After our first epic day, we had a second – highlighted by penguins, seals and a submarine!

It was cool and overcast early, but still stunning – kind of a given in Antarctica.

We took a zodiac ashore and had a ‘wet landing’.  That means we had on our waterproof boots (provided by Seabourn) with our own waterproof pants over the top and step out of the zodiac into water about six inches deep.   The crew stand in the water for hours to keep the zodiacs stable as passengers load and unload.  They have on dry suits but it was still cold for them.

Our first excursion was to an Adélie penguin colony.  Emperor and Adélie are the only penguins that breed in Antarctica.

The surface was rocky which made for careful walking, for us and for them!

Penguins create nests of pebbles, the importance being to keep the eggs dry.

We really enjoyed our time observing the penguins! 

Occasionally, one penguin would be chasing another and we learned that usually it was a chick chasing its parent wanting food. 

The parenting commitment after birth lasts only a few weeks. At that point the chick has to learn to hunt and feed on its own.

Within a few weeks the chicks are nearly the same size as an adult. They can be differentiated by their brown down.

Again, these close up pictures are from Harry, the ship’s photographer.

I wrote most of this post while we were on board Venture and, at that time, the picture above seemed a likely contender for our picture of the trip! The icy mountain, water, ship and penguins!

We didn’t know all that was yet to come!

While sailing towards our next excursion location, we saw several glaciers.

Seeing this ship was far more surprising than the glaciers. We weren’t the only people in Antarctica after all. While we were the southernmost ship in the world, we hadn’t seen any other signs of civilization.

Throughout the day we moved north to more typical exploration areas. There is a small plane on the right side of the above picture.

Harry got a close up! We learned that this plane was transporting goods or people to one of the nearby science stations.

Our second expedition of the day was a zodiac ride to see seals. We were in the first zodiac out because we were also scheduled for the submarine.  We saw the subs being unloaded before we left the ship! The expedition team works the timing so nobody misses anything if at all possible.

We had Expedition Leader Luqui, as our zodiac driver.  He seemed to be second, only to the captain, in ship hierarchy.  They worked together to determine where the ship should go for the best possible guest experience.  

Luqui driving was also indicative of the expedition team wearing multiple hats. He was our zodiac driver and tour guide while constantly being aware of where everyone else was.

He was occasionally on the radio suggesting routes to the other zodiac drivers to find several species of seals.

These were juvenile elephant seals, very large but much smaller than the four tons they will eventually be.  They are the seals that dive to crazy depths!

These are Weddell seals, distinguishable by their head shape and speckles. 

We saw others too! Again, photo credit to Harry.

Some icebergs have a nice array of blue color. 

Luqui said if you know what to look for you can determine previous float lines.

We got back to the ship and had to quickly get ready for our submarine ride. 

When we first got inside, I wondered about my choice to go along. My claustrophobia isn’t so much about enclosed spaces but being with too many people in an enclosed space. There were seven of us in the small space, three on each side, with the pilot, Merel, in the middle. 

After about ten meters, Merel turned the seat units outward towards the water. She started mood music and had a calming voice. That was just her way. No one but Randy knew I was a bit anxious. She explained things and soon we were all enjoying the ride down.

We started with the sea “soup” and the occasional krill.  There were more and more krill as we went down. The plexiglass bubble was so clear it seemed like the krill were swimming right inside the sub with us.

We went down 182 meters!   We hovered and moved just barely above the surface so as not to disturb the powdery bottom.

We saw sea anenome and starfish.

This “sea rod” looked like an old ship line or transatlantic telegraph wire until we realized that couldn’t be!  

The rod is an animal, or collection of animals, that just build on top of themselves.  The outer portion of the rod is almost translucent.

We saw an ice fish and a small octopus but weren’t fast enough for pictures.

These are sea sponges. They don’t move so pictures weren’t hard.

This is a sea sprite and a sea cucumber.

This is another kind of sponge with a feather starfish above and another type of starfish in the picture below.

Our on-board time was 45 minutes so it was soon time to surface.  When we were close, Merel released bubbles so our search zodiac would know where we were.

We all had a great time!

I am really glad I went but also glad I jumped up to be the first one out! Randy was very happy with his sub experience.

As it had been very interesting below, it was beautiful above!

We had worn clothes suited for the submarine, all black so as not to cause a glare on the bubble. Without our outer coats, the ride back to Venture on the zodiac was very cold -memorable cold! We still say it was the only time on the trip we were really cold.

While we were enjoying our activities of the day, a group of about 50 humpback whales traveled along with the ship.  

We did catch a glimpse of them out of the window at dinner. Whales are prevalent in Antarctica at that time of year so we were confident we would see more in the next days.

After returning home, we learned that Seabourn will be discontinuing their submarine excursions at the close of this Antarctic season. That makes us a bit sad, and certainly thankful that we did it when we could.

Next Up: We meet Gentoo penguins!