I continue to reminisce about our amazing trip to Antarctica last month!  This post will cover our 4th day on the peninsula, Wednesday February 23rd.  With each day that passed, I thought it just couldn’t get better, but somehow it did!

Through a Narrow Passage

To start the day, the morning announcement was made earlier than usual by Danny.  The ship was about to maneuver its way through the Lemaire Channel.  He was inviting everyone up to the observation deck to witness our travel through the narrow passage!

The Observation Deck Lounge

We were on the ship a few days before we visited the Observation Deck Lounge.  It is such a comfy and interesting area of the ship!  I kind of wish we had visited it sooner.

You enter through the door there to the right of the bookshelves.  Right away you notice the comfy seating areas and the windows looking out over the bow of the ship.  Here you see the ship’s library, which is available to all passengers.  You can even take a book to your room if you want.  On the other side of the bookshelves is the bar, where you can order a cocktail or a hot chocolate or coffee.

So many comfortable places to relax!  One day Big Eagle and I sat at the table you see here, while he studied a book of maps from the library.  In this picture, you can see him sitting in a chair in front of the observation windows.

 

This is looking out of the observation windows over the bow of the ship.  Big Eagle is standing there looking through a spotting scope.

 

The Lemaire Channel

When we got to the observation deck lounge that morning, it was a much different scenario than what is pictured above.  It was teeming with all of the passengers who had come up to witness the passage through the Lemaire Channel!  Most seats were occupied, many were at the bar getting coffee or hot chocolate, waiters were circulating taking drink orders…it was buzzing with excitement!

It was nice and warm in the lounge.  When I stepped out the door to get onto the deck of the ship, it was so cold, and the wind was crazy!  Thankfully, Danny had warned us on the announcement to dress warmly.  Still, I could only stand to stay out there for a few minutes.  Guess I should have added another layer or two.  Here we are making our approach to the channel.

And this is the view when I turn around.  I imagine the captain up there through the top windows, guiding the ship.

After going back into the lounge to thaw out a little, I went out again to get another shot as we were getting closer to the Lemaire Channel.

This was actually the first time this season that the ship was able to pass through this channel.  In all of the previous trips, it had been blocked by icebergs.

 

Morning Expedition: Zodiac Landing

After the early excitement of passing through the Lemaire Channel, Big Eagle and I had breakfast.  We were left with a little bit of time before the morning expedition, so we went back to the observation deck.  It was much quieter there now, and I spent a little time out on the deck watching the expedition team as they took zodiacs out to the landing area to scope it out and prepare it for our excursion.

Groundwork

This is Petermann Island, where the expedition team was taking us.  At each landing site, they go out first and prepare the area for our visit.  They put out flags for us to follow.  These flags keep us away from dangerous areas.  They also keep us a prescribed distance away from the wildlife.  If the wildlife moves closer to us, that’s acceptable, but we are not to move any closer to them.  These guidelines are laid out by IAATO (International Association of Antarctica Tour Operators).

Our Expedition

This would be our first siting of an Adelie penguin!  After we exited our zodiac, Big Eagle and I walked as far to the right side of the island as we could.  Ava had a scope set up there focused into a group of penguins.  She called it something like “Find the One Adelie Penguin Game”.  I failed at the game, so I just looked through the scope.

She taught us that an Adelie penguin has a completely black head.  All the ones with the white patch on their head are Gentoos.  The one Adelie that she had her scope focused on is the one on the top, just to the left of the rock formation.  There may be some others in there, but that’s the one she spotted for us.

After watching that group of penguins for a while, Big Eagle and I walked back and turned up a short slope to the right where there was another group of penguins.  This one had many more Adelie penguins.

You can see a couple of Gentoos in there, too, up on the higher area.

We had spent quite a bit of time being entertained and informed about the penguins.  There was still a hike up a steep slope to an overview offered on this excursion, and I wanted to do it.  So Big Eagle made his way back to the zodiac to return to the ship, and I began my ascent.

This was looking back down after I was about 2/3 of the way up:

 

When I got to the top, there was Sam!  We just love Sam so much!

 

Here is the picture I got of the overview.  There are 3 seals relaxing on an iceberg on the right side of the picture.  Can you spot them?

By the time I got to the top, it was only a minute before they were calling last zodiac back to the ship!  It was double time down the slope!

 

Afternoon Expedition: His and Hers

His

The main expedition offered after lunch was a zodiac cruise in Hidden Bay.  Big Eagle did that one, and he didn’t take any pictures, so I have none to offer.

Hers

Let me introduce you to Jordan from the paddling team portion of the expedition team:

On one of our sea days after we left Ushuaia, we attended the presentation in the theater about the kayaking and paddleboard excursions.  Jordan was the lead for the stand-up paddleboard excursions.  I spoke with him after his presentation, and he strongly encouraged me to do his excursion, even though I had never been on a SUP before.  Not being 100% convinced that Antarctica was the place to attempt to do SUP for the first time, I also talked to Danny about it, and he assured me that Jordan was excellent at what he did, and I would be in good hands.

SO…I went on the SUP expedition that afternoon!  And I’m SO glad I did!  It was an incredible experience that I will do my best to describe for you here.

Since I had never done this before, I spent the first portion of our time in Hidden Bay on the paddleboard on my knees.

Once I finally felt comfortable enough, I attempted to stand up with Jordan giving me directions.  My first try, I got about half-way up and then dropped back down to my knees.  Ugh!  But my second try was successful!  YAY!

 

That’s me in the middle of this threesome!

Now this one is NOT me.  It’s another one of our group of six who were on the paddleboard excursion that afternoon.

I’m including this picture to give you a sense of our surroundings when things started to happen.  We had maneuvered into the innermost part of the bay, so we had this kind of ice surrounding us on three sides and the outlet to open waters behind us.

None of us got pictures, because things happened so quickly.  I hadn’t even bothered bringing my iphone, because I knew I would be preoccupied with trying to not fall off the board!  We had been hearing calving going on, but hadn’t witnessed any, when all of a sudden, the wall on our right side calved, and we all saw it!

Right away, Jordan told all of us to aim the front of our boards into the wave that would be coming our way.  We did as told, and the wave did come.  We were all fine, and we were entranced watching a big iceberg behind us bobbing up and down as the wave hit it.  Then the wave hit the opposite wall, causing IT to calve!  We were all amazed at what we were witnesssing!

The original wall calved again a couple of times.  The last time that it did, we kept our eyes on a HUGE iceberg between us and the wall.  It was rolling so much from the resulting wave, that it looked like it might completely turn over!  Instead, in the midst of all of its movement, it broke in half!  What an amazing sight!

Even though it was time to start heading back to the ship, none of us wanted to leave.  Jokes were made about how we could stay as late as we wanted, since the expedition leader’s mom was with us!  LOL!  However, looking around, quite a bit of fog had settled in.  We could no longer see the ship in the distance.  It was all quite ethereal!

Jokes aside, we all one-by-one exited our paddleboard and got back into the zodiac.  After a few minutes of navigating, we could make out the ship in the distance through the fog and arrived safely back.

What an afternoon!

I didn’t take any pictures at dinner that night, but I’m pretty sure we ate at Koko’s, since the night before we ate at Elements.  We ended up going back and forth between those two for the rest of the trip.

Stay tuned for more to come about our time in Antarctica!