9. Lemaire Channel and Penola Strait 65°15'17" S 64°17'56" W Icefields And Many Seals

I woke up a bit late, still feeling the cold night before, when we were approaching the Lemaire Channel, which is supposed to be the photographic highlight of the Antarctic Peninsula. When arriving a fierce storm was blowing (9 Bft.), the sky was ominous and it was made clear again that despite all the beauty, this is not an environment meant for us.

 After a while the wind was receding and we were looking at the entrance of the Penola Strait, a small channel between 1000 meter high straight mountains. However, the Strait looked to be blocked by ice.

This year the Europa had not managed yet to reach it's most southern destination, the Ukrainian base Vernadsky, with ice blocking the passage. In fact only two ships had managed it this season yet.
So we were all a bit anxious to see what would happen next.
With lookouts high in the mast and upfront at the stern the captain decided to give it a go.



What pictures do not show is sound. And the sound crossing these icefields with everything cracking around you is something not to forget. At a certain point the captain asked everyone to leave the deck in front to have a better view so that we could make a safe passage.

When the channel widened up again the weather changed entirely and it would turn out to be a beautiful sunny day. We encountered Crab Seals resting on floating icefloes, at first we thought we were lucky but they were literally everywhere. We also saw a penguin taking risks by just walking next to a Leopard Seal. Or he was suicidal or he did not know that he was not the top of the food chain.




Reaching our destination we met more dramatically shaped icebergs and with the sun blazing, the colors were again of unparalleled beauty.



This album here has pictures of the Lemaire Channel and Penola Strait, Icebergs, Glaciers, Icefloes, the Captain, Crabeater Seals, Leopard Seals, Porpoising Penguins and the Bark Europa.
It has 64 pictures.

click here for the album












This video was mainly filmed the last few days:

10. Argentine Islands, Vernadsky Base 65°15'17" S 64°17'56" W Skuas, The Wordy Hut and a Pub

In the afternoon we would first make a trip to Winter Island, part of the Argentine Islands, to visit the Wordy Hut, an old research station that is preserved and now part of  the Antarctica list of monuments.
We climbed a small hill for views on the entire bay and generally just baked in the sun, it was a lovely day. Some Skuas enjoyed the view as well apparently and were watching us relaxing on the snow.


In the evening we would make a visit to the Ukrainian base Vernadsky. This was formerly a British base were the hole in the ozone layer was first discovered. After the British decided to reduce their stations in Antarctica they sold the base to Ukraine for 1 pound. The other option would have been to dismantle the whole station, nothing is allowed to remain when it is not used anymore.


The station is famous for having the most southern pub in the world were homebrew wodka is being served.
The story concerning the pub is funny, when it was still British a load of wood had arrived to build a jetty for easier landings. However the crew decided for a better use and built a  pub instead.

However when we arrived, only the third ship this year, we heard that the pub had been closed down due to government orders, probably someone at home had decided this was not good publicity?

When we went to visit Vernadsky our zodiac ran aground at a submerged rock, it took us a while to get afloat again, and only then we saw that just behind our backs some Crabeater seals had been looking at our spectacle all the time.



This album here has pictures of the Argentine Islands, The Wordy Hut, Base Vernadsky, Skuas, Crabeater Seals and the Bark Europa.
It has 43 pictures.

click here for the album