On the 15th of February we left the South Shetland Islands to go deeper south, into more 'icy' territory.
The first half of the day we were mainly crossing the sea after which we sailed along the coast of Trinity Island on our way to our anchoring place close to Spert Island.
We encountered our first big icebergs from relatively close.
Late in the afternoon we would go on a tour with our zodiacs and sloopy to navigate the small channels here between high rising rocks and getting up close for the first time with icebergs in the so called iceberg graveyard.
What amazed all of us was the incredible blue color of the ice.
Some Chinstrap penguins were trying to keep afloat a small ice floe, we all wondered how a group of these little fellows had climbed a quite steep ice slope, encountered a big dead jellyfish and enjoyed a truly magical sunset.
Anchored here, next to towering icewalls with no human presence in sight except our own, staying the nigh was an impressive experience . I do remember I went out at night alone on the deck just to take in the breathtaking scenery and enjoy this to the fullest.
This album here has pictures of Trinity and Spert Island, Chinstrap Penguins, a lot of icebergs, sunset, us touring on the zodiacs through the ice and a dead jellyfish.
This day, February 16th would be one of the highlights of a trip that was filled with extraordinary events. We started navigating the Gerlache Strait. The amount of ice floating around us was increasing dramatically, the scenery left us literally speechless for hours.
One of the most memorable experiences was that nobody said a word or was just whispering. Everyone was deeply impressed by the beauty surrounding. Nature can be truly astounding.
It was really hard to get into the deck house to get something to eat or drink, you just did not want to leave the deck.
Just when lunch was being ready to be served, whales were spotted, sleeping whales to be exactly. When at the beginning of our trip we were instructed to on the lookout of sleeping whales nobody of us knew how that would look like and here was our answer, some big logs, like treetrunks remaining stationary.
The two Humpback whales eventually woke up and would remain with us for maybe 3 quarters of an hour. They seemed to enjoy us as much as we enjoyed them, rolling around next to the ship, spyhopping to get the better view of us, one jumped out of the water.
Unfortunately I ran out of batteries and memory on both my cameras, I had always spares with me, but today I had changed jumpers and I forgot all the spares were within that jumper, so instead of directly running to get this, I decided to first take in what was happening around us, choosing to look through my eyes instead of through a lens. The water was exceptionally clear and we could see the whole animal through the water. And yes they are huge, but without anything familiar to compare the size I did not have the feeling I was looking at animals as big as a freight truck. Quite often I had to remind myself about the sizes of what we saw, be it whales, icewalls or icebergs, it is difficult to get a feeling of the in an environment that is totally devoid of recognizable human habitation.
After this lunchbreak we continued and met the remains of an an old whaling ship, the Gouvernøren, that stranded here in 1916 and is now a monument to these days past. Nowadays with the Antarctic Treaty in place if anything would happen, the government under which the ship sails is held responsible to salvage everything left behind fortunately. It helps reminding you though that as breathtaking the environment is, this can also be a dangerous place.
The day was not over yet, late in the afternoon we arrived at Cuverville Island where we would land and take another tour visiting a really large Gentoo penguin colony. Compared to the first two colonies we visited this was different because there was less rock and more ice all around the island.
This was truly a memorable day.
This album here has pictures of the Gerlache Strait, Icebergs and Ice floes, a Crabeater Seal, Humpback Whales,the Gouvernøren shipwreck and the Bark Europa.
It has 69 pictures.
Today would be the first day that we would actually set foot on the Antarctica mainland, all our other landing spots had been islands, not part of the mainland.
The day started out grey and would remain so, but the ice all around us had such deep colors that the grey weather actually enhanced the magic of this place.
Before setting foot on land we were warned about the very active glacier here, it is not uncommon for ice to crash into the water and we were advised to look for higher ground as soon as we heard or saw a piece of the glacier crashing into the water, and if we left our backpack that we would leave it at higher ground as well.
That turned out to be a good advice. When a piece of the glacier calved off, the resulting flood wave did not seem to be that big, but the force behind it cannot be underestimated. So I did run to higher ground and just remained watching, seeing the wave rocking the Bark Europa and the ice chunks in the bay.
Penguins (of course) where around us minding their own business and I got some insight into penguin psychology: A Gentoo was walking towards the shoreline when he suddenly saw me and our guide. He stopped at about 3 meters from us, apparently being puzzled what to do next. The guide told us to step one meter back, because a penguin is very one track minded and cannot factor in an unexpected huge two feeted animal standing in its route to his destination. So we stepped a meter back, which was enough for the penguin to continue.
