We had a fair amount of ocean to cover, so Monday morning we did not have an excursion in the morning. We were cruising north to a place called Prospect Point. It was another continental landing spot, but the photography group we were with chose to spend our excursion on a zodiac cruise for the better photo opportunities. We were on a mission to find a Leopard seal.
We cruised around several more Adelie colonies. The penguins were active. We had a few opportunities to watch them diving in the water and then jumping back out. We also tried time and time again to catch a photo of them “porpousing”, or swimming along and jumping out of the water while swimming. They are awfully fast, so this was a real photography challenge.
We spent a lot of time with the penguins and had almost given up on the Leopard seal when our driver got a call over the radio that one of the crew had spotted a potential Leopard seal in the distance. We cruised over there, and sure enough, there was this huge female Leopard lounging on some ice. We were just getting some good snaps of her, when our buddy boat signaled that they were having a problem.
One of our group managed to break off the battery kill switch on the other zodiac, meaning it was dead in the water and floating just feet from this Leopard. Photography stopped, and we quickly lashed the two zodiacs together so we could tow the other boat back to the ship. This was a challenge, since the narrow channels were filled with ice and our little zodiac engine was struggling to tow two boats worth of passengers!
We finally made made it back to the ship with no issues. It just gave us a few more minutes out on the ice. As a bonus, we got to see a group of penguins diving off of a small iceberg (a “bergie”). It was another great excursion.
After dinner, the crew put on a little show. I don’t know if they do it for fun, or because their boss tells them to, but we got to see the talents of the cooks, mechanics, restaurant and hotel staffs. It involved singing, dancing, comedy, and even a magic show. Not our normal choice of activities, but it was fun nonetheless.
