The 55 knot winds across our bow died down to whisper as we rounded the North East tip of the Antarctic Peninsula and cruised into Hope Bay at about 9:00 am the morning. We had clear skies with great visibility as we caught the scent of the 120,000 Adelie penguins in a colony that inhabits this area, just a little rank. This bay also contains the Esperanza Base, the largest Argentinian Antarctic Base. There are approximately 50 people that live full time at the Esperanza Base. The Base was established in 1951 and staffed by Argentinian army personnel, it is a year round facility with the unusual feature of having entire families instead of just the scientific support personal found in most Antarctic stations. So there is a small village feel here with a school and teacher etc. Fun fact, the first child of Antartica was born here in 1978 and there has been at least seven more since. Our Captain did the most amazing job of getting us closer to the glacier at the end of the Bay than ever before (according to the expedition guides). This allows us to see just that much more of the detail at the edges of these incredible walls of ice. So yes, another wow day. Once leaving the bay we headed into the Weddell Sea with some great scenic cruising where we stopped at a most impressive ice shelf, just gigantic. We stopped here for about a half hour plus for pics including launching a rescue boat for the team to take some photos of the Prinsendam and this massive Ice Shelf on her last time down here under the HAL banner. Great stop to float and have lunch as we watched all the wildlife around us, seals, whales and about a billion penguins - okay maybe not a billion but pretty close, lol. The captain made a couple of attempts to go further into the Weddell Sea but we were stopped by ice at both points, so this is about as far south as we could possibly go without getting trapped in ice. We are at about 63 degrees south at about now.
Great lecture this afternoon on the diving of some of these amazing sea animals, penguins, seals and whales. Our lectures in part are presented by the authors of the book delivered to our room the other formal night, Peter Carey and Craig Franklin. A great read, Antartica Cruising Guide for anyone visiting this area to get better primed. They did a book signing today which was lots of fun. We cruised out of the Weddell Sea late this afternoon and on our way to King George Island for tomorrow morning. Tonight we had another theme night, Chinese New Year, so Gung Hey Fat Choi to all. Fabulous show in the show lounge.
A few pics of our another amazing day here on the edge of the ice in Antartica… Hope you enjoy…
Quote of the day: “Travel brings power and love back into your life” - Rumi
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