Wilhelmina bay is a 34 km wide bay between the Reclus Peninsula and Cape Anna. We were fortunate to enter the bay under a very sunny weather that day. The scenery was gorgeous and the number of whales quite impressive. We went for a whale safari in a zodiac. I have to admit that it was the scariest moment of the trip. Not only did we see many whales, we got extremely close to a group of three whales and followed them while they were feeding. They go under the water and swim in circles together to concentrate the krill to the center of the circle. They swim with their mouth open gorging on the krill. Then come up to the surface. It is quite easy to spot bubbles as they get close to the surface. This indicates where they are going to come out. The driver of our zodiac would position the boat as close to these bubbles as possible. My fear was that the whales would hit the zodiac and........Needless to say the the temperature of the water was not bathing temperature! At some point, I saw the three whales coming right towards us. They came very close (you will see pictures later on) and they dove when they got 5 m from the boat. One whale actually touched the zodiac. The tail of another whale came out just in front of my nose! This was absolutely nerve racking. According to the pilot of the zodiac, there has never been accidents with whales They sense the presence of the boat and dive under to avoid it. Well, it was my first time seeing these gigantic animals from so close. It was an amazing experience, no question.
This was our last stop in Antarctica before crossing the Drake Passage again to return to South America. The crossing was rougher this time. Glenn and I decided to lay down for 36 hours to avoid succumbing to sea sickness. The waves were 6-8 meter high and the boat was rocking! We stopped in Puerto Williams (southern most city in South America). We picked up two Chilean captains in Puerto Williams to help with the navigation along the Beagle channel (beautiful glaciers!) and other channels going back to Punta Arenas.
This post completes our trip to memorable trip to Antarctica! Enjoy these pictures taken on a beautiful sunny day when we explored Wilhelmina Bay.
Many Asian people were on the boat with tens of thousand of dollars of photographic equipment. I felt a little under equipped with my 180$ Canon camera :))
A sleeping whale. We managed to see this whale wake up and swim away
This whale passed so close to the zodiac that it touched it. Scary!
A few whales swim together in a circle to force the krill to the center of the circle, come up with their mouth open and eat them. The circle is visible on top of the water.
Close, close, close....too close?
They were swimming so close to us that we could see the barnacles growing on their bodies
They are coming straight towards us!
"People still do not understand that a live fish is more valuable than a dead one, and that destructive fishing techniques are taking a wrecking ball to biodiversity"
Sylvia A. Earle
(Marine Biologist and Explorer)
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