Thursday 13 January 2011 – Antarctic Sound

ICEBERG ALLEY

What an amazing day of spectacular viewing! At 5 am we circled Elephant Island (or so I’m told) and then mid morning we started seeing serious icebergs. Some were like huge mesas – flat-topped and straight sided – and bigger than our ship. The other two kinds tended to be smooth and undulating or very lumpy (they’re not the technical terms by the way).

Out on deck the temperature was 0ºC but with strong winds the wind chill factor lowered it to way below freezing. Regardless, I stayed out on the various decks taking lots of photos until I had to retire inside to thaw out my fingers. Even though I had gloves, my camera was freezing so with my fingers in constant contact with it, they seemed to bear the brunt of the cold.

After lunch we cruised near Esperanzo Station at Hope Bay, an Argentinean station. It is also home to a huge Adele penguin colony. The pinkish coloured ice is penguin excrement – they eat a lot of krill – and when you really want your sinuses to be blocked, wouldn’t you know it they suddenly clear and you get a really strong whiff of penguin poop!




Esperanzo Station



While this morning was overcast, this afternoon the sun came out, dramatically lighting the icebergs. Apart from the dazzling pristine white of the icebergs there is this incredible light blue ice in parts, especially just below the water line.




My 3 categories of icebergs: smooth, tabletop and lumpy

 

The seas have still been pretty calm but as the Veendam slices through the water, every now and then from my cabin on Deck 5 I can hear loud crunching and banging as small iceberg fragments bump against the ship. It’s really easy to see why the Titanic was ripped down the side – and it must have made the most horrendous sound.

We’re heading out to sea for the evening and will come back in tomorrow. You definitely wouldn’t want to be in an iceberg field at night and also I think I heard that we have to head out so that the Veendam came make fresh water.

We have another two days cruising within the Antarctic Sound, seeing South Shetland and Lemaire Channel tomorrow.

As I write, we appear to be turning pretty quickly so we must be trying to avoid an iceberg ahead. If I post tomorrow, you’ll know we were successful.