After our landing here we continued to go to Paradise Bay. At Paradise Bay we made a zodiac tour marveling at the blue ice and the almost unbelievable reflecting water. When the first group was on our way I was filming from the Europa and had the incredible luck to see a part of the icewall crashing down just when I was filming.
We also encountered our first Leopard seal, resting on an icefloe. Leopard seals command respect, not only are they a top predator, they air a kind of confidence that you better not get too close. When it was our turn in the zodiac we decided to visit a remarkably blue iceberg.
When we were approaching suddenly we saw another Leopard seal swimming and that one showed a keen interest in us, approaching the zodiac and swimming around and under us. Though the temptation to get underwater shots was high, I had some doubts about the safety of doing that and did not try that.
After our tour we made short visit to the Argentinian base Almirante Brown, which seemed to be more a station built for political purposes than a proper reach station and remained at anchor overnight.
When we were anchored at night volunteers were always called for anchor watch, to check if the ship remains at its position, but in these places we also had to watch out for floating icebergs that might be on a collision course. This night I had volunteered and we had a busy night keeping the icebergs in check, there were a lot of them. Once we had to wake up the captain to steer us away from an approaching iceberg the size of a few basketball fields. The night was cold but again an experience I will never forget.
This album here has pictures of Neko Harbour and Paradise Bay, Icebergs, Glaciers, Leopard Seals, Gentoo Penguins, the Bark Europa, Antarctic Shags and two scientific stations.
It has 99 pictures.
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.
On the 19th of February we would first go a little bit more south to reach our most southern location at 65°16'9" S 64°16'17" W. After that we slowly sailed north again and our first stop would be Petermann Island, home of Adelie penguins, a species that we had not encountered before.
Those penguins start their breeding seasons a lot earlier though, this being more southern, the winter will also start earlier so they need to have an early start and most were already gone, but we managed to see a few.
A freshwater pool was a popular bathing spot for Skuas. It remains puzzling to see how penguins and those scavengers just stand close to each other at his pool but otherwise they are enemies.
We had several hours here to walk around on this ice covered island, once again I admired the stubbornness of penguins, seeing them climbing through the ice and rocks to go to their nesting place.
This album here has pictures of Petermann Island, Gentoo and Adelie Penguins, Skuas, Icebergs and the Bark Europa.
It has 57 pictures.
In the afternoon of the 21st of February we sailed again northwards, through the Neumayer and Schollaert Channel. The last days we were really lucky with the weather and this was no exception.
We passed along many icebergs, one remarkably shaped like a sphinx.
At the end of the afternoon we heard a familar shout: "whales!"
A small group of Humpback whales were around giving us a proper farewell. Though they remained at a distance, it was a stunning sight with the golden light of th late afternoon.
When they seemed to have left and I returned to do some work at my netbook, the shouts came again. And this repeated itself several times until I finally had a kind of overload and decided to try to finish some sorting of my pictures. Of course that was when they started to jump...
This album here has pictures of the Neumayer and Schollaert Channel, Icebergs, Whales and the Bark Europa.
It has 31 pictures.
This day would be the last day at Antarctica before heading towards the Drake Passage and South America again. I rose up early, to see a last sunrise here, which was worth the effort, colors were changing from blue to pink and it was all quiet around.
We had our hopes high to have a chance encounter with Killer Whales, more or less the last animal that everybody hoped to see but that we had not seen so far, but that would not happen.
This was our last 'tourist stop', we would make a little tour with the zodiacs and sloopy across the labyrinth of small channels.
Penguins were no longer around, so it felt already like we had left a bit, but Fur Seals made our farewell a worthy one.
This album here has pictures of the Melchior Islands, Icebergs and Glaciers, Fur Seals and the Bark Europa.
It has 24 pictures.
Late in the afternoon we would go on a tour with our zodiacs and sloopy to navigate the small channels here between high rising rocks and getting up close for the first time with icebergs in the so called iceberg graveyard.
What amazed all of us was the incredible blue color of the ice.
Anchored here, next to towering icewalls with no human presence in sight except our own, staying the nigh was an impressive experience . I do remember I went out at night alone on the deck just to take in the breathtaking scenery and enjoy this to the fullest.
