Spert Island

Very bright sunny day with minimal wind, temperature still around zero. Whales and seals around the boat at breakfast, not quick enough to capture the whales but did manage the seals serenely floating by on a chunk of ice ( photo 1). After breakfast moved to the lounge watching the dramatic rock and snow landscape as we slowly cruise north for our next stop and a zodiac trip. Watching more small icebergs going by with various numbers of seals sleeping while having a ride. Spert Island is volcanic with steep cliffs, so no landing opportunity and no penguins as not able to get ashore, but plenty of snow and apparently the island attracts icebergs, these are the biggest we have seen so far. The zodiac took us across the sheltered bay where we were anchored, through various channels between the volcanic cliffs into the next bay. Much rougher as the sea was swelling in all directions and various large icebergs were waiting. The sea colour changed from a very black- blue to an almost turquoise colour. Going through one of the narrow channels a seal got up from a shelf above us to wave a flipper. Going out was ok, but coming back was different, the wind and sea had brought a number of icebergs into the channels so we couldn’t get back through them, apparently you need a reasonable size gap in case a piece breaks off whilst going by. After two or three attempts where we were blocked finally found a route where we could get out into the open sea where we took the long, safe route around the headland and back to the ship.Read more