice. Little bit of snow falling while we were out, but not enough to disturb the trip. Back at the ship we went to the observation deck for tea and cake (we had missed lunch as thought would be leaving earlier), whilst watching the landing groups follow the zigzag path to the top of the hill to see the penguin colony from the landside. Having just settled our group was called for the landing trip. We decided to stick with the tea and cake! Photo 7 is a picture of the snow climb that was today’s on shore event, judging by the fact that all the groups were being called early (our group’s call was 30 minutes earlier than the latest schedule) it would appear a good number of people decided to watch this event rather than participate.Read more