An early morning call at 6:45am, the first destination we are seeing today is the LeMaire Channel, a famous tiny channel between high mountains. The wind gusts were high and it was snowing this morning. We were in full gear braving the cold in the outer deck, feeling embraced by all the surrounding mountains. Snow is white, mountains are black, and the ocean is blue. That is the color pattern. It is quite romantic actually, and there is a couple who is on their honeymoon on our cruise, they have the most romantic picture taken at the bow of the boat.
After our breakfast, we were preparing for the first zodiac expedition today in the morning. The location is Flandres Bay, it was still snowing quite a bit and the water was quite wavy, getting on the zodiac boat was a bit scary. Flandres Bay is also a much bigger bay than the bay from yesterday, less protection. I got a bit nervous to be quite honest. But that is Antarctica for you, the weather patterns are mostly hostile and can change very quickly, that is why no humans are living on this continent permanently. To come here, one better mentally prepared for that, you cannot always get what you want to do or to see. LeMaire was not originally on our agenda, but because we arrived a day earlier, we have sufficient time to cruise down the channel and back. There is a bit of luck one needs to rely on in Antarctica.
We were back just before lunch time, followed by a presentation of Antarctica History by one of the guides. I had a quick nap, before the daily briefing, and early dinner. Today, we are scheduled to have two zodiac expeditions, particularly the second one in the early evening for zodiac landing on a penguin colony at Paradise Harbour. I appreciate they changed the schedule on a daily basis according to the weather so we get the most out of this tour.
The cruise ship anchored at the Paradise Harbour as we were still finishing dinner. From the windows, we could actually see some buildings, red buildings with the Argentina flag painted on the roof. This was an Argentinian scientific base, though we were told that they are not sure how much science they are really conducting, rather just keep a present here. The rare used base is also a Gentoo penguins colony. Just about 20 mins before our departure, we got the bad news from the PR that the exploration team had assessed the landing site and they found evidence that an avalanche had just occurred today or the day before, and the location we were planning to do landing was deemed unsafe. We are still going out for zodiac exploration on the water, we are not landing today. That is a bummer! But like I just said, you can see only what nature wants us to see.
The zodiac group was the first to depart today. The water was very calm in Paradise Harbour, sky was very much overcast, but the area was very peaceful and there are so many different ice formations on the water and by the coast, there were also glaciers with their towering ice walls. The penguin colony was stinky as hell. And there was also some Antarctica bird colony right next to the Penguins. As we went further into the Harbour, we were surrounded by mountain ranges, and glaciers. Everyone was hoping to see an avalanche which we did see one, just no one was able to catch it on time. When the zodiac engine is off, the whole place is very quiet, you can hear cracks of ice, and animal sounds from afar. The tranquility in this area is beyond words can describe. Each zodiac expedition lasts about 1.5 hours. On our return, it went close to another zodiac which had unfortunately torn a hole on the zodiac. There was water leaking, but the boat could still run and get back the cruise, but to be safe, they transferred some of the passengers to our zodiac, and other passengers to other zodiacs. So, they can return the broken zodiac in a jiff.
Because we have not landed today, we were told that we will attempt two zodiac landing expeditions tomorrow. We'll see.
Day 7 Photos: Here
