I experienced the drake passage at 6:30am when I woke up and felt the ship rocking. Moments later I started to feel a little queasy. I decided to go back to bed. The sea was not so calm anymore but it was still sunny but ever so cold. Sick bags appeared on every floor ready for the onslaught of sea sickness. The outside deckchairs and lounges and bars had to be tied down due to 80 mph winds. This continued throughout our journey through this crossing. Life on a cruise ship continued with entertainment and buffets.
On Day 9 of my itinerary, we reached the South Shetland Islands which are part of the Antarctic peninsula. This is as far south as our cruise ship was going to get. I actually didn't expect it to be this good. The on board experts are actually navigating the ship through the islands which is amazing. Our on board experts are Dr Craig Cormick, Ben Osborne naturalist and Dr Torre Stockard. They actually have made this trip extraordinary with lectures and passing on their knowledge when we look out to the islands. Today was a beautiful but cold day. We first sailed past Snow island which is exactly what it is, an island of snow. The view was so clear. Then we sailed past Punta sur Este watching huge glaciers and mountain ranges of Deception Island before settling into Admiralty Bay. The ship manoeuvred so that all parts of the ship was able to view from every angle. We saw so many chinstrap penguins swimming around us. We saw grey albatross and also humpback whales at a distance. The view from every window was amazing. For dinner I was given a window table and the view was just ridiculous. The glacier was just there and then the ship moved and there was the mountain range. We could see two research vessels nearby and also the numerous research huts dotted along the bay. By 8pm we were at Hannequim Point. I couldn't get good photos of the wildlife because I don't have my zoom lens but the memories of them will be forever in my mind.
The South Shetland Islands are a group of islands with a total area of 3687 square kilometer. They lie about 120kms north of the Antarctic peninsula. Everyone can research in the Antarctic but for non military purposes only. Snow island is completely covered in ice. Deception Island is the most popular tourist stop in Antarctica because of its several colonies of Chinstrap penguins. Admiralty Bay is an irregular bay 8kms wide at its entrance between Demay Point and Martins Head indenting the southern coast of King George island in the south Shetland Islands. The bay has three fjords, Martel, Mackellar and Ezcurra.
We were not so lucky with the weather on the morning of day 10. Overcast and grey. I sww my first fin whale this morning. I was quite happy to have filmed my first fin whale. You had to zoom in but you could see it. They have been a number of whales but far away but this one was the closest even then I had to zoom in. We could still see chinstrap penguins and fur seals too. At lunchtime up on deck 12 we suddenly had so many sightings of fin whales. I had never seen so many in one area, I must have counted twenty plus. I left my food and headed for the nearest open deck which was deck 13 and started filming. It was a slow 60 seconds just spotting the blow holes and I was worried I had missed my chance of filming the most amazing whale sighting I have ever seen when all hell broke loose. If you can imagine the game whack a mole, well that was exactly what it looked like. When one whale popped up then up came another one in another spot and then another one and so on. I filmed over 6 minutes and stupidly forgot to put my gloves on before filming. My hands were getting so cold but I was so excited by what I was witnessing I didn't care. More and more whales popped up or breached. So many whales, it was just the most spectacular experience. The video doesn't do it justice but at least I have some evidence.
We could still see the ice floes with fur and leopard seals on them and sometimes a group of them would be seen swimming alongside the ice. The ones on the ice look like tiny black ants moving on the white ice. We arrived at Cape Lookout or Cabo Vigia or Fossatti. It is a steep cape 240m high. Our destination for today is Elephant Island which is also covered in ice, and a mountainous island off the coast of Antarctica in the outer reaches of the South Shetland Islands in the southern ocean. It is situated 245 kms north northeast tip of the Antarctic peninsula.It is 1253kms south west of South Georgia and 935kms south of the Falkland Islands and 885 kms of Cape Horn.
After Cape Lookout is Point Wild west of Cape Valentine, east of Saddleback Point and directly adjacent to Furness glacier on the north coast of Elephant Island. Named Cape Wild by the Shakleton Endurance expedition. Point Wild and Cape Wild are different to avoid confusion with the one on George V Coast. This one was named after Frank Wild leader of the Shackleton's shipwrecked expedition where the crew camped and managed to survive four and a half months before they were rescued.
It is with sadness that we leave Antarctica today but on the bright side, we will be sailing towards Falkland Islands.
