Antartica Day 3: The Peninsula

Weather: 5 degrees Celsius, Cloudy, Wind 20 knots

WE'RE HERE! Seriously, this is the view we had after breakfast:

The food on this ship is awesome. Had a good pile to eat, gawked at all the icebergs that dwarfed yesterday's little guy (don't worry little berg, I still love you), and got ready for our first dive of the trip. Also - humpbacks popped by for a morning hello, and officially welcomed us! Thanks guys!

First dive was at Cudarville Island, just a checkout dive. Turns out we managed to show up in the middle of an algae bloom, visibility is about 6-8 feet. Still better than home! Lots of kelp and sea stars, it's actually quite similar to diving the West coast - but colder, and with icebergs and penguins. We followed up the dive with a shore landing (that's right, we didn't just spend all our time in the water!). Passed by some fur seals, and watched a berg calve just as the second dive zodiac went by! Calved, flipped, got grounded, lost another chunk, moved again, then settled in. Good things those guys were in drysuits too!

On shore, we hung around with our first gentoo penguins! Fluffy babies too!! Most of them were moulting, so all the penguins were extra cranky, and extra fluffy. Kinda hard not to love that. They were pretty comfortable around humans, they just walked up to us and looked at us funny, then waddled off.

Oh, and you can totally smell them from the boat.

Back to Ortelius for lunch, then to gear up for dive #2!

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So, one thing to mention is the set up for the dives is.... Interesting. Even our poor dive guides are having some Whiskey Tango Foxtrot moments. We'll come back to that!

Second dive at Danco Island. HUGE sheet of ice on this site! Gorgeous! Rapid slope drop-off. Similar vis, possibly a hair less.. Lots of kelp, anemones, sea stars, krill, and general floaty critters. Quite a beautiful dive! Memo to self: add second pair of gloves, because seriously - fake nails make your fingers go extra cold, extra fast. Why do I even have fake nails...

Toured some icebergs on the way back, I am in LOVE with them.

Time for dinner!

Hugs and fishes,

-Sab

#Antarctica #ColdWater #SaltWater #DiveTravel