Lemaire Channel, Port Charcot and Whales Aplenty

The day started with an early crossing of the Lemaire Channel, which is one of the highlights for most cruises that are exploring the Antarctic peninsula. The wakeup call came early (6:30am!), but most of the ship joined us outside to witness the crossing. In spite of the slippery, slushy decks and socked in conditions, the Lemaire Channel was still an incredible thing to witness, with Antarctica almost at an arm’s length from both sides of the ship. This early wake up call quickly led to breakfast and our first excursion of the day, at Port Charcot. 

You would think that folks may be a little shy after the semi-harrowing day that we all had before, but amazingly nearly everyone got off the ship this morning to take in Port Charcot, which included a hike to a lookout point and plenty of Gentoo penguins. As tempted as we were to get our blood pumping with a little hike, we just could not leave the penguins behind. I love wildlife of all kinds, and penguins especially have a special place in my heart with their clumsy waddles that suddenly turn into graceful dives as soon as they meet water. Still, it’s a bit hard not to laugh at them when they seem to trip over every damn rock in their path. 

Back on the ship, we started navigating towards our next destination (Petermann Island), but the weather got choppy enough to where we could not get off the ship to take part in an excursion. However, the rest of the day was still nothing short of excellent as we following pods of humpback whales, taking in near constant sightings just off of the ship, seemingly in all directions. Visibility also had improved from the morning, so we were able to have an even better crossing of the Lemaire Channel with pretty much the entire ship getting out on the bow for a photo op.