I went over and thanked him profusely and he said no problem. The next thing there was a mass exodus from the restaurant and Troels had to come on the loudspeaker and ask everyone to finish their lunch before heading out to see the whales.

It was a perfect ending to a incredible trip. I was very popular due to me being the one to ask Troels if we could go out again, so I got a front row seat in the first zodiac! We got really close to the whales and it was an unbelievable bonus seeing these amazing creatures at such close range. I even managed to get some superb fluke shots and am very proud of those photographs. We stayed around the whales for around 20 minutes and everyone was extremely grateful to the whales for hanging around long enough for everyone to get the chance of seeing them. Once everybody had got back on the ship the whales disappeared from view and we never seen again - how

lucky we are!

The buzz around the ship was exceptional and we couldn’t have asked for anything better. What an end to our last full day, the only thing left now was the dreaded Drake Passage - would our luck hold out and let us have a smooth last crossing?

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