2023 02 Quest of the Antarctic Circle

The Drake Passage is famous for separating those who think of visiting Antarctica and those who actually made the journey. lol
The forecast was that we will be going through a relatively mild drake (level 4 of 10).
The weather gods decided to test our will to reach Antarctica and put us through some pretty rough seas. At peak, we were hitted with 11m wave height and hurricane winds of more than 40 knots. All activities onboard were cancelled and we were locked down in our cabins during the 2-days crossing.

Guess surviving the Drake Shake was meant to be part of the itinerary.

Trying to dodge the weather, our expedition leader took the bold stroke of changing the itinerary and said "Let's shoot straight to the Antarctic Circle and beyond". .
This nicely summed up his prior opening statement that ... "Hope no one signed up for a cruise, because this is an expedition and not a cruise". :>
Glimpse of ice bergs start to appear as the winds subside and we sail into a calm and surreal Crystal Sound.
On 25 Feb 2023 1800 hrs, we gathered on deck in the freezing cold for the customary champagne toast when the ship sounded her horn at the exact moment that we crossed 66.5 degree South. Cheers !

Our first zodiac landing to visit Base "W" a wooden hut on a remote rocky island. It was abandoned by the UK in 1958 and now preserved as a historical artifact.
Greeted by weddell seals, colony of Adelie penguins, Kelp Guls, Shags and a fantastic view at the antenna lookout point.

Navigating the icy channel to journey further south. We are Indeed fortunate for this rare opportunity to sail through this super scenic channel which is usually not assessible and ice-locked year round. Apparent the expedition has not been able to sail this channel for the past 7 years.
Blessed with perfect sunlight, mirror reflections of tabular ice bergs, glaciers, snow covered mountains, a flat calm sea littered with sea ice. It was like watching a kaleidoscope as the light plays on the different shapes and sizes of ice which continuously unfolds upon us.

The afternoon was a 40mins zodiac cruise for a closer exploration of the ice.
Saying Hello to the different seals (weddell, leopard, crabeaters) . Keith was giving us in-field lessons on micro bubbles in glacier ice.
Humpbacks were all around the ship as we enjoyed a brilliant sunset on deck.

As the zodiac headed towards the landing point, we met our leopard seal on a sea ice.
On this rocky cobble beach, surrounded by towering mountains and glaciers, the Adelie penguin colony were in the last few days of their molting season, getting ready to go to sea soon.
Sea ice littered the coast where Antarctic fur seals and crabeater seals were feeding and lazing around.

This landing brings us to the British base "Y", followed by an extended icy hike up the hill for a panoramic view of the emerald lagoon.
On the return zodiac ride, we took some time to get closer to the huge ice berg with a window ni Sally Cove. Taking turns to get our fill of selfies with it before we happily return to the ship.

For the questionable insane folks who voluntarily jump into -1 degree waters.
Definitely not for us mortals from the equator. Glad that there are enough volunteers to help "unlock" the record for the most southernly polar plunge. lol

As we sail into the world's biggest museum of ice display ...

Ocras has always been my favourite and I kept wondering when they would come to visit us. :>
That was promptly answered when a pod of TypeB ocras (big eye patch, slightly yellow saddle patch) came alongside our ship as we sailed towards Neny Fjord.
The pod stayed with us for a pretty upclose encounter for a good 30 minutes. So happy to just observe the pod swimming together, the juvenile ocra in the center , among the adult females and the distinct 2m dorsel fin of the dominant male, who once in a while came closer to size us up.

Fur seal, Weddell seal, Crabeater seal are the common seals you find on floating ice. We were lucky enough to come up-close with the powerful leopard seal.

Exploring the giant ice bergs of the fjords

Another island with a deep history of early Antarctic exploration by both the US and UK military. The island house both the wooden historical huts for both bases. Strange that they were built so close to each other on this small island.
Once used as an aerial incursion for deeper Antarctic exploration, the remains of a place engine still sits in the abandoned US base. The wreck of 2 light armoured vehicles are still present, and now home to nesting penguins.

Depending on your definition of where is the boundary of the Antarctic continent, some folks might not consider having visited the continent if you did not step on its "mainland" .
This landing was onto a spit of land still attached to the mainland Antarctic peninsula by a long tongue of ice.
It is a symbolic step on Antarctica "mainland to crush any doubts. LOL.
Excellent spot for photo opportunities and trying to visualise how early explorers were able to use this strip of glacier ice as a runway for their operations.

While there was moderate winds forecasted, we awoke to a clear sunnay day with almost no wind.
Home to 1000+ penguins and their chicks. We are late in the season and sadly that means that some of the smaller chicks will not make it as the parents will be forced to leave them and head back to sea soon.
When in penguin land, they get the right of way, so keep off the penguin highways.
Checking out the fearsome leopard seal lazing on the ice. One of them got curious and started to check out one of the other zodiacs.
No biting on zodiacs please ...

Sailing past the Gerlache straits, our next landing was to seek out the Chinstrap penguins nesting in the rocky hills 100+m above sea-levels.
Fur seals were standing guard at our landing point.
It was another icy and slippery climb up the hill. As we huff and puff and tring not to slip, can't help but wonder how long do the penguins need to climb up here ? Is it really necessary to nest that higher up ? How many trips do they need to make each day ?

Landing on this island while we waited for our turn to visit Port Lockroy as there was a limit of 50? 60? visitors in Lockroy at any one time.
In the meantime, the 7 sisters mountain range were out in full glory.
A white morph southern giant petrel (our lucky day) circled our zodiac twice, Antarctic blue-eye shag among the Gentoo, whale bones on the beach.