After the experience of day 2 in Antarctica I set the alarm for 6:45. The weather forecast was for more of the same. When I got up, we were in a dense fog. Not only could I not see the mountains along the Gerlache Channel, but I could also not see the water from deck 6. I went back to bed and got up a little later for breakfast. It was clear that it wasn’t going to be clear for quite a while. We spent some time in the Crow’s nest hoping the fog would lift. Instead, it fell.

I went out on deck and could see blue right above me and some shadows cast by the sun but no mountains and glimpses of water.

Just before noon I headed down three decks to my room and went out on the balcony. I heard it before I saw it. I mentioned in my “critters” post that one whale had a whistle when it exhaled. On the balcony I heard that whistle and through the fog saw a humpback whale. I took a picture of its flukes. It was the same whale I had reported to “Happy Whale” two days earlier. I reported it again.

The fog was rising from the water as I was watching. The Captain came on the PA and said there were whales on the port side but they soon would be forward. I watched as we slowed, and the whales passed us. I went forward to the open deck overlooking the bow.

I watched the whales for about a half hour. I noticed that one of the humpback whales had a white belly and flanks. I looked it up later and found that the South Pacific humpback whale population tends to have more white in both places than their increasingly genetically distant North Pacific cousins.

I wondered where these Antarctic whales spent the winter, did they turn left or right at Cape Horn. Most of the whales on the West Side of the Antarctic Peninsula are from humpback whale Stock G. They turn left and go up the Pacific coast of South America to breed. Those who feed off of South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands are from Stock A and breed off Brazil. Although recently some Stock A whales have decided to feed in the waters we were cruising.

I wondered if the whales I was watching were Stock G, probably, or Stock A whales that drifted to the “wrong” side of the peninsula. Then I got an email from Happy Whale. The whale I reported had only been reported once before, off the coast of Ecuador a decade earlier. It was Stock G. I was only the second report of this whale and since the first reporter did not choose to name it, I had that right, for between $500 and $1,000. If I did name it, I would probably want to name it after my late cat, Matzi, which means “cat” in Albanian. I am not really into anthropomorphism, I mean I named my cat “Cat” (Although he probably did not think of himself as that). I will let it pass.

The fog lifted a little more and we could see icebergs with seals. The day was not going to be a bust after all.

But the Captain, decided that the weather was not going to improve that much. canceled our foray into Willamina Bay, which is usually the late summer pit stop where humpbacks top off the tank before swimming to Ecuador. The entertainment staff scheduled a couple of lectures on Antarctic history and marine biology. At 4:30 we had our daily de-brief. The slide Iain Miller opened with said a lot but not “it all.”