Datum: |
08.12.2023 |
Position: |
64°50.3’S / 062°52.4’W |
Wind: |
VAR 1 |
Wetter: |
Overcast |
Lufttemperatur: |
+1 |
Waking up to a calm morning in Paradise Bay, we slowly approached Brown Station, where we had the first landing of the day. We did a combined landing at the station, with a walk to the peak and a Zodiac cruise into the ice in paradise bay. The mountaineers had left at 0600 this morning to climb Molina Point. Andy and Mal had scoped out this peak the day before, and now it was a go ahead with six guests. It was 330 metres above sea level.
The bay was absolutely stunning with incredible icebergs, mountains and glaciers reflecting into the water, a perfect mirror of what we were seeing above the water was reflecting below. After a walk at Brown Station, Sara offered us a short Zodiac cruise in the bay, and our Zodiac drivers slowly took us into the bay to observe the beauty.
The kayakers cruised slowly by the cliffs where the Antarctic Shags were breeding and then deeper into the ice. Towards the very end of the morning, we were graced with the presence of three Weddell Seals lying on small pieces of glacier ice. They were very calm and allowed us to approach gently and slowly to a five-metre distance. Back on the ship, we heard the soothing voice of Vova announcing that it was lunchtime.
Neko Harbour in the afternoon made the third continental landing of the trip and second of today. We hiked up to the penguins and looked out toward the glacier, where some of us were standing for a long time to see a calving. Unfortunately, there was no calving, no matter how much we all wanted it, but we did see two impressive avalanches thunder down the mountains. The mountaineers had already left earlier up past the Gentoo colony and came back to the landing towards the end. They seemed happy after their hike up the hill. The fog and snow started to roll in, and at 17:00 everyone had made it back to the landing site for the last Zodiac.
Back on Ortelius, we all started to warm up with tea, hot chocolate, and even a few of us with an alcoholic beverage. Sara gave us the plans for our last shore landing, and she had a very impressive rope she used to show us the sizes of the biggest whales in the world.