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| Crazy, intricate blue iceberg near Spert Island |
Thursday, November 16 - Spert Island, Antarctic Peninsula
From our daily briefing: “This morning we hope to offer a Zodiac cruise around Spert, an island lying off the west extremity of Trinity Island in the Palmer Archipelago of Antarctica. This was charted by the Swedish Antarctic Expedition under Nordenskjold, 1901-04 and named in 1960 for Sir Thomas Spert, Controller of the King's Ships in the time of Henry VIlI, founder and first Master of the Mariners of England.
We are now heading to Spert Island for a Zodiac cruise. It’s very cavy, with high bluffs and crags and crazily carved ice bergs. We had Gail for our boat leader again. She traveled way to the right of our ship's position to go see a lone chinstrap penguin (while everyone else went right to explore the caves….) So we watched the penguin for a while, then saw 2 Weddell seals sleeping on the rocks, then went past some terns nesting on the high cliffs. Finally, she headed over to the cove/cliff areas, where we got to drive the Zodiac through small channels of big ice and see many impressive icebergs that were carved like castles with arches and spires, and one really tall skyscraper berg. It was like a Disney land ride! The water was so clear, you could see the bottom in many places. To enhance our experience, it was a beautiful sunny day with almost no wind. The weather made for easy Zodiacing between the bergs and the channels, as it wasn’t rough. We also saw an arched rock with a cleft opening. Some of the icebergs were as tall as Chicago skyscrapers. It was a really spectacular experience, and one that I will remember for a long time.
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| A lone chinstrap penguin has left this crazy maze of footprints on the snow slop |
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| One busy bird! |
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| Careful, a leopard seal is lurking in the surf below the chinstrap penguin |
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| A Weddell seal stretches on a sunny rock |
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| A second Weddel seal naps near by |
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| Massive cave with large cleft |
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| Bigger than an office building! |
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| This iceberg looks like a fairytale castle |
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| Extremely tall icebergs - so impressive |
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| Humpback whales in the bay near the ship |
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