Fortín Sargento Cabral, Antarctica

About 4am this morning it became clear that the winds had picked up, it made it particularly fun at breakfast as the boat kept listing in the wind causing glasses and cutlery to slide off! The plan was to visit Paulet Island but there was no way the Zodiacs would survive in the wind and waves. We moved on back towards the Antarctica peninsula and anchored off Andersson Island, so we could do a cruise around the moving ice. It was colder today and still overcast so it didn’t look promising but always keen to get off and explore. Turned out to be fantastic, lots of cool ice formations (glacial ice) with blue sections to photo, we then saw a Fur seal sat lazing on a flatter piece. Spotted 2 Leopard seals, one sliding back to the water. These are penguin predators and look more like a snake who have swallowed a small animal! There were 3 Crabeater seals lazing on ice, looking cuddly, you could see scars on one where as pups they are often preyed upon by Leopard seals. Saw lots of penguins, Justin loving the groups swimming and jumping through the water. Found our first Weddell seal just as we were heading back to the boat. We also saw Terns flying overhead. Sunshine greeted us as we anchored off Brown bluff island, and we rushed to the bridge as a whale sighting was announced. There were 2 Humpback whales near the ship blowing and flipping their tails up at us! Brown Bluff lies on the eastern side of the Tabarin Peninsula overlooking Antarctic Sound. It is an ice-capped, flat-topped mountain (745m or 2400ft) with a prominent cliff of reddish-brown volcanic rock on the north face. Brown Bluff hosts around 20,000 breeding pairs of Adelie penguins and about 600 Gentoo penguin pairs as well as nesting kelp gulls and snow petrels. Zodiac cruising started at 3.15 and as we stepped out, it might as well have been a different day, sun was streaming onto the ice chunks as we cruised the clear, calm waters. We saw a Leopard seal watching us from a ice plate and then we were able to approach Bluff Island beach to see Adelie penguins running around and flipping out of the water, fur seals were also cooling off by barrel rolling in the sea. It was amazing zipping through ice blocks in such gorgeous weather. We were out for about an hour and a half before heading back to the ship. Justin and I reviewed pictures over a mug of wine, he really does have a new penguin obsession!