Ship's Log: Cierva Cove is located on the Danco Coast. The Argentine base, Primavera, is located here and is where expedition staff member Federico spent four summers doing research on Leopard Seals. Primavera means “spring” in English and is aptly named because of the richness of grasses and mosses on the land.
This afternoon we loaded onto the zodiacs for an excursion around Cierva Cove. There were some beautiful icebergs and floating bergy bits.
A shot of the Primavera base.
Once again the zodiacs are loaded and ready to explore the area.
Members of the expedition team checking the condition of the cove for safety of the zodiacs.
The surrounding snow covered mountains set a majestic backdrop for the cove.
Huge icebergs were all around us as we explored. This one had a very interesting cave that had melted into the side.
Water was continually eroding away the ice as the waves washed up into the cave.
The blue color on some of the bergs were beautiful and appeared to be from some hidden light source deep within the ice.
A colony of chinstrap penguins.
We saw a Leopard Seal soaking up some sun.
It was a little unnerving at times when the zodiac would run over a chunk of ice and it would hit the propeller making a load blender type sound as it was chopped into bits. So thankful the zodiacs had strong propellers. The engine only choked out a couple of times after hitting an extra large piece.
Bergy bits (no, we didn't chop all of this with the zodiacs).
A shot of the ship to give you an idea of the size of the icebergs we were maneuvering around.
This is a chunk of clear ice that was floating in the cove.
Penguins racing through the water.
Ship's Log: As dinner was ending, Claudia announced that there were Humpback Whales all around the
ship. Humpback Whales are one of the most recognizable of all of the cetaceans, with their
long pectoral flippers that can be up to one-third the length of their entire bodies. The whales
were feeding, lunging out of the water so we could clearly see their entire heads. They were
also diving, showing their flukes or tails. Cameras clicked away to get the perfect shot of the
underside of the tail for our scrapbooks and to send into the HappyWhale.com fluke ID website.
There were shouts of joy every time a whale surfaced and we even saw a mother with a young
calf. The sunset colors provided a beautiful backdrop to the whales and it was a wonderful way
to end a spectacular day in Antarctica.
The group on the bow watching the whales play and feed.
The sun glistening off the snow covered mountains provided a perfect ending for another fantastic day of exploration.
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