I tired to capture everything I saw, the uniqueness of every iceberg, the intensity of the glaciers, the impact of the surrounding mountains, but the pictures just can't! To experience Antarctica you have to get up early, very early, well like 5 am early, in order to secure a seat in the crow's nest, which is the uppermost deck with a 180 view of the surrounding area!
In order to appreciate the magnificent views, it was a must to be at the crow's nest! There is no other place on the entire ship that had a better view! Well maybe 2 places - Deck 6 and the Bow of the Ship! Although the gail force winds made these two places really cold!! I was able to go out, take a few pictures, and then run back in! On the other hand, Jeff showed his dedication to capturing the perfect photo because he was able to stand the very cold weather with the right clothing, shoes, gloves and protective face mask!
One of our table-mates, Pat, got there first, then my mom and I arrived shortly after to secure more seats. We selected the area in the very front middle of the ship, in front of the orange make shift Old Pole Base Camp. We were able to secure 6 seats that we formed into a u shape! It was a prime spot!
The only problem was fog! You couldn't see five feet in front of you! So we sat, and talked and at about 6, they started serving pastries and coffee. We could begin to see the horizon, or at least we thought we were seeing it! Then at 6:30 there was still fog, although it was lighter there seemed to be nothing in the water! We went down to get breakfast and as soon as we sat down to eat, my mom comes running in saying what are you doing? Here the fog had lifted and Elephant Island, one of the most northerly islands in the Arctic region. bellowed out of the water! It was the largest snow covered area!
As we sailed through the Bransfield Strait we entered into the beginning of Iceberg Alley! The ship seemed to dodge the large iceberg left and right, and run over the small bergie bits and growlers (those are the terms given to the small chucks of icebergs floating through the waters)!
They served hot chocolate to us as we watched more and more icebergs come into view! I hopped from the crow's nest to the sports deck to the occasional blast of Arctic wind on deck 6 taking pictures of icebergs and whatever else came into view! While I was out there, I saw TWO Humpback whales breaching!! There was also Minke whales swimming right by the ship! It was great!
At 10:30 was the Antarctic Penguin Plunge! Anyone who wanted to could plunge into the icy cold waters of the Antarctic (at the Lido Pool outside!) I was there only to watch! Apparently the water was warm but the air… cold, cold, cold!
We entered into the Antarctic Sound where we continued to sail to the south between Elephant Island and Clarence Island through Prince Charles Strait. To make this experience even better, they served Dutch Green Pea Soup, which doesn't sound very good, but oh my, it was delicious! A perfect late morning warm you up treat!
Pictures, Pictures and more pictures continued! Penguins on icebergs, penguins swimming in the waters, it was amazing to see! Icebergs as large as a half a mile across! They looked like different shapes, barns, cake slices, church steeples, a sailing ship, giant chucks of marble floating! It was like looking a clouds and seeing different images! The most amazing thing was that you could only see 10 percent of the glacier above the water, 90, 90 percent was below the surface of the water!!! It was unimaginable!
More Penguins on Icebergs!
Still in the Antarctic Sound, we were on our way to Hope Bay. With some time to spare before we arrived to Esperanza Station, my mom and I took a walk around the ship and ran into Karen, Captain Mercer's wife. I met her the other day at the captain's dinner and encouraged her to come to knitting and watercolors, she did come and is currently knitting her first square and painting her first watercolor! Anyway, she invited us to the Bridge!!! Oh my goodness! I didn't think this day could get any better! Well it did and I was truly blessed and very fortunate to be given this wonderful opportunity! Sailing into Hope Bay in the Bridge! WOW! Now, apparently no one gets into the bridge, let alone stay for the sail into Hope Bay while in Antarctica! How we did, is still unbelievable! I like to think it was because I invited Karen to watercolors and knitting!!
In this area, is the captain and officers quarters. There bedrooms and offices line the hall and at the end, it opens into a giant room, with head to toe windows from one side of the ship to the other. Since we were in a more delicate area, the captain as well as four officers were staffed. There was also a watcher, an officer that spots and calls out icebergs in the distance, and an Ice Pilot. The Ice Pilot, the Captain's ice advisor, specializes in navigating the ship through glaciers and iceberg dotted waters! He has been the captain of an ice breaker! The main viewing area was staffed with officers navigating the course, repeating the location of upcoming icebergs, a pilot steering what could of been the smallest wheel, and the captain standing at the front of the area making sure everything was perfect! The officers not on duty were enjoying the views and taking their photographs! They even opened the side windows so that we could take more pictures!
Karen took us around the Bridge, showing us the different parts and explaining to us the jobs of the officers. We spent time just looking out the windows at the beautiful scenery and we were even able to use the high powered binoculars! I could see for miles and had the clearest images of penguins and more! I had the most fabulous time! I didn't think today could be any greater… That is until we entered Hope Bay. The scenery was amazing! Ice covered mountains rose up from the water, enormous glaciers blanketed the land, icebergs and bergie bits sporadically dotted the water, the views were truly amazing! Then just when you think it couldn't be better, Esperanza Station came into view! Antarctica has over 40 permanent research stations which belong to 30 nations and since Antarctica has no indigenous inhabitants or permanent residents, its population consists of the people who are involved in research. Esperanza Station is an Argentine station founded in 1952 and actually one of two civilian populations are located here and whole families live at the stations and there are schools for the children, but many do not stay longer than two years. From a distance the small red houses looked like tiny road barriers and as it came into view, the red barriers "turned" into houses, and then penguins and more penguins and thousands of penguins came into sight! There were an endless amount of penguin colonies all over the end of the mountain. You could see the salmon colored snow, stained by the poop of the penguin from the krill that they have eaten. The sights were so awesome! And this was only day one!
We stayed a little longer at the Bridge, had some fabulous chocolates (now I know were they hide the good chocolates!), and said our goodbyes and thank you's to the Captain, Officers and Karen!
After a few hours, we went back up to the Crow's Nest to enjoy even more scenery! I tried to take photos and videos to show the views, but nothing could capture what we were seeing! I learned today that $1,000 is spent every 11 minutes while we are here in Antarctica! $1,000 in 11 minutes! That is crazy! Not only is it extremely expensive to be here, there was a new treaty signed that prohibits large cruise ships (like this one) from coming to Antarctica, therefore we are the last of this size of ship to be allowed down here! This is truly a Once In A Lifetime Opportunity!
I had to pull myself away from the windows and from outside because I had to get ready for dinner, but even as we were getting to our room, I still had to pop outside and take more pictures of icebergs!
Dinner was exceptional again and by the time we were done with dinner, 10pm, it was still light outside! It doesn't get dark till after 11pm and it gets light at about 3am! 4 hours of darkness! It is light 20 hours a day! Have to go to bed early tonight because it is another 5 am day tomorrow!
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