We set the alarm for 6:45 to make sure we didn’t miss anything. It was an overcast day with lifting fog. On day one we couldn’t see the mountaintops until just before sunset.
We started the day sailing by Palmer Station, a US Antarctic scientific base. We had sailed by here before in 2015 and in 2020 but never got this close. Up close it looks a lot like a large Southeast Alaska fish processing plant.
After our sail by Captain Rens told us he was going to give us a “Titanic Experience.” We sailed up close to a tabular iceberg bigger than the ship. We got a chance to study its crevices and cracks. While we were watching a large piece calved into the ocean creating a splash and wave. The area it broke from looked like it had several open gashes, wounds, except instead of being red they were blue, as if the iceberg had copper-based rather than iron-based blood in its veins.
Following that the Captain told us he would attempt to navigate Lemaire Channel, a 7-mile-long narrow body of water between the mainland of Antarctica and Booth Island. The two times before we tried and did not even get into the channel. This time we got into the channel but after getting as far south as 65.07446 we turned back.
The channel has strong currents, so ice is constantly on the move. There is always a concern that ice will fill in behind us. The Captain, after consultation with our ice pilot Captain Joan Sizemore, an Alaskan from Haines, (and for Alaska readers, vice chair of the board of Southeast Alaska Independent Living, SAIL) decided to turn back.
The Lemaire Channel is beautiful, but the clouds never lifted enough to allow us to see the mountain tops, but we saw plenty, including glaciers, whales, seals, and penguins.
It amazes me how many other ships are in these waters. My marine tracking program allows me to identify the ones I see, from large cruise ships to exploration cruise ships, to research vessels, tugs, and yachts.
At sunset, as we sailed out to open ocean for the evening, past Palmer Station (The captain says we and the other ships will spend the night doing figure eights) the clouds lifted off the peaks for a beautiful sunset and a predictor of things to come.
Gorgeous. Simply gorgeous. Thank you for the pictures of Antarctica in all its glory.
I know it is even better in person.
My first time there is was overcast, too. We got a little way down the Lemaire Channel, then had to turn around and come back.
Second time there was a cloudless, gloriously sunny day. We never got near enough to the Channel to even attempt a sail down.
Spectacular photos. Thank you so much for sharing.