Antarctic Cruise Day 34 / 40 - Melchior Islands, Antarctica - A little humpback with your breakfast, sir?

Antarctic Cruise Day 34 / 40 - Melchior Islands, Antarctica - Zodiacs, kayaks, whales

Trip day: 34 / 40

Port days: 15
Sea days: 18
Countries: 5
Continents: 4
Ports/Landings: 11

Our plan this morning was to arrive at the Melchior Islands.  That went as planned.  We planned on doing a landing today.  That plan? Not so much.  The islands are rocky and home to chinstrap penguins.  When the expedition team surveyed the intended landing site, it was too rocky with some unstable snow, making it unsafe for a landing.  Couple that with the fact that since we are early in the season, not as many chinstraps were present, and it meant we could have a better experience from a Zodiac.  That's what they did.  The expedition team replaced all landings with Zodiac tours and it was great.  All other operations were going on today as well.  They have both Special Operations Boats (SOB) up and running so they were able to open additional slots this afternoon for more SOB rides.  Kayaks and the two subs were also in operation all day.

Before all that got going, however, Polaris was visited by a pair of humpback whales.  They hung around for more than an hour, staying close to the surface and trumpeting occasionally as they blew.  We had a nice view for a while from our room.

We took a Zodiac ride this morning rather than the canceled landing.  We went to the same area where we would have landed, and we agree with the decision.  Some of the ice formations along the way were beautiful.

We passed by the Argentinian Melchior research base.  It has not been opened for the season.

I would not want to shovel to find the door

We saw a new breed of penguins today - chinstrap penguins.  They are named for the distinctive black stripe across their face that looks like a chinstrap.

A giant southern petrel flew right by us.  This is a large bird with a six-foot wingspan.

We enjoyed the remainder of our Zodiac cruise and returned to the ship.

A group of Gentoos met us as we returned to Polaris

As soon as we were back on Polaris, we picked up our gear for this afternoon's kayaking adventure. These take a little patience to put on.

Looking stylish in our neck-to-toe dry suits - they have neoprene cuffs, full foot covers, and locking zippers to keep you dry - the neoprene booties round out the outfit

We loaded into a Zodiac with lead kayak guide Elsa at the controls and kayak guide Deb along for the ride.  The cloudy skies from this morning cleared and we had some slightly filtered, but still brilliant sunshine for the entire time we were out.

Our kayaks were in tow

Someone was sporting an attitude

It turns out that only one side of the phone dry bag that we borrowed produced clear photos

As Arlona took this, we heard a loud noise behind us - a bunch of ice let go and slid down onto the rocks - unfortunately, as soon as you hear it, you've already missed seeing it

Paddling through a little ice - there were larger chunks as well

As you can see, we didn't go close to the shore.  Why?  Read my comment above about the ice sliding down and crashing on the rocks.

After we wrapped up the tour, it was time for the oh-so-graceful climb from the kayak into the Zodiac. Lucky for me, nobody was filming.

Yes, we made it back into the Zodiac - Arlona more gracefully than me - but this is a pass/fail exercise with no consideration for style points

Arlona, looking satisfied with her reentry to the Zodiac

Me, looking relieved that I didn’t face-plant on the side and plunge into the frigid water

Speaking of plunging…in the morning, that’s just what two intrepid passengers did.  They capsized their kayak and went into the 32F-degree water. The Viking-supplied dry suits did their job, with only their heads and hands getting the freezing treatment.  The crew did a great job getting them out of the water and getting a second Zodiac to whisk them back to the ship into the waiting arms of the medical team.  In the end, both were perfectly fine (we saw them heading to dinner tonight) and they get an amazing polar plunge story to tell.

We made the trip back to Polaris.  Arlona and I got busy in our room.  There was a lot of groping, tugging, moaning, and writhing...and that was just while extricating ourselves from the dry suits!  Getting in and out of these things isn't for the faint of heart.  But, they are purposely designed to keep a person dry and therefore safe if they fall in.  Viking made a heck of an investment in these to provide guests with a safe activity. And, obviously, they work.

After all of that, we put our damp gloves in the drying closet and rewarded ourselves with a nice hot shower.

As we sailed out of our harbor, we were treated to multiple humpback whale sightings in front of, and to both sides of the ship.  It really is special seeing whales in the wild.

During this cruise, Viking has taken a couple of group photos.  We asked about them tonight and the wonderful crew at Guest Services happily emailed them to us.

A gathering on the Finse Terrace during our Atlantic crossing

A gathering on the bow a couple of days ago

We are now headed for the South Shetland Islands. We will spend the next two days there, wrapping up our time in Antarctica.  On November 1, we will make our south-to-north transit of the Drake Passage.  At the moment, Windy is suggesting that it will be somewhat more adventurous than our Drake Lake southerly passage.  We will see how that plays out in a couple more days.

As I was wrapping this up, Arlona saw folks running outside so she followed.  She captured this beautiful end to a wonderful day.