This morning we woke up surrounded by fog and large snowflakes. We approached the entrance to the Lemaire Channel, this is one of the most scenic and breathtakingly beautiful landscapes on the Antarctic Peninsula. We cruised through the circular patterned sea ice heading for our first landing at Booth Island. The high snowy peaks towered over our ship, the National Geographic Explorer, as legendary ice Captain Leif Skog masterly navigated through the narrow ice-clad channel. We were the first boat to sail through the channel in the past week. Snowflakes continued to fall and were visible on our orange expedition parkas by the time breakfast was announced at 7 a.m.
Our first landing of the day was on Booth Island, where all three species of brushtail penguins; Adélies, gentoos, and chinstraps, were seen nesting close to each other. Lisa Kelley, our expedition leader, offered walks ashore to visit the rookeries, as well as Zodiac cruises between the icebergs. Roughly half the guests decided to participate in the landing, hiking through snow up to the peak, to see the penguin rookeries. We had very “Antarcticie” weather throughout the morning, gentle snowflakes fell and created a winter-land experience.
Booth Island is also renowned historically for being the location that Jean-Baptiste Charcot, famous French explorer and scientist wintered over in 1904 onboard his boat, Français. He is remembered for charting over 2,000 km of the whole western side of Antarctic Peninsula and collecting over 20 volumes of scientific data.
After lunch we went back into expedition mode by sailing south through broken up sea ice exploring the Penola Strait region looking for marine life. We sailed as far south as we could go before running into impenetrable fast ice at 65 degrees 17 minutes and 22 seconds and then turned back north past Petermann Island. Along the way we stopped the ship again at Booth Island and offered the guests an opportunity to jump into 29°F cold water and experience what sub-zero water feels like for an Antarctic plunge.
After tea we hosted another round of photo breakout sessions, this one included a photo critique session that Sisse Brimberg and I led in the lounge.
After dinner we sailed back north through the Lemaire Channel in the blue hour and photographed the reflections in the water. Another wonderful day in Antarctica has come to a close.
