This was supposed to be a quiet transit day of our trip. Rising at 5:30, I saw very little as visibility was limited, but the seas were relatively calm. I decided to go back to bed and see if the day would improve. After a satisfying breakfast, we got a call over the ship PA system that whales were being seen in large quantities.
Kathy and I rushed to the front of the ship and there were spouts everywhere! ” Look to the left front there’s four, to the left three, no there’s another four nearby! Oh look right, three, another five, up front three more, oh next to the ship a pair!” This went on for most of an hour. The whales being seen were the second largest, the Fin Whale and the third largest, the Sei Whale. The Expedition team were in wonder, none had ever seen this quantity, estimated to be a total of several hundreds. The whales were all heading for the krill rich waters of the Antarctic where they would feed up to 20 hours a day. The day certainly had brightened from that early day gloom.
We enjoyed our first spectacular sunset of the voyage last night as we were leaving Antarctic waters.
