Location – Paradise Bay

First off, there was a rare Cruiseboy sighting, in his natural habitat.

In the morning we arrived in Paradise Bay. No, there are no palm trees and sunlit beaches. No, there is no fast internet and consistent low ping. Hey, that’s how I define “paradise” – don’t judge me. However, if you are a sailing vessel in the Antarctic looking for protection from the weather, this spot is ideal. And this morning, the joking whales forgave me.

We were maybe 100m away for the young adult humpback. I switched from image to video a few times. Here is my crappy attempt creating a GIF from some still images.

You can see how jumpy it is taking pictures on a zodiac even in calm water. Here are some of the better stills.

I go on about the landscape scenery. My lousy camera skills just can’t do justice to the area.

During our zodiac tour we passed summer-only occupied Argentinean Brown Station. Our guide said such stations frequently also had penguins, as both prefer solid stone underneath.

Across the straight were more Gentoo penguins. Looks like they’ve been there the whole summer.

Around the corner were a nest of blue-eyed shags.

Then a moment of excitement as I had an unplanned action shot. Our guide mentions he once saw a “lucky” guest get a free bird gift right in their open mouth.

We found this great iceberg. The bottom was almost pure transparent blue-green ice. You can tell it was the bottom of the glacier due to the dirt “skid marks”. It takes a lot of pressure from the above piles of snow to squeeze the air from the air to make them so clear.

It detached from the glacier behind, which looked ready to calf more at anytime. I had to really over-adjust the sky color to get the glacier correct. As we turned away there was a great “SNAP” from the glacier. Two thoughts happened immediately – 1. “we’re going to die”, then followed by 2. “where’s my camera”. Fortunately, it was just noise, but you never know.

Almost like tree rings, you can see the layers of ice and snow on the snow pack.

We found this great iceberg with a line of blue ice. Looks like some kind of jewelry.

I got to see a small iceberg disintegrate into smaller pieces right in front of me. I hope to put that GIF together for my next update, but I need to put on my cold gear now for the afternoon session. We get to walk on the shores this time.