Heading to Livingston Island

It was a hectic night for Paul - there was a lot of sea ice and the ship made slow progress. He ended up having to call the Captain around 1pm to make some decisions because the ice was really bad.

I didn't have a great night myself. There was a lot of motion with the ocean and the ship rocked quite a lot with the swell. The stabilisers couldn't be put out because of the swell, and also noise of the ship's engines to manoeuvre the ship around very hard ice or away from bergs.

What a sight to behold when people woke up and looked outside their window. Ice surrounding the ship: icebergs, plate ice and ice from melted snow on the water that immediately froze that caused a very thin frozen film on top of the water. It was incredibly beautiful.

We were due to head to Two Hummock Island, with an proposed landing expedition on the island to see a colony of Gentoo penguins and a bit of a hill walk included. Due to the slow progress the ship made through the ice, it was decided that we might as well head towards Livingstone Island instead - which was were the proposed afternoon zodiac cruise would take place.
So, with a change in today's plans to skip the landing expedition, guests on board had a few hours to kill, watching the sea ice surrounding the ship, and seeing passing icebergs. A talk thrown in by a Marine Biologist which some people attended but a lot of guests decided to look at the sea ice.

It is amazing, beautiful and magical. We must never take life for granted.

Some of the photographs Paul took (from the Bridge with the ship's spotlight) and early morning view of the bow of the ship.Read more