A Cathedral of Ice

Today was another very full day here in Antarctica. We were awake by 5am and had a 5:30am wake-up call. Even before breakfast, we went straight to zodiac cruising. But before we could begin, there was some "iceberg wrangling" going on. The issue was that some flattish icebergs were coming up alongside the ship, the size of a couple of zodiacs floating on top of the water, plus the 70% or so which was underneath the water. So they needed to be moved before we could load the zodiacs. A couple of the zodiacs would come up to one side of the iceberg in question and gently push it out of the way. Once three or four had been cleared, we proceeded to our cruising. Fortunately, Greg and I were in a zodiac with Bruce Miller and Tom Murphy, along with only three other passengers, so it was relatively easy to move around.

The seas were very calm this morning, and there was a lot of good ice around. We made our way to a flat iceberg with a leopard seal sleeping on it. He didn't have a lot of activity, but they are still fun to see up close and personal. They really do look reptilian, and have lots of spots on their neck and underside. After hanging out with the seal for a while, we also checked out some gentoo penguins on a few icebergs. One on, you could see their footprints from where they got out of the water and hiked up the side of the iceberg, maybe 20-30 feet high.

But we wanted to see more beautiful blue ice, so the zodiac headed for a spot a ways away, which also had some good brash ice to plow through. This is the Antarctica we had envisioned – ice in the water, mountains and ice on all sides, with partly sunny skies and beautiful color and texture in the clouds. Eventually, we made our way to what we called the "Cathedral." This was an enormous iceberg, probably 80-100 feet tall and 500 feet wide. There were multiple "caves" or indentations that we were tempted to drive the zodiac into (but we restrained ourselves). The multiple shades of blue, turquoise, green, white and grey were absolutely astounding. There were sharp peaks, like the steeples of a church, "windows" cut out in some of the peaks, and it had sculpted sides with icicles hanging down from the cave ceilings. Because the water was so calm, the reflections were amazing – we could see it "right side up" and upside down as well. It was so big, it was pretty much impossible to capture the entire iceberg in one photo, even with a wide angle lens. We stayed there for about 30 – 45 minutes just cruising back and forth, and when we went to leave we realized that we were driving the zodiac over the submerged portion of the iceberg. Bruce even stuck his underwater camera into the cold, cold ocean and tried to capture some of the texture from below the surface. It's so interesting to see the water change colors as we change from being over deep ocean, which is a dark steely grey color, to being over an iceberg, where you can see the ice under the most beautiful turquoise or greenish-blue water. Finally, we realized that we had to leave to get back to the ship reasonably close to our appointed time.

On the way back, we paused for a few minutes for more penguins and one more seal (we'd seen three this morning) and then had a bit of a zodiac race with Jim Danzenbaker's group (we won!). Quickly shedding our outermost layers, we headed into breakfast.

After breakfast, we began the journey through Paradise Bay. This landscape is incredibly beautiful, with towering mountains covered by icebergs. The sun was peeking out, so we saw glimpses of blue sky along with clouds ranging from white to dark grey. The landscape here is difficult to describe and even more difficult to capture in a single photo. We have some which include dark mountains with some ice patches next to glacier covered mountains which rise hundreds of feet from the ocean's surface. With the sun reflecting off all of the snow and ice, they are gorgeous.

The landscape continued to impress as we made our way through the Lamaire Channel on the way to Petermann Island. We had a great deal of fun passing through the end of the Lemaire Channel. We were breaking through first year ice as we went along, and we saw lots of seals on the icebergs. They were generally just lounging or sleeping, and only seemed to move when it became clear to them that the iceberg was about to be split into pieces! It was fun to watch them diving off the side and into the clear water underneath – and they often swam right in front of the ship after entering the water. We were out on the bow with probably 25% of the passengers on board yelling "Save yourself! Hit the water!" It was great fun. There were several penguins on different icebergs who had to make some pretty quick escapes as well.

We were told during lunch that nobody has landed at Petermann yet this season because of all the ice. Once we got there, we understood completely – although it wasn't technically possible to walk from ice bit to ice bit to shore, it was darn close! It was pretty obvious that zodiacs would not be put into this water / ice field. So we got to experience what we had imagined as the "true" Antarctic experience, pushing through lots of ice as we searched for our next landing. We heard three or four plans about where to go next since we didn't land at Petermann. In the end, we turned around and went back north through the Lemaire Channel and anchored off of Booth Island. There it was determined that we would make a landing after dinner – heading off the ship around 8:30 or 9:00pm. With sunset around 10:45pm (and lots of light even after that), this was deemed to be a good plan for the evening.

After hanging around on the deck for a few hours this afternoon, we returned to our room to relax for a while before dinner. Greg was napping, but when I heard the announcement that several of the Russian crew, including the captain, were taking a dip in the ocean off the starboard gangway, I hopped up and went down to watch. By the time I got there, the captain had been in the water and was already out, but I did see two Russian ladies heading in – one in a bikini. She came out with a parka and pants, stripped those off, walked down the gangway and dove in. There is a crewman, like the one who helps us into and out of the zodiacs standing by fully dressed including a life jacket who helps them in and out of the water onto the gangway. They stay in less than a minute. It's below freezing – like 28 degrees! - and after they come out, there are other crew standing by with towels and jackets to bundle them up. I suspect they head straight for the sauna on deck 1!

After dinner, we did do the shore landing on Booth Island. This is an island that has multiple penguin species all in one place – gentoos, adelies and chinstraps. There weren't that many of the adelies and chinstraps but they're all fun to watch. It was a relatively short landing – off at 9, back at 11pm, and as we returned to the ship the sun was setting over the island, which was pretty nice.

Tomorrow we will be landing in Port Lockroy, which has another post office so we can mail ourselves another postcard. I'm very curious to see how long it takes to arrive, and how much it costs.

Today was one of the most spectacular days we've had on this trip – and there have been some pretty fantastic days. From the "iceberg wrangling" this morning, to the "cathedral" during zodiac cruising, to the spectacular landscapes all afternoon, including the ice filled water, the day had some amazing images. We are hoping our luck continues for our last few days here in Antarctica!