The next morning was even more special as we woke up to a group of killer whales (Orcas) surrounding our ship. There were quite a lot of them (20-30) ranging from calves to adult males. Though I’d seen them twice before, I never saw so many at a single time and so clear (the first time I mainly looked through the camera). They kept up quite well with the ship but eventually our parting routes and empty bellies drew us to the breakfast.
Their ‘white’ is yellowish here due to algae growth on their skin.
Today we started at Cuverville Island, known for the icebergs in the bay and the many penguins, but I was enlisted for a special photo zodiac tour (everyone had the possibility to have one additional zodiac tour with fewer people on board to go look for wildlife). Already from the Sea Spirit I noticed humpback whales close by and mentioned them to Flipper. They were resting but when we got closer they suddenly woke up and did some full body breaches! It was so awesome to see. We followed them around for more than an hour and got incredibly close. At some point one of the whales swam under our boat and scratched his/her back to it lifting our boat a tiny bit. The humpback was so close I could have touched it! This, to me, was the pinnacle of the trip. These animals are so gracious and huge and it’s so cool to see them this close.
After Cuverville Island we went to Neko Harbour, our only ‘continental’ landing as the islands surrounding the peninsula are more interesting, but some people, like me, needed to set foot on the continent to complete their bucket list of visiting all 7 continents.
Neko Harbour, like pretty much all landing sites, is known for a large breeding colony of Gentoos and it was the first time Pongo was able to see his relatives (yesterday he was too shy to join).
The weather at Neko Harbour was great and within a few minutes most of us were walking in T-shirts or some even went as far as rolling naked in the snow, not knowing that 90% of the snow was mixed with penguin poop! Additionally, Neko Harbour is known for a very active glacier that is continually calving. It’s too unpredictable to make a photo of it, but is was awesome to see how big chunks of ice are shed and dropped into the water.
After being brought back to the boat and having had our dinner there was one last stop for the day, Useful Island. This island was previously used by whalers and explorers alike because of the hill from where you can see the surrounding ocean and islands. Unfortunately we were just a bit to late to see the sunset, but, as a purely bonus landing, this wasn’t too big of a deal. We still witnessed the glaciers turning red from the setting sun and saw some more fur seals and penguins, whose smell I was already getting used to by now.
More Orcas 
Breaching humpback whale. 
Humpback whale (courtesy of Joan Macau) 
Humpback playing with its fluke. 
Crabeater seals chilling at an iceberg near Cuverville Island. 
Iceberg near Cuverville Island. 
Cuverville Island 
Penguins ‘flying’ through the waters of Cuverville Island. 
Penguins chilling on an iceberg near Neko Harbour 
Gentoo feeding his chick.