We were nearly a day into the Drake Passage and the seas hadn't moderated. However, the skies were relatively bright and the sea-sickness patches were still working well. But with the bouncy conditions, there were still a number of passengers who we hadn't seen for a day and weren't going to see again until we reached the calm waters of the Beagle Channel on the following afternoon. But, a number of other more hardy passengers joining us for extended periods on the bridge wings to try and get that perfect waves breaking over the ship photo.
Albatrosses and Northern Giant Petrels provided the close Avian highlights of the day, albeit we did see a reasonable selection of other Petrels and Storm-petrels.
We saw a few ships heading to Antarctica. They were bigger, more luxurious and probably more stable for their passengers in these seas. However, they wouldn't have offered the same extended landings or some of the interesting landings that a smaller ship like the Plancius can offer. Due to their extra size, they would have had more than one hundred passengers, which is the limit of passengers allowed on South Georgia and Antarctica at one time. This means that their passengers could only have landed for part of the landing window. But some of the ships in Antarctica offer the opportunity to experience the continent without the 'hassle' of landings. Personally, that would be a massive reason not to travel on ships like that. But if it means that type of passenger avoids the Oceanwide Expedition ships, then that is good in my eyes.
In the early afternoon, a couple of Hourglass Dolphins tried to come in to bow-wave. However, they weren't close enough or fast enough to be catch us up to play in the bow wave. They may have reached the stern as I've seen Hourglass Dolphins tagging along in the wake before.
My clear highlight of crossing the Drake Passage occurred around mid-afternoon. For a change I switched sides to the port bridge wing. I had only been there about twenty minutes when I picked up two large chunky Dolphins coming towards me. They were keeping just below the crests of the waves and had a very distinctive black upperside with more black at the front of the body and less at the rear and a contrasting white underside. There were larger and bulkier-bodied compared to any of the other Dolphins I had seen on the trip. When I thought back to the sighting immediately afterwards I realised I hadn't seen a dorsal fin on them. It was useful to have seen the Hourglass Dolphins less than an hour before, as that really helped to emphasise how large and bulky they were. It confused me as it wasn't a species I recognised. But when I checked the books it all became clear that these were my first two Southern Right Whale Dolphins. I watched them for a while and had a good view, before I tried to get some photos. Frustratingly, I failed to get any photos. The lack of a dorsal fin and the ying and yang shape of black and white markings ruled out a Spectacled Porpoise, which has a more uniform-width black upper body and white underbody and a large semi-circular dorsal fin.
We still had one more day in the Drake Passage until we reached the Tierra del Fuego coast and the Beagle Channel. I will cover that in the next Blog Post.
