Monday 24th November

Paradise Harbour

At 4am there wasn’t a whole lot to see outside, I could just make out
the mountains either side of the channel we were cruising, so I decided
it was probably best to go back to bed and rise with everyone else at a
time nearer breakfast. So at 10 am we first had an hours zodiac cruise
around the sheltered bay which is definitely too spectacular to ever
describe in words. Almost immediately we spot our first Leopard seal ,
or rather he spots us, and takes enough of an interest in us to allow us
photograph him right beside the boat and diving underneath it. Like all
seals it looks somewhat clumsy and slow on the ice floes, but once in
the water you can see why it’s such an effective predator and it glides
and curls through the clear ice water at speeds that make it difficult
for us to keep up.

We spend some time getting right up close to the face of one the many
glaciers sloping down into the bay, and cruise around the countless ice
bergs, before heading to land at a disused Argentinian small base named
after one Admiral Brown, from Foxford in County Mayo. A national hero
in Argentina he founded their Navy and took on the Spanish in many
battles, this also explains the street names Via Mayo etc. in Ushuaia.
Apart from the few closed huts and penguin colony, there’s little else
here so most are drawn to climb the high snow slope to a peak that
overlooks the bay. I have my first go in snow shoes and I’m not sure if
I’m using them right as I still manage to sink up to my waist in the
fresh snow, but the incredible view and the bit of excercise was well
worth it, going down was far more effective.

Back to the ship for lunch and then we cruise to Neko Harbour for more
landings and zodiac cruises. We were expecting to see some Minke Whales
but they haven’t arrived yet apparently, so with some creative thinking
about what to do needed, our small group gets a unique treat of landing
us on an actual ice berg ! One by one we take turns at being left on
the floating ice while the zodiac backs off, and there’s no avoiding the
slightly uneasy feeling of being set adrift like this. It’s obviously
something that isn’t often done or recommended by the crew so the few of
us that got to step on are suitably impressed and thrilled. Gentoo
Penguins, a large avalanche and some brave souls swimming including the
science students are the other highlights of the day.

We’re anchored now and have just had dinner. At 10 pm a group of us are
going ashore to spend the night on the ice in tents.. it’s snowing and
cold outside and a bit gloomy but it should be quite an experience.

Then sadly we will be sailing away from Antarctica tomorrow and
ominously into a forecasted storm that will hit us on the dreaded Drake
Passage for the 2 day sail back to Ushuaia.