Early in the morning, around 4:30 a.m., we were woken up unexpectedly by our expedition leader’s voice: Killer whales had been spotted! The early birds enjoyed watching them for about 20 minutes. After breakfast, we sailed through the emblematic Lemaire Channel, but we left when we discovered the area’s poor visibility. Instead, we ended up in Paradise Harbor for Zodiac cruising. There we met there a sailing yacht that had crossed the Drake Passage in 4.5 days with hurricane winds! We also saw an Argentinian research station that’s manned during summertime only.
11/18/2024
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National Geographic Resolution
Kinnes Cove, Antarctic Peninsula
After an adventurous night of attempting to make it through lots of sea ice and into the Weddell Sea, we ended up turning back and spending our morning exploring an area a little further north. This turned out to provide stunning scenery and wildlife encounters as the morning unfolded. After breakfast, we deployed the Zodiacs and cruised around Kinnes Cove, enjoying excellent views of a resting leopard seal, crab eater seals, and gentoo and Adelie penguins swimming and walking across the fast ice. Antarctic shags were active in the cove, as the whole flock dove over and over, feeding on something underwater. Snow petrels were flying about, and two emperor penguins showed up and played in the water around the Zodiacs. We were all delighted with this perfect farewell to our incredible voyage to Antarctica. As we set sail northward to cross the Drake Passage again, we enjoyed a special Filipino buffet dinner, followed by a festive evening of entertainment from the renowned crew of National Geographic Resolution .
