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 absolutely 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; 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 Petrels being the most interesting species of the day. It was also good to see both King Penguin and Macaroni Penguin from the boat, as they 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 sea at sunset was flat calm, almost like a millpond, quite bizarre 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.
Although there was something amiss about them, as I discussed with the whale specialist onboard after the animals had departed, he relieved my concerns, and the animals were left identified as Southern Bottlenose Whales. That was until I got around to uploading them to iNaturalist. The response here was overwhelmingly that the animals were Strap-toothed Beaked Whales, and looking at the photos, the white beak, longer forehead, and the pale back on one of the animals all seem obvious now! This is a really rare animal, and one I am very excited to have recorded on our trip!
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