Over night we had sailed north can crossed back over the Antarctic Circle and then sailed around the top end of Adelaide Island and come south across the Antarctic Circle again but there was no Champagne for the these extra crossing. :( After Brekky in the morning we were split into two groups, one heading off to explore in the zodiacs while the rest of us stayed on the boat and then after a couple of hours we would swap around. I spent my couple of hours getting photos organised and camera batteries charged. This time getting dressed for the zodiac cruise took only 15 mins and I made a few changes to make it a more efficient process. One thing I learned not to do, is to get everything zipped up too early as it generally takes 15 mins or so of organisation in the hot ship before we get outside and it was easy to get too hot in all the layers.
This morning we were heading off to explore Detaille Island in the north end of Crystal Sound. There is a hut here which was originally used as a British Antarctic Survey Station until it was abandoned in 1959 and it is kept as a place of historical interest. The hut is built of fairly thin plywood and there is not much insulation, so it would have been very chilly in the winter. They had to abandon it as there was so much ice in 1959 they couldn't get a ship in to resupply the explorers. The disembarkation from the zodiacs was pretty tricky here as you had to get out of the boat and onto a steepish rock shelf before climbing up about 10-15 metres of shale to the flat snow. Unfortunately, one lady slipped on the shale and hit her nose, breaking it. Fortunately the ship's doctor was right there and was able to look after her right away.
After the shale we hit the snow which had been tramped down by the previous groups a bit, however I still managed to sink down to mid calf level and go down on the snow. No damage done except to my pride. There was also a snow hill to climb, behind the hut for a great view out over the surrounding countryside. I managed this without falling over and the view was spectacular. After 45 minutes of looking around it was back down to the zodiac and time for a cruise around the island. We saw some more seals and great scenery and we were watching some penguins on the rocky shore just before we were about to head back to the ship. Then our zodiac ran out of fuel. :( They always carry a spare tank so the driver had to get it fitted, but he had trouble getting all the air out of the lines, so one of the other zodiacs started towing us back to the ship. In the mean time the wind had picked up a bit and a bit of light snow was starting fall. The engine finally got started and we then motored back to the ship with no further problems. I had worn the same clothes as yesterday and found that I was too warm while walking around on the snow but just right when we were out on the zodiac.
We had a nice warm lunch and an hour or so to ourselves as the s hip cruised a bit further into Crystal Sound looking for a place where we could have another zodiac excursion. They eventually found a place and this time I was dressed for the cold in about 10 mins. We were in luck as there were three Emperor Penguins to see on a sheet of ice, apparently they aren't normally seen in this part of Antarctica. After this, we saw an Elephant seal also a bit unusual and then many other seals and smaller penguins on the ice floes. There was some really spectacular ice formations and the blue colour of some of them was amazing. Our zodiac driver was a bit of a wild one and used the zodiac as an ice breaker to push through some of the smaller sheet ice to get a better view. Once again as we started to head back to the ship some snow started falling and I was very glad that I had all of my warm layers under the outer water proof layer.
Back in the warm ship we had a bit of a get together to discuss the day's photography with everyone agreeing it was spectacular. I then got my photos downloaded to the computer, backed up and this blog written up while waiting for the evening meal. We are sailing north again, heading to our next stop for a bit more exploration. The wind has picked up so the ship is leaning a bit but there is not much swell so it is a pretty comfortable ride and makes it easy to go to sleep.
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