Day 21 – Hope Bay – Dec 10th

Today was our first day in Antarctica. It got off to an early start by cruising by a relatively small iceberg at 5 AM. They announced this opportunity the evening before at the daily Antarctica recap & briefing meeting with the expedition team. After viewing the icebergs, we would anchor in Hope Bay and tour the shoreline in the Zodiac Boats.

NOTE: While in Antarctica the Expedition Team holds a daily recap and briefing which reviews the day’s events and discusses the next day’s activities. There are no guest entertainers scheduled while we are in Antarctica.

A much larger iceberg, named A57A would be in view around 7 AM.

Icebergs!

I was up at 4:45 and headed to the Observation Bar on Deck 10 to look at the first iceberg. I didn’t wear a heavy jacket or bring gloves since I assumed that I would be able to dart outside for a few minutes to take a picture before getting too cold. The temperature was about 32 degrees F with 30 knots of wind across the deck making the wind chill 14 degrees. I quickly discovered that It was impossible for me to spend even a few minutes outside without gloves, hat and a heavy coat so I returned to our suite to grab my gloves and put on the inner jacket and outer jacket that were provided by Seabourn.

The iceberg was still a few miles away when I returned, and it took another 20 minutes before we closed to within a ½ mile. I expected the iceberg to have a jagged, irregular top, but it turned out to be pancake flat. There were about 10 people joining me on Deck 10 at this early hour. The staff set up some coffee, juice and pastries about 5 AM.

As the iceberg slipped down our starboard side, I went back to the Seabourn Square and took a few more photographs as the iceberg faded from view.

Pete with the iceberg from Deck 10

A57A

I returned to the Observation Bar at 7 AM to view the much larger (15 Nautical Miles long) iceberg named A57A. There was a much bigger crowd this time, but most people didn’t venture to far from the doors because of the bitter cold and biting wind. This iceberg almost covered the horizon and if you weren’t told what it was you may have mistaken it for the coastline. As we closed on the iceberg, it was hard to capture the entire iceberg in a single photograph. Using my camera’s panoramic mode was the best way to capture the iceberg in a single shot.

While most everyone was all bundled up when they headed outside on Deck 10, there was one guest who wandered out to have a look while wearing his bathrobe. He only lasted a few minutes before hurrying back inside.

After viewing the iceberg from Deck 10 we headed down to Deck 6 forward where they had hot drinks and liqueurs available, along with some pastries. The wind wasn’t quite so intense on Deck 6 and viewing the iceberg from here was a little more pleasant.

Another guest took advantage of the hot tub and enjoyed the view while sipping on a drink and soaking in the steaming water.
The Captain stopped the Quest along the iceberg and spun the ship on her axis so everyone would have a nice view from every vantage point. Then we continued toward Hope Bay.

As we approached Hope Bay, we spotted a collection of Orange Buildings which were part of Esperanza Station, a permanent base build by Argentina in 1951.  It is one of the only Antarctica bases that includes families with children in the settlement.

Hope Bay

We arrived in Hope Bay around 11:30 AM. After anchoring, the expedition team launched the Zodiacs in the water and we commenced our tours according to our color group. The first group went off a little late, but they managed to get back on schedule by the time they called our group – Purple – at 3 PM.

Zodiac Tour

I started getting suited up about 15 minutes prior to our scheduled time so when they called our color I could proceed directly to the boot locker room behind The Club and change into our waterproof boots. Once we were wearing our boots we headed down to Deck 3 to board the Zodiacs. The weather was great, calm seas and no wind, so it was easy to get into the Zodiacs. We didn’t get wet at all on this outing. Getting wet is not something that will happen on every trip (unless you must make a wet landing like we did in New Island when in the Falklands).

Our Zodiac driver commented that we had nearly perfect conditions for our tour with calm winds and smooth seas. Hope Bay has over 125,000 pairs of Adelie Penguins. They were lining the shoreline and easily seen up and down the slopes. We spotted a few of them “sledding” on their bellies down the ice toward the water and we weren’t sure if they were doing this to save time or simply to have a good time.

As we motored down the coast, most of the time going dead slow, we spotted groups of penguins swimming alongside our Zodiac. They popped out of the water every few seconds and looked like small dolphins.

After 90 minutes we headed back to the ship and climbed back onboard. We used the elevators to get back to Deck 5. One of the elevators had the interior walls covered/protected and the buttons blocked off – except for Decks 3 and 5. Plastic duck foot prints were stuck to the floor to mark the path we followed back to the boot lockers.

Dinner tonight was in The Colonnade – the theme was Latin Night served buffet style with open seating.

They showed “March of the Penguins” in the Grand Salon tonight in lieu of a guest entertainer.

We will be in Dorian Bay, near Damoy Point tomorrow for our first landing on the continent!