Oceanwide Day 12; South Atlantic - South Georgia to Ushuaia

   The weather today was nice and clear, with a few snow flurries reducing visibility but otherwise cool and crisp conditions to be on deck. Sadly, the improvement of the weather was matched by abosultely devastating news that a technical malfunction within the ship meant that it was no longer possible to make the voyage to Antarctica, and the crew had been instructed to turn back to Ushuaia immediately. This was obviously a devastating development, but the lack of clarity surrounding any compensation amplified the concern of the situation, but fortunately it was resolved rather favourably later in the day. But as a consequence of this development we now faced several days at sea as the ship slowly made its way back to port, hoping for no adverse weather to further delay our arrival. 

  Among the chaos of the day, there were a few seabirds on offer. Most of the selection was the usual species, with two Kerguelen Petrel being the most interesting species of the day. It was also good to sea both King Penguin and Macaroni Penguin from the boat, as the swam in the open sea.

  The real highlights of the day were the cetaceans, specifically the first sighting. Sheltering from the wind, we birded from the back of the ship when two fins appeared in front of us. They were not large whales, and in the immediate moments there was some confusion as to what we were looking at. But fortunately, the head and blowhole were soon visible and we realized we were looking at two Southern Bottlenose Whales. My first beaked whale, and a fantastic species to encounter. Our second encounter was a pod of three distant Hourglass Dolphins, but we saw little apart from the animals fins, so it was not a particularly exciting encounter. 

  After an emotional rollercoaster of a day, the seastate at sunset was flat calm, almost like a millpond, quite bizzare to witness. We hoped for a whale to emerge in the superb conditions but sadly it did not happen. That was the case until I was already in bed, when a call came over the tannoy of whales outside. I threw on some clothes and dashed onto deck, just in time to see a group of at least six Southern Bottlenose Whales regularly surfacing at the back of the ship. Even in the dull light their beaked whale profile was well observed!