Today is our first outing in Antarctica, at Hanna Point, Livingstone Island, located in the outlaying group of islands named South Shetland. Many returned stating, “This was worth the whole effort to make it all the way south.”
Well, still more to come. We were blessed with blue sky, rare in late summer at South Shetland, and seeing three species of penguins (including one Macaroni penguin), plenty of huge elephant seals in a ‘wallow,’ many Antarctic fur seals, the Weddell seal, and even some had a brief view of a leopard seal in the water hunting penguins and chasing Zodiacs. It was a spectacular start.
We approached the continental shelf of Antarctica, after a very calm and rapid Drake Passage crossing, and slowly made it along the western side of South Shetland. Icebergs, penguins, and even some whales (fin and humpback) were seen in the water while plenty of different species of albatross soared along the swells. Soon we ventured between islands, left the Drake Passage behind and sailed into Bransfield Strait and spent the latter part of the morning cruising between more icebergs in an amazing number and shapes. Many of us came to Antarctica for different reasons, but as soon as icebergs are sighted, they usually overtake all other reasons. Watching icebergs and taking pictures of these occupied us more or less the whole morning until lunch. Ice here occurs in two different forms. Glacier ice, which of course is accumulated snow and builds over thousands or tens of thousands of years. The second form is sea ice (frozen sea). The latter will be something we hopefully soon will encounter. In the haze we also saw one of few active volcanos in Antarctica, Deception Island.
After our great start in the afternoon we returned to our base, National Geographic Explorer, and we soon we were steaming east heading for Antarctic Sound. The captain invited us to a Welcome Cocktail event with an introduction to the heads of the three departments running the ship, hotel, engine, and deck. It is a very international crew on board represented by many wonderful people from around the globe. Soon we were heading for the Welcome Dinner and enjoyed fantastic creations by our galley team as icebergs passed beside the ship and snow flew in the air.
Some guests, who finished dinner early went to the bridge and were lucky to catch a brief view of a pod of killer whales passing the ship and disappearing into the ocean with swirling snow above and with blurry huge icebergs in the haze. Well, the more time you spend looking, the more you see.
Welcome to the White Continent and more to come!
