Saturday, 15 January 2011 – Antarctica

ICE PILOTS AND BEANIE HAIR

Our third and final day of Antarctic cruising – and yet another day of clear blue skies!

We have had on board since BA some staff for Palmer Station who we dropped off this morning. The program said we should arrive about 6 am for their transfer and we would pick up a couple of other staff to take on to Santiago. I was a little late in getting motivated but was up on deck by 6.10 am. Missed it again by that much! Actually it was well and truly over by then as we arrived earlier than planned, at 5.30 am, and the people who were up at that time said they couldn’t actually see Palmer Station as it was tucked away up an inlet but they did see the zodiac transfers. Really, I don’t know why I bother!

This morning we entered the Lemaire Channel again, heading south.

 

Lemaire Channel scenery




I’ve heard that HAL has the best ice pilots of any of the large cruise lines and today’s journey proved that. From my vantage point from the front of the Sky Deck at the top of the Veendam I was able to watch our progress as the channel narrowed towards the southern end. There was a lot of speculation from those around me that we would shortly have to turn around and go back as there didn’t appear to be any way through the icebergs or the narrow opening but the Veendam continued and easily manoeuvred its way through. We have now cruised the Lemaire Channel from north to south and then south to north.

 

View from the Sky Deck





Straight ahead


 We’d passed a lot of crabeater seals on icebergs along the way so when we turned around to go back through the channel I changed to my larger lens to get some photos of these seals, moving down to the Lower Promenade Deck to get closer to them.

Two days of wearing headwear to protect my ears from the cold has given me a bad case of beanie hair.  Instead of my usual full-bodied wavy hair, my hair has been flattened and no amount of brushing has been able to put any life back into it. Several people I’ve met over the last week didn’t recognise me this afternoon with this new hairstyle – or at least I presumed that was the reason they ignored me! Shampoo, conditioner and a hair dryer on the highest setting is required.

We’re now headed back north across Drake’s Passage – and the skies have become grey. How lucky were we with our beautiful blue skies in Antarctica!