We had calm seas but a big rolling swell last night that rocked the ship from side to side often and far enough to keep me from sleeping much. At one point, 2:37 am, I decided to glance out the window above my bunk and I saw the sun had already risen! We are so far south that it must hardly set before it gets up again. I finally rose at 6:30 am, 1/2 an hour before the wake up announcement, and was delighted to see the sun fully shining, the swells had died and there were icebergs and bergy bits floating around outside. We were just arriving at Spert Island which is just off Trinity Island, which is just off the tip of the Peninsula. Spert is another unvisited site, not unknown but cruised only by those “in the know”. Pictured below is a narrow cut between two giant basalt cliff faces into which we took our zodiacs and normally there’s 3 exit points once you progress to the center like the 4 points on a compass, except that all the other 3 were blocked by icebergs! There was plenty of room in the center for 3 or more zodiacs to drive around in but we could only go single file through the entrance. Afterwards we cruised down the coast, checking out the spectacular snow and glacier formations, a few chinstrap penguins, a few crab eater seals and some fabulous big icebergs. It was a stunning morning.
Lunch was a delicious pasta buffet with moussaka, mac ‘n cheese, mushroom carbonara, pasta puttanesca plus breads and salads. While eating, the boat chugged around the corner to Mikkelsen Harbor, which was an absolutely flat calm protected bay with a little island upon which stood a small Argentinian refuge hut and had a couple of Gentoo penguin rookeries. We started ashore at 2:30 pm but they ran boats back and forth all afternoon until 5:3pm so you could stay as long as you wanted. There wasn’t a breath of wind so many people had their parkas and gloves off and we could just stroll around the island at our leisure. It was the most peaceful and relaxing excursion we’ve done. There wasn’t any hurry to see the penguins, as we all have hundreds of penguin photos by now, and the birds were spread out all over the island and even swimming, so one could just sit on a rock and watch them to one’s heart’s content. Most of my pictures seemed to be wide-angle photos of people taking photos, which was a nice change.
We only were back on board for a moment before we had an announcement to dress warm and meet on the back deck for a barbecue dinner! What a surprise! The concierge staff had busy busy setting up tables and chairs and drinks and barbecues while we were out on our excursion! They greeted us with hot mulled wine, and had steaks, pulled pork, sausages, chicken wings on the grill and a big table of salads all set up. Music was playing and the sun was shining – what a great end to a perfect day!
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| The One Ocean staff |
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