Zodiac cruising

By Jaimy de Vries

We started to explore Antarctica by Zodiac. The Zodiac took us everywhere, to land, to our kayaks and to explore the area around as a zodiac cruise. We sailed our way through the brash ice, looking for seals and penguins in the maze of ice and marveling at the icebergs of various forms and sizes.

Arrival!

On our third day we finally arrived in Antarctica Peninsula. Everyone went outside to look at the icebergs. There was so much wind I’ve never experienced before. The strong wind, the rough sea and the icebergs on the background…wow…I got blown away! Literally and so do speaking!! The idea of being on an incredible place with lots of icebergs, wildlife and no human residents, is exciting! But before we set of, first all our outer stuff and clothes needed to go through a bio clean-up. That means that all our stuff get checked if there are bio species on it (like seeds). This is to keep Antarctica as it is. The IAATO & Antarctica treaty set rules to keep Antarctica as it is. Humans already destroyed and interfered so many natural environments. Let’s preserve our precious Antarctica!

Cruising time!

Finally! The next day we got off the boat for the first time! There were landings, zodiac cruises and kayak trips on the expedition. We started to explore Antarctica by Zodiac. The Zodiac took us everywhere: to land, to our kayaks and to explore the area around on a zodiac cruise. Zodiac cruising was a great way to explore wildlife on the ocean and see lots of glaciers and icebergs. We all dressed up in 3 or 4 layers of clothing: thermal layer, fleece layer and outer layer, and tall muck boots with two layer of socks. After all that the zodiacs were lowered and we spent more than 2 hours on the water each time. We sailed our way through the brash ice, looking for seals and penguins in the maze of ice and marveling at the icebergs of various forms and sizes.

Leaving the cruise by Zodiac

Ready for adventure!

Just a regular iceberg

Wildlife spotted!

Throughout zodiac cruises we saw whales: Mink whales and humpback whales. You can hear them from far away blowing air out of their blow hole. But we didn’t only see whales, we saw Gentoo, Chinstrap and even an Adelie penguin. Besides three kinds of penguins, we saw seals too: the Weddel, Crabeater and fur seal. And there was some action… A Weddel sea, camouflaged like a rock, tried to hunt. When a bird landed on the water and was chilling, the seal dove in the water and went straight for it – the bird flew away.. a couple of seconds later and the seal had a nice meal. Another highlight was an unearthly looking deep-water helmet jellyfish we saw on the surface what is quite rare.