Day 7 Saturday February 20th

Day 7 – Flanders Bay, Lemaire Channel and Penola Strait.

Well! What a start to the day by 10.00AM we had seen huge snowflakes the size of saucers, incredible icebergs plus sighting a Whale Wow! Ooops sorry excited Chap!!

So it is now day seven, and it is very interesting for me to watch the dynamics of all the guests and crew on the ship settle into this voyage. Also nice for me to be a part of that, after all we have now only covered just over a third of our trip but the mood on board is very good as people get to know each other. Albeit the ship is very well supplied there is not a 7/11 round the corner, so people help each other when things have been forgotten, lost, or go wrong which is nice. Additionally I have found more of routine to find time to do things I would like to do, such as write this blog. Whereas at the start everything was rushed as one could not find time or get properly connected (so apologies for some of my early posts, albeit I did set a caveat before I started this blog on spelling and grammar – some was really poor). Currently we are still in the Antarctic Peninsular steaming south. The ship outran the storm last nigh, so that was great, and we had a wonderful day today albeit it was a “Magical Mystery Tour” as the team on the ship were planning as they went depending on weather and ice flows – but I did not meet one guest who was disappointed.

As we awoke we were navigating though a sea full of iceberg’s, some of them huge and quite spectacular. It was then announced throughout the ship that the Captain “rather liked icebergs “ and that there was a spectacular one ahead. We headed toward it, at the same time guests headed for the decks. It was spectacular and as the ship slowed, what appeared? A whale, this was followed by the ship actually nudging the iceberg (Its OK Ann Marie, he did it on purpose I am OK, albeit Titanic jokes were made, no need to dust off the Will just yet)

We then headed on a little and the ship stopped. Zodiacs were off loaded and we set off with just a few in each boat (5 in ours, normally to go ashore 10-12) for a 45 minute cruise through the ice flows, cold but worth it loads of Crab Catcher seals.

After this we started to cruise towards the Lemaire Channel seven miles long and one mile wide with spectacular peaks and glaciers on each side. This was a real treat huge amount of blue ice formations.

But it did not end there a short while later the ship stops and we are back in the Zodiacs heading for shore to a set of islands charted by Jean Baptiste Charcot a very successful polar explorer, apparently his fame is based on scientific discoveries, but moreover by the fact he never lost any men. Interesting a lot of guest did not go ashore for this, I think because we had done so much that day, but glad I did. Interesting point to note one of the experts on this trip is a guy called Tom Ritchie, an American – really nice chap but moreover he has been with Lindblad for over 30 years and started on the first journeys to this part of the world with the original Mr. Lindblad – his knowledge passion and enthusiasm is infectious. I saw him on a video prior to my trip and certainly did not expect to see him here, but he is and even one of the other staff I was talking too said this was the first time they had seen him on a trip. So I tend to go on the landings I can with him this was one of them and did not disappoint. Back to the landing, we went to where Charcot set up base and anchored his ship, and learnt a lot from Tom about the area and the history. I would say that is one of the things I am enjoying about this trip with National Geographic, the spectacular scenery of course, but the fact that the experts on board, be it the “Toms” of this world, the team that dive under the ice, bringing back footage, or the photographers who help you, they are all very knowledge, helpful and approachable.

We now head south to see if we can get as far as the Antarctica Circle, very few trips get that far – some 10% only so here’s hoping – stay tuned as they say…..