The regular, cheery tunes from the ukulele of expedition leader Dan brought a special suggestion this morning: Go outside before breakfast for our transit of the Lemaire Channel. Narrow, steep, and filled with ice, Lemaire did not disappoint those who bundled up and went out on deck.
We spent the morning on Zodiacs. We enjoyed views of Ukraine’s Vernadsky Research Station, the surrounding gentoo penguin colony, and Wordie House. A small group made the trek across Winter Island to visit Wordie House, formerly a British research station and now a historic hut.
In the afternoon, we took Zodiac tours around the “iceberg graveyard” of Port Charcot and Pleneau Bay. Here, immense sculptures of ice are grounded. Surrounded by beauty, we witnessed the antics of penguins and even found a couple leopard seals and a humpback whale.
Following dinner, we made history as National Geographic Resolution and National Geographic Endurance navigated Lemaire Channel side-by-side, northbound. People waved heartily across the channel to our sister ship, and jovial radio calls were exchanged between crew.
