We anchored near Mikkleson Harbour on another beautiful day. There was the usual sign in the lift telling us where we were, on which deck to board our boats, items we must have on hand and what time all must be back on board.
Our first expedition of today was for both of us on a Special Ops Boat at 09:15 so we were up early to have time for breakfast and to don all our warm, waterproof gear. It was good to have Trevor with me this time as he takes the better photos and it meant that I could keep my hands warm.
This turned out to be the best boat excursion of all and it had been saved until the last. Our guide was Loreen and she taught us so much. We learnt about the different types and sizes of the icebergs, the smallest of which is called a Growler. She named all the birds flying around, including the Skua which eats the penguin eggs and chicks. There were also gulls and terns. We saw a Leopard Seal closer than ever before and a hump-backed whale and Loreen gave us lots of information on each of them.
In the afternoon, Trevor went out to land on a zodiac and saw more than the usual 100s of penguins of skuas just waiting to pounce on and eat the penguin chicks. Being near the end of summer, the eggs had hatched and the chicks were beginning to lose their furry coats so that they would be able to swim. Lying on the ice were dozens of whale bones which had been left by whalers until 1976 when whaling was banned. They also took more time to look closely at the rocks and mountains which had been formed through volcanic eruptions millions of years ago. My afternoon was spent in the library working on a half-finished, very large jigsaw and reading my book.
Whale bones
In the evening, we listened to an excellent talk by Dr Chris Croxson on whales and seals. It was really interesting to learn about the various species of whales and how different they all are. What really struck me was the fact that each species has a different form of blow from the blowhole on top of their heads. One whale has a minimal blow which is very easy to miss while another has one which separates as it leaves the blowhole and another has a large blow which goes very high. Then how they got their names was also fun to learn. For example, the Humpback Whale has a tiny little hump at the base of the spine and they are the only ones which do a deep dive and a full raising of the tail.
As I said earlier, this was our final day in the Antarctic Peninsula and we had been so fortunate to have been able to land at every bay and see so many animals and icebergs. We would now head for South Georgia over 2 days at sea.
The Daily Viking
Today’s lead story was not about a particular explorer but rather about what explorers and researchers found and learnt in the 20th century. When Capt Robert Scott was found, he had about 40lbs (18kgs) of rock that he had collected and they were found to contain fossilised ferns. Then, in the 1970s, researchers uncovered hundreds of plant, amphibian and reptile fossils found on other continents, confirming that Antarctica was once part of Gondwana. Twenty years later, dinosaur fossils, exclusive to Antarctica were dug up in the Transantarctic mountains and then, in 2017, scientists found within a drilled ocean floor sediment sample, remnants of a 90-million-year-old forest soil. With further studies of this sediment, it was confirmed that West Antarctica had a much warmer climate and higher levels of carbon monoxide. It had a mean temperature of 540F (120C) with summer temperatures reaching 660F (190C). This continent had swampy rain forests and other thriving vegetation.
The animal about whom we learnt in this copy was the southern elephant seal, the largest of all the seals. They are described as sexually dimorphic meaning that males and females are significantly different. The males are extremely large weighing up to 8800lbs (4000kgs) and grow to 20ft (6m) in length. Females are about half that length and weigh a maximum of 2000lbs (900kgs). These seals can dive down to 5000ft (1500m) and stay there for up to 2 hours while hunting for fish and squid. They t only blubber. takes 11 months and for the first month after birth both mother and baby feed on blubber.
