Melchior Islands and Continental landing at Spigot Point

21st Feb
Again another glorious morning at the white and blue scenery of the Melchior Islands. We divided up and went out in the zodiacs (motorised inflatable boats carrying 10-15 people) to explore the iceburgs, glaciers, interesting geological metamorphic rock formations and wildlife. The depth of the ice and snow on the islands is staggering. We also saw lots of turns and all of our guides on the different zodiacs got very excited to see both Antarctic and Arctic turns together on the same rocky outcrop. Very rare to see both together at the same time of year.
Back on the Antarctic Dream as we made our way eastwards towards the Antarctic continent we had a very close and personal encounter with a mother and calf humpback whales. After being spotted they came right up to the boat, very curious. We had unforgettable sights of the whales against and around the boat. They stayed with us for about 45minutes before drifting away from us. After lunch we then had our next whale sighting of the day. Again the captain stilled the engine and we watched 3 humpbacks approach and interact with the boat, going both under and around the boat. We even had the unforgetable smell of whale breath as the spouted next to the boat, into our faces, not pleasant.

Later in the afternoon we had our continental Antarctica landing at Spigot point. A shortish walk up a hill lead to lovely views of the surrounding bays and the chance to watch a colony of chinstrap penguins nesting high above the sea. It was funny to watch them walk all the way from the sea up a 'penguin highway' to their nests. 6 people from the passengers decided not to walk up the hill and went out on a couple of zodiacs for a cruise around the bays. They had some very close and personal encounters with some humpbacks. One of them was 89 year old Elizabeth from the UK, she certainly deserved it having always dreamed of visiting Antarctica since a child and eventually had manged to come here with her daughter. She was game for most of the excursions and coping very well with the seas and motion of the boat. I think we were all slightly jealous of the zodiac whale spotters, but the scenery from the point of the mainland where we landed was stunning too.
That evening the Anarctic dream made it's way northwards towards the South Shetland islands. Out on deck there were beautiful moments of penguin, seal and whale watching and the passing by of beautiful scenery, it was although Antarctica was saying goodbye and certainly took my breath away.