Admiralty Bay, Antarctica, 1/18/16

About 6:40 this morning the captain came over the loudspeaker announcing we were entering Admiralty Bay and we should get up, dress warmly and get out on deck. Being good little sailors we did as we were told, got up, layered up (0 degrees C outside) and went first on the sixth floor forward deck. As Jim said, a "wow" moment. Enormous, HUGE icebergs all around us. That deck was a little icy, so we went down to the main forward deck on the fourth floor. It's in the full sun and thanks to some early morning (sunrise around 3:30 am) work by the crew was ice free.

We slowly cruised the bay passing the Polish station which is a cluster of eight or ten brightly colored, one story buildings built on a "beach" they share with penguins. You would really have to be a dedicated scientist to spend months at such an isolated outpost. We also passed a Chilean ice breaker/research ship in a cove. A little factoid we learned: the support ships used to be white until someone realized they'd be much more visible if the hulls were painted red!

As predicted, we could spot Adelie penguins on the smaller icebergs we passed. They hop up on the ice to get away from the dreaded leopard seals, their main predator.

We spent quite a while circling a magnificent iceberg estimated to be 200' tall which means the part under the water was around 1500'! These are fresh water ice mostly from the Weddell Sea. Unlike the Alaskan icebergs that are pointy and look like mountains these things have straight sides and flat tops. They are gleaming white and a pale ice blue and rise from the sea like mesas in the southwest. Those in the distance look like giant apartment blocks, one right after another.

After Admiralty Bay we started the six hour trip to Hope Bay. The morning reports were the passage was ice-free. But, about four hours into the journey the ship slowed because ahead were endless ice floes. The captain announced that it was doubtful we could get into the bay and even more doubtful that we could get out (!), so we turned and set a course to the Danco Coast which we'll reach before breakfast time tomorrow. Since the sun sets, sort of, at 10:30 pm and rises at 3:30 am, the early risers will see it coming.

We're sailing between the South Shetland Islands and the peninsula that reaches up from the continent towards the bottom of South America.

From our balcony this afternoon we spotted a group of penguins "dolphining." That is the term used to describe how they swim along the surface. They look like itty bitty dolphins. They exhale just as they reach the surface, take a quick breath and then nose down and repeat.

I got some great shots of the icebergs but those will have to wait until I'm home and not paying 55 cents a minute for Internet time to upload them.