We had a fairly early morning start as there was a celebration to be had as we crossed over the Antarctic Circle. The circle marks the northern limit of the area in which the sun does not rise on the summer solstice (June 21) or set on the winter solstice (Dec 21). There was champagne consumed and the expedition crew had a fancy dress theme going on. Then there was Brekky followed by a presentation on the types of penguins that we would see and then a bit of lunch. All this time we were heading south to Marguerite Bay which was just past Adelaide Island. There was lots of ice we went past and saw seals having a lazy time on some of the sea ice. We didn't get all the way into the bay as the ice was moving around too much. However, we all went off for a Zodiac cruise for and hour and half and it was pretty spectacular.
It took me about 30 mins to get dressed for the zodiac trip as I had to work out how to get all the layers on in the proper order. First there was the t ermal underwear top and bottom followed by polar fleece tracksuit pants with waterproof over pants. Then a warm T-shirt on top with a polar fleece jumper, over top of this was the provided waterproof jacket which had an inner layer of polar fleece which can be zipped out. Then there was the life jacket and finally a water proof pack for the camera gear. I almost forgot the balaclava and two sets of gloves, a thin inner set for operating the camera and a thick water proof set to go over these and keep my hands dry and warm in the wind.
The zodiac cruise started out great and we got to see some Adelie penguins, seals and some amazing formations in the ice bergs. It took awhile to get used to the zodiac and how we could move around a bit to take photos. There were 5 people down each side of the boat and one side would kneel down while those behind would stand up giving everyone a chance to take photos. As it was getting time to head back to the mother ship the wind and swell pick ed up giving us a very wet but fun ride home. I forgot to mention the snow that was also coming down as we sped home. Back at the ship we dried off a bit and changed out of our wet weather gear, had a bit of a debrief and then a nice warm dinner. We finished dinner late and then I spent a couple of hours downloading and backing up photos before going to bed. In the meantime the ship was heading back north along the coast of Adelaide Island.
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