In calm seas we approached A-68, the largest iceberg ever recorded. It calved off the mainland in 2017. Drifting about 150 NM from the Antarctic peninsula and at 100 NM long and 10 NM wide, it's really a slowly moving island. We arrived just before lunch and after a rushed 4 course meal we went up to the observation deck to have a look at the massive ice in front of us. Then we started seeing whales. Right, Fin and Humpbacks were all around the ship. The expedition leader figured this wasn't personal enough so he ordered the zodiacs launched and within minutes we had a very unexpected 2 hour dinghy cruise amongst the ice, whales and fur seals. At one point we had 3 humpbacks cruising slowly under the zodiac, at another we had a Right whale in between two humpback tails.
Its pretty hard to really describe how we felt, cruising beside an iceberg bigger than South Georgia with 2 KM of ocean below us and the unbelievable number of whales all around us. This is all before we have even reached Antarctica. We hope this trip's namesake wont be a let down but we really can't fathom how it can get better.
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