WHALES!! This morning we enjoyed incredibly close, personal encounters with both humpback and Minke Whales near the Yalour Islands, named for the Argentinean naval lieutenant aboard the Uruguay which rescued the 1901-1904 Swedish Antarctic Expedition. Marine mammals abounded as we spotted crabeater, Weddell, and leopard seals on ice floes and playing in the water. A curious leopard seal frolicked around our Zodiacs as wary Adelie penguins waited on nearby ice floes.
During the afternoon we steamed north through the scenic seven-mile long Lemaire Channel, enjoying clear views of the dramatic landscape and reveling in the balmy weather as the Caledonian Star made her way to Paradise Bay. Reflected vistas of snow-capped peaks greeted us as we entered this protected harbor, named by unknown whalers sometime before 1920.
Many of us trudged through thigh-high snow, climbing the 260-foot peak on the continent behind the Argentinean station, Almirante Brown. A magnificent and awesome view enthralled those who reached the crest. Staring out at the bay filled with icebergs and surrounded by jagged peaks, we drank in the splendor that is only Antarctica. Our spirits filled by the boundless beauty of this continent, many of us returned to childhood and tobogganed down the snow-covered slope, squealing and laughing all the way down.
