23 February 2023, Antarctic Cruise Day 10, Bellingshausen Sea to Marguerite Bay –

After an overnight sailing, we anchored on the south side of Charcot Island.  For a long time it was thought this was part of the continent, as it was joined by an ice shelf.  It has only been very recently that the connecting ice has broken up sufficiently to allow passage through, and expedition companies are starting to plan itineraries down here.  We have no doubt that Hurtigruten will bring ships down here regularly, after our experiences – we’ve been lucky enough to be part of the feasibility study!

We had another gorgeous day waiting for us. Once again, we had no idea what lay in store until the expedition team had been out in the zodiacs for a recce.  Good news – conditions were ideal, there were seal sightings galore, and we were even able to do a landing on sea ice!  That was something we never expected, and we prepared eagerly, waiting for the call for the Giant Petrels to go to Deck 3.

After a bit of a delay, we were finally on board and bobbing about next to the ship.  Our guide had plenty of seals to show us, still lazing about on their bellies, occasionally rolling onto their backs for a scratch, and raising their heads in desultory fashion to check us out, before resuming their snoozing.  It seemed like every third ice floe had seals on it.  We headed right into the ice floe, our driver skilfully manoeuvring his way through and around.

At last the radio crackled, and we were told we could head to the ice floe for the landing.  It was low and almost perfectly flat, and covered by a layer of crisp, pure snow. A ring of red flags marked our boundary.  We stood, unbelieving that here we were on a chunk of ice, floating around in the Antarctic.  We quickly realised that it was moving up and down almost with the same motion as the ship (which makes perfect sense).  I drank in every moment, wanting to sear this into my memory, as I doubt I will ever do anything as magical or unique as this again.

All too soon we were scrambling back onto the zodiacs, changing out of our expedition gear, and sitting down to a three course lunch.  I instructed Ian firmly that if this was a dream, I don’t want to be woken up.

Just drifting off to sleep at about 10.45pm.  The in-cabin PA system crackled to life. “Sorry to disturb you, but there are about 10 humpback whales off the port bow”.  You have never seen a bunch of people get out of bed and dressed so fast!  Some people were in their bathrobes, cameras in hand, peering out of the windows from inside.  Others rugged up to brave the outside observation decks.  There was still plenty of light but not enough for photos, so I just enjoyed the show.  Two whales swam casually along the port side, blowing and surfacing together every few minutes.  Another three were right in front of the ship, making rumbling tractor noises as they rolled in the waves.  We didn’t see them for long, but it was nice to know they were out there as I crawled back under the doona.