Salisbury Plain

We arrived back at Fortuna Bay this morning, after sailing slowly back from Stromness. The aim today was to hopefully do a nice hike up a hill to look over into Stromness, partly following a route that Ernest Shackleton took. And for those who didn’t want to do the long hike, a zodiac ride would be possible.

It was snowing and foggy, too unsafe to do a hike up the steep track. The ship waited most of the morning for it to clear, but it remained foggy so the morning’s walk was cancelled. Unfortunately zodiac tours and kayaks were also cancelled because of the weather.

At 11:00 we sailed to our afternoon’s planned destination, Salisbury Plain. It was foggy but not as bad as in Fortuna Bay, and zodiac cruises were organised for after lunch, starting at around 13:30. Paul and I decided it wasn’t worth going out so we had an afternoon nap after an early lunch.

Announcements woke us up at around 15:00. When we looked outside, the fog had lifted, revealing glaciers in the distance. We decided to go out for a zodiac cruise after all, making the most of going out with one of the last scheduled groups at 15:30.

There were plenty of seals and penguins on the very long beach. A haven for wildlife. The air was full of the sounds of adult penguins and twittering chicks, as well as high pitched seal pups and their lower voiced parents. Sadly a badly injured penguin was spotted, with an awful gash across its chest, and blood running down it’s beautiful white feathers. People thought that it wouldn’t survive. I did see it and felt quite traumatised and sorry for it. I could almost feel its pain. I have refused to see photographs of it that guests and Paul took. I can only think that the penguin had maybe been too close to a zodiac propeller, despite drivers being very careful to avoid swimming penguins when taking us out on the water. Or it could have suffered the traumatic injury from something else. I can’t unsee what I saw.

Paul had to go back to bed to catch up on some more sleep before his midnight shift. I downloaded my photographs and sorted them.

Festivities for guests start at around 21:30 but I'm tired so I won't go. I'll have an early night instead. I've taken Meclizine, an anti-seasick tablet and it is making me tired. I don't get seasick but the motion of the ocean can make my head feel as if it is in a washing machine - it feels all over the show! The Meclizine seems to settle it a bit.

We have 2 days sailing ahead of us and we expect to arrive in Antarctica on 28th December.Les mer