Cruise Day 4 Antarctic Sound

by Ed · January 12, 2023

Greetings, all!

Today is Jan 7th, 2023, and we are in the Antarctic Sound. This is the area at the very north tip of the Antarctic Peninsula.

We wake to see our first real icebergs off the coast of Antarctica!

We have two landings planned for today – Brown Bluff and Hope Bay.

Here’s how the landings work:

We are assigned to one of six zodiac groups. We are in Group 2. There are approximately 30-37 people in each group.
Three zodiac groups go out, and when they return the next three groups go out. The order is rotated daily so no groups gets stuck with early morning wake-ups all of the time.
If there are greater limitations on the number of people on the site at one time we go out one or teo groups at a time.
When our group is called to go down we are fully dressed, including life preserver, and head to the mud room where we scan out through security, and exchange shoes for excursion boots. Once we are fully assembled we head off the boat.
We ride a zodiac to the landing spot, remove the life jacket, and begin our shore adventure.
When we return to the zodiac we don a life preserver before climbing on the zodiac.
Back on the ship we go immediately to the wet side of the mud room. We walk through a boot cleaner, then step into a shower area in case we need to further scrub our boots or clothes. No organic material can be left so we don’t contaminate the next landing site.
We remove our boots and put them on the storage shelves, don our shoes and scan back onto the boat.

The morning location, Brown Bluff, is indeed that – a tall brown bluff facing to the northeast!

Zodiac Groups 1, 2, and 3 are up first for an 8 AM departure. We have an early breakfast delivered to the room, and are dressed and ready by 7:30, waiting for the call. But the winds are too high for us to land. At 7:45 Schalk announces Brown Bluff is delayed – they want to see if the winds ease. By 8:10 the landing is cancelled. Grrrr…. We undress and relax for the afternoon opportunity in Hope Bay, counting this morning as a practice run at getting ready. The expectation is Hope Bay is better protected and should be less windy.

As we turned to leave I snapped this shot of the glacier next to Brown Bluff. This shows how tortured the glaciers can get, flowing down the mountain, cracking to reveal crevasses, and being stained by the sediments carried on the wind, likely mostly from the Brown Bluff itself.

We see our first penguins porpoising through the water on their way out to find krill! At first I thought I was seeing tiny dolphins – silly me!

In the afternoon we near Hope Bay. As we approach the sky becomes hazy, and I am amazed at how much an iceberg we pass makes me think of the Arizona Memorial in Pearl Harbor!

We arrive at Hope Bay, but the winds are holding steady at 45 knots outside the Bay. Grrrr… Schalk told us they found a sailboat hiding out in Hope Bay. They radioed the boat on Channel 16 and learned the winds were also steady 45 knots in the Bay. We didn’t even start getting our excursion clothes on.

Before we leave Schalk announces the Captain has an idea of a little-known island we can try. We head that way, and the excursion team scouts the area on zodiacs. They return shaking their heads. They showed us a video with the zodiac rising and dropping 6 feet at the ladder – they would not want the passengers to negotiate that.

So, our first day of excursions is a total strikeout! Now we head farther south!