Tuesday, 25 February 2020

February 25 One last try!

 We discovered early this morning that there was another ship in the Bay. And that’s a first on this voyage - everyone else is way over east visiting the Antarctic Peninsula, lucky us! Our Expedition Leader was keen to make a landing on the beach to see Borchgrevink’s hut so we were called to an early breakfast in order to maximise the time we could spend in Robertson Bay before heading north to Macquarie Island.

Samuel got two boatloads landed through the surf but then called it off as it was proving just too dangerous. One zodiac got swamped and waves were breaking over people - no wonder they pulled up stumps and retreated to the ship. But they took all the zodiacs out to cruise around the beach later.

It looks fairly innocuous, but it was treacherous between the icebergs and shore  

The long-awaited Polar Plunge took place before lunch that day and 11 stalwarts leapt in. In spite of my intentions, I decided against it - I had a cold and the weather was icy. And Lindsay. in view of his recent surgery, was advised against it by the ship’s doctor.  And we were being stalked by a Leopard Seal - they have been known to attack humans particularly if they are wearing black!!! That would have been me - a good decision for me!

That's Samuel in the zodiac ready to help if needed. Note the ice in the water! very cold
That splash was Al, one of our chefs, who jumped off from deck 4. Brave crazy boy!
After lunch, we spent the rest of the day taking pix as we sailed NNW towards the Balleny Islands on our way to Macquarie Island.

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 I'm still in the process of rebuilding this blog about our trip to Antarctica in 2020. Please be patient and stay tuned.