7 Charlotte Bay, Antarctica Today was a 7.00am wakeup call as we had become used to, with wonderful smoothies served in the bar at 7.15am for those who got up early and breakfast served at 7.30am. During the Antarctic section of our expedition, the zodiacs were craned into the water from the ship’s deck by 9.00am. This morning we were going for a cruise around the Bay looking for whales. We were astounded. It was a feeding frenzy of whales for over 2 hours. They were all humpbacks. Many times we had whales all around us. We constantly looked for the bubbles coming up, which indicated that they were below that surface. On one occasion, surrounding our zodiac was bubbles everywhere. We didn’t know when and where they were going to surface. All we knew was ... read more

3. D'Hainaut Island Mikkelsen Harbour We woke to see that it has snowed over night, but the morning was beautiful with sun shining and the ocean as blue as blue can be! It was majestic. The Russian crew were sweeping the snow from the top decks and we saw snow falling past our cabin window. It was announced that the temperature was a little warmer that the previous day – 1.5 degrees!!! It didn’t matter really as we were very ‘toasty’ in our warm clothes. Mikkelson Harbour is a rocky islet which is located n the small bay on the southern side of Trinity Island in the Palmer Archipelago. The islet was snow covered with a colony of Gentoo penguins and many Weddell seals which was the 1st time we had seen these seals. We sat ... read more

Sunday – Tuesday 10-12 February: DAYS 9-11 / AT SEA – TOWARDS ANTARCTICA Weather and ice dictated our crossing of the Scotia Sea from South Georgia to Antarctica. As with all of One Ocean’s itinerary planning, the Expedition Leader and Captain continually made decisions based on the sea and ice conditions at the time. Our luck continued. Yes, the seas were very slightly choppier and yes, one morning there was flurries of snow in the morning, but blue skies prevailed by lunch time. During these days at sea, we had presentations from our highly skilled professionals on the history of Ernest Shackleton, birds of the Antarctic, how pinnipeds feed (eg Elephant seals), identification of whales, cartography expeditions, If looks could Krill: Southern Ocean Food Web with Matt Allen, Shackleton’s Captain (movie) and Penguin Presentation. We even ... read more

5. Stromness & Fortuna Bay We were going to be woken at 6.00am for those who wanted to do a 4 hour trek which was part of the path that Ernest Shackleton took from Furtuna Bay to Stromness Bay on the east coast of the country. The path continued to King Haakon Bay on the west coast of St Georgia. Unfortunately, there was cloud covering the mountain so the impact of the walk would have been minimal and the swell in the ocean was too great for the launching of the zodiacs as Furtuna was more exposed than Stromness Bay. The One Ocean team always had plan B and that was to sail to the more protected Stromness Bay. After a 7.30am breakfast, we all got into zodiacs (10 per zodiac) and landed at the Stromness ... read more

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