Pourquoi Pas Island & The Gullet
Another day south of the Antarctic Circle! It is so rare for expedition ships to have two whole days this far south and we soaked up every minute of it.
The day started out with a spectacular sunrise over the mountains of the Antarctic Continent. After breakfast, we had a variety of options for the morning’s activities. We spent time ashore visiting the Adelie penguin colony and enjoyed a good leg stretch.
It was a wonderfully calm morning so we had our first opportunity to go sea kayaking in the ice! What a great chance to explore a bit on our own, watch the penguins going to the colony and just savor the silence of Antarctica.
There was also a chance to go for a Zodiac cruise where we discovered several icebergs with crabeater seals resting on them. We also saw some deep and beautifully blue pieces of ice that had recently calved off the nearby glaciers.
After lunch, we sailed north towards a narrow channel name “The Gullet.” The eagle eyes of Captain Kruess spotted a pod of killer whales ahead of the ship. We had great looks at these “wolves of the sea.” It was a large pod consisting of 20-30 animals with many calves. These were “Type B” killer whales, which are known to feed on seals and penguins. We had great looks at these true Antarctic whales before we moved on northwards to the Gullet.
This is very narrow waterway that not many ships brave going through because it is usually full of ice. We enjoyed the spectacular scenery as the officers on the bridge expertly maneuvered their way through the tight channel. We saw Minke whales charging around and crabeater and fur seals resting on ice, and just tried to take it all in.
Who knows what kind of adventures tomorrow will bring?
