22 February 2023, Antarctic Cruise Day 9, Bellingshausen Sea, Verdi Inlet –

The day was not over yet.  Not content with smashing records, there was exploration to be done.  No-one on board ship had been here before, and the crew were as eager as the passengers to get out in zodiacs and discover what was to be found.  We cruised further into Verdi Inlet (named for Guiseppe).  The weather by now was sublime, blue skies all around, and barely a breath of wind.

Ian was part of the lucky group to be picked for kayaking – what a day, and what a place!  Imagine heading out in a two person kayak, part of a small flotilla, in a place where no one else has kayaked before.  Preparation took some time, as he donned his very fashionable onesie, followed by waterproof booties and a survival suit.  After what seemed like ages, the kayaks were unceremoniously released into the water, and the group clambered aboard one by one.  They set off on their adventure, making their way through the ice floes in search of seals and penguins.

Meanwhile, I was off on another zodiac cruise, one of the last for the day.  “Any emperor penguins been seen?” asked a fellow passenger as we boarded “No, just lots of seals” came the reply.  We zipped across the water at high speed, to reach the ice floes where the seals were basking in the sunshine, and spent a happy half hour photographing them, and marvelling at the massive icebergs that we were floating amongst.  It was spectacular!

Suddenly came word that there were in fact some emperor penguins to be seen, so we hightailed it across.  They were high up on a massive ice bank – we couldn’t figure out how they got up there, much less how they were going to get down again.  The ice floe was too thick in that area for us to get close, but we could clearly see the little group of four, waddling about.  A lot of the penguins are moulting at the moment, which means they can’t swim to catch fish, so to preserve their energy and food stores, they don’t move any more than necessary.  These animals may rarely, if ever, have seen people or boats before.  Not that the seals seemed very interested in us. 

And so it was back to the ship for another evening of mulling over what we had seen and done today.