After being at sea for two days crossing the Drake Passage, I woke up around 5:30 Sunday morning and opened the blinds in our cabin to this view:

Breathtaking!  Our ship, the Scenic Eclipse, had arrived in Antarctica!

 

Helicopter Ride!

Our first activity after breakfast was to go up in the helicopter with Danny and the Scenic photographer for a reconnaissance flight so they could scope out the best route for the helicopter at our first location.  It was a beautiful clear day with blue skies.  Amazing!  Here we are suited up for our ride:

 

I took so many pictures while we were in the air, but I’ll just share these three here:

 

 

So spectacular to see it all from the air!

When we were back on the ship’s landing pad, Danny and I exited the helicopter, and then Danny was able to get this picture of Big Eagle leaving the helicopter:

He’s there on the left being escorted away from the helicopter.

 

Fournier Bay

A little later that morning, we made our way to the mud room to suit up for our first zodiac cruise around Fournier Bay.  Adrian was our zodiac driver.  He was great at spotting the wildlife and informing us about them.

 

We saw many humpback whales, even one with a baby swimming with it!

 

 

The brilliant blue ice in this berg was stunning!

 

 

We also saw some fur seals!  I loved the silhouette this one provided with the pose he struck.

 

After we returned from our zodiac cruise, we had lunch on the ship while it sailed to our afternoon location.  Then we put on our excursion gear and headed to the mud room.

The mudroom is where our shore boots are stored.  It’s on deck 3 where the gangway for the zodiacs is also located.

Orne Harbor

After we had our boots on, we headed to the gangway where we boarded our zodiac that would take us on shore at Orne Harbor.

It was snowing at Orne Harbor! We were given the opportunity to climb a fairly steep slope up to where the guides had positioned a flag of Antarctica.  Trekking poles were provided for us to make the ascent, and they were definitely needed!

I made it to the top and proudly waved the flag!

This picture gives an idea of how high up it was:

So I was really thankful to have Boris’ help on the way down.  He showed me how to position my feet to be perpendicular to the slope, and he stayed with me all the way down.

 

Zodiac Reconnaissance

Rather than go back to the ship when we finished, Danny invited Big Eagle and me to go with him, Sam, and Boris to search out a possible alternate landing site for future trips to Orne Harbor.  Like Sam, Boris is also a friend Danny has had since his Alaska days.  It’s really neat to see the three of them working together on the Eclipse!

 

 

We went around to another possible landing site and let Sam out to explore.  While he did that, we drove around a bend and looked at the coastline.  I enjoyed watching the penguins on the rocks.

 

There was also a group of cormorants a little further on.

 

We went past this ice berg, and it was so cool how we could see it underneath the water, too!

 

Back on the Scenic Eclipse

Back at the ship, we got dressed for the evening.  Everyone on the ship had been tested for COVID that morning, and everyone had a negative result.  YAY!  To celebrate that, the captain was going to be present and speak to everyone on the lounge deck.  None of us had seen the captain up to this point.  He couldn’t risk catching anything from someone.

Butlers were circulating with trays of drinks.  Look who I ran into?  It was Nenud, our personal butler for our cabin!

 

During the captain’s talk, he introduced everyone on his team who works closely with him.  Here he is introducing Danny.

 

After the captain’s talk, we went to the theater for that night’s briefing by the discovery team.  Danny and his team do one every night of the cruise to provide some information about Antarctica and to review the day and preview the next day’s excursions.

Then we went to the restaurant onboard called Elements for dinner. Eric is the maitre d of Elements and also of the Yacht Club.  He is one of our favorite people on the staff of the Scenic.

All of the staff are very personable.  Eric is aspiring to be part of the Discovery Team, so he does help on some of the excursions.  He was on the afternoon excursion this day, helping people climb that steep slope.

It’s fun to see him in his different capacities on this trip!  (Sidenote: See Big Eagle down there wearing the orange cap and blue ski pants?)

It had been an incredible and full day!  We went to bed that night looking forward to new adventures the next day!