Icebergs and Orcas

 The plan today was somewhat disrupted by the conditions experienced which appear to have been quite unexpected. When we woke at around 6.30 am, a quick look out the window presented a not very encouraging sight. Whilst cloudy weather and grey skies in the morning don't seem to signal a poor day ahead, we had noticed that the ship was crawling along at low speed and a quick look at the sea surface explained a lot. We were ploughing our way through dense sea ice in deep fog for some hours.

 

As time progressed the sea ice turned into working our way through a maze of some very large icebergs, some as big as the ship. At this stage the expedition crew announced that all morning activities were cancelled and they would try to find a location where some afternoon activities could potentially take place. 


Visibility was poor and on a couple of occasions the ship stopped completely whilst the helmsman worked out a direction to dodge an iceberg that came into vision through the fog




There are some very large icebergs


We are not alone, another ship is seen nearby

Oblivious that activities were going to be cancelled, we had dressed up in our layers, before going to breakfast as we were scheduled to go on a zodiac for a shore landing at 8.30 am. It was while we were at breakfast that the captain announced that were were running 2 hours behind schedule due to the heavy sea ice. About an hour later our any plans to get to our destination were abandoned as the iceberg population was increasing and visibility poor. 

The new plan was cruising for the day. Progress was slow but became very scenic as the sun came out and the icebergs got bigger and more densely populated.

 


We did a big loop through the Gerlache Strait and  the very narrow Lemaire Channel

The large icebergs we weaved our way through, but there was plenty of crunching going as we couldn't avoid some of the ice floes. This ship is truly amazing, it is so responsive and manoeuvrable that it made easy work of getting through these tight passages between bergs. The Lemaire Channel was particularly challenging as it is only 600m wide and full of icebergs.


As this one went under the bow we could see penguin footprints on it




We were close enough to see the icicles hanging from an overhang on this iceberg










Finally in some clearer water we could get back up to more of a cruising speed, but still limited because of the presence of whales in this area.




A decent sized iceberg


The shoreline is very rugged


As we passed back through the Gerlache Channel the Officers on the bridge spotted a pod of Orcas and all of a sudden, then ship slowed turned through about 120 degrees and started moving up closer to the pod so we could spend some time whale watching. Once in position we stopped and fortunately for us, a couple of Orcas swam along the starboard side of the boat. This time I did manage to get a photo or two.




This Orca shot was taken by one of the expedition team photographers



We must have spent close to an hour watching a couple of pods both in the distance and the ones that came close to our ship before they lost interest in us and we proceeded on our way. 

Amazingly, after such a dull start to the day, this afternoon was bright and sunny and perfect for a cruise through this very scenic area, 

Tonight we are back at the specialty Italian restaurant Manfredi's for another excellent meal.

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