Date: Tue, 29 Jan 2002 20:12:34 +0000 From: "Coronesi, Stephanie" Subject: Message 18 Cc: "Iannuzzi, Richard" 16:15 (2002.01.29) 60 Degrees 13.596' South Latitude 63 Degrees 16.041' West Longitude (Back in the Drake!) Air Temp: 3.0 Degrees C SST (Sea Surface Temperature): 2.955 C Wind Speed: 12 knots 260 Air Pressure: 1000.1 mBar Big Hello from the Drake! Hey everyone, I'm still very much alive, though it has certainly been a very busy past few days which has definitely cut into my message writing time. It works out well though, because these last few days will be spent travelling through the Drake and there's not much to report from here except for the rapidly changing weather conditions and my corresponding stomach state. I have past days big and fat and full of coolness to relate though in the meantime, which will make for much more interesting correspondence. So, as I mentioned in my last message from Saturday, we finally saw Humpback whales, and they were AMAZING! Rich and I spent a good deal of time up on the bridge on Saturday keeping an eye out for wildlife and chatting with Brett and Heidi, our birders on board (who are now residing at Palmer for the rest of the season). When we first got up there, I headed out to the stern of the 02 deck to have a gaze around. I was just hanging out, contentedly taking it all in when I realized that there was a dorsal fin poking up out of the water about a ship's length away. It quickly slipped below the surface and a tail flipped up, then disappeared. I excitedly yelled for Rich, who came running out from the bridge, but that particular whale had apparently come to say a quick hello, because that was all we saw of him. We knew that we had promise of seeing others in the area though, and our whale-watching was resumed with renewed vigor. In between CTDs and meals we spent our time upstairs, then after dinner we kept watch until about 11:30PM. We kept periodically seeing spouts off in the distance, and there was one whale who kept up a good ten minute show about 150 meters away, rolling around and flipping his tail and waving his fin in the air. Humpbacks are pretty much the only whales who put on big shows like that, so that's how we knew which type we were looking at (and we kept referencing Brett's cetaceans book). By 10:30 or so the birders were done for the night and Rich and I were thinking about calling it a day when Rich saw a spout not to far off in front of the boat. He passed me the binoculars and I headed outside to get a better look. Sure enough, this whale seemed determined to put on a show. He kept rolling and waving his fin in the air, slapping it down hard on the surface of the water, flipping his tail and diving below. Then, in one of the most amazing displays I've ever seen, he breached completely out off the water FOUR TIMES in a row, the last two times flipping completely over in midair, huge shiny white belly to the sky, landing with a tremendous splash on his back. I caught the last two breaches in the binoculars and Rich says that my mouth was hanging completely open. It was truly a sight to feed the soul. The whales were too far from the boat to get any good pictures, and that last guy at the end was too much to miss live and in real time. There comes a point where you just have to put the digital camera down and store it all in on your own memory space. :) What I've decided to do instead is send along a picture of one of the littlest guys we saw on the cruise; a squid that Rich got a great shot of through the microscope. So extended typing leads to belly blechiness. I will keep this message confined to our beautiful whale-filled Saturday. I can't wait to tell you about our penguin and Palmer-filled Sunday!!! Keep well!! -Steph Miss C! :)