For the last two days we have met strong winds and overcast skies; yesterday afternoon we were standing aghast in a huge Adélie colony watching these dogged little penguins jogging uphill, oblivious to the blizzard of snow swirling around them. So it was a delight to be woken by bright sunshine streaming through the porthole this morning.
Up on deck there was a dazzling panorama of snowy mountains, the low morning light turning the icefields lilac. This is Orleans Strait, the Antarctic Peninsula to the left, Trinity Island to starboard. The light was so clear we could see the buttery yellow peaks of Anders Island 40 miles away to the south. The calm, powder blue sea showed every ripple and catspaw, so it was no effort to spot the blows of both minke and humpback whales to either side. Our destination this morning was Mikkelssen Harbour, a sheltered bay at the southern tip of Trinity Island, and with the ship anchored and the sea calmed it was the perfect spot to use our fleet of kayaks. Other intrepid explorers were landed by Zodiac on the tiny island in the bay, and running the gauntlet between gentoo penguin colonies and a group of preening blue-eyed shags, they followed our marked trail to the summit. We were halted for a while by a young elephant seal that had chosen the small plateau to begin its summer molt. Our delighted hikers, sweltering now in their heavy Antarctic coats also needed to molt a few layers as they climbed to the summit ridge. Down on the other side were more seals slumped in the snow, crabeaters and Weddell seals, oblivious to our invasion. The beach here is a legacy of early whaling a century ago: piles of whale bones scattered over the shore from the days when whales were dragged ashore, stripped of blubber and the carcass discarded in the bay. No sooner had we returned to the ship than a “Polar Plunge” was announced and 60 deranged guests leapt (without wetsuits) into the frigid water and leapt back out twice as fast! Heroic insanity but applauded by all….
The weather was so lovely we were offered lunch on the sundeck, today living up to its name. In no time we reached our afternoon site, Cierva Cove the location for Zodiac cruises through a dramatic landscape. Black volcanic cliffs, some of them covered in rich green moss beds, were eyries for both brown skuas and kelp gulls. Both Weddell and crabeater seals were found dozing on small ice floes, a chance to compare them at close quarters, and some folk managed to find a leopard seal close to the glacier. This was the most spectacular part of the bay where three different glaciers merged to form a huge ice front spilling blocks of ice into the bay. Also in one corner of the bay was an Argentine research station, its flag flying, newly painted dark orange. Here where the seabed was shallower, a dozen icebergs had grounded, and melting slowly, were tipped and tilted at various angles like so many frozen shipwrecks. One had a crumbling arch, the only flimsy bridge preventing it from collapsing in on itself. Enough adventure for one day…… we gave it a wide berth, and fortified by hot chocolate supplied by a Zodiac full of friendly Vikings, we motored back to the warmth of the mother ship.
