DAY 21 - AT SEA

-We had a WHALE of a good time!

Since we are on the "tail" end of this journey and we have 3 1/2 days at sea (that's a long time for me), I am guessing you will soon tire of the daily weather report and the mundane activities that we now call routine.
Instead, I thought it might be a good time to talk about whales. Most days on this voyage we have seen whales. There have been sightings of Orcas (late in the evening), Southern Bottle Nose Whales (when we were locked in by the ice belt), Southern Right Whales (somewhere in the South Atlantic Ocean) and Humpback Whales (everywhere throughout the Antarctica portion of the trip!)
Personally, I saw a lot of Humpbacks and one Minke in the Lemaire Channel. Since some of the whales were at a distance and one could only glimpse their tails, it's hard to say. And what I mean by "seeing" them is that it doesn't mean they were right up next to us all the time but several times they were and it was magnificent.
We found the humpbacks to be quite social and not particularly bothered by the Quest and the passengers that were huddled on deck whenever there was a sighting. One day when we were standing on our balcony a humpback came right along side us and blew! It practically startled me to death but luckily I was able to snap a few photos before it went away. Turns out that they were some of the best whale photos I shot during the trip.