While we had such a glorious time exploring the history on Detaille Island and the ice in Crystal Sound, it did not go unnoticed that the ice was moving around quite a lot, and by the time we were back on board and sitting down to dinner, it had moved far enough south to block the very narrow entrance to Marguerite Bay called “The Gullet”. Our Antarctica Deep South expedition was going no further south!
The alternative was to do a 400 nautical mile round trip on the outside of Adelaide Island, back into Marguerite Bay, which would be 340 nautical miles longer that just sailing through The Gullet! This was not feasible in the time left to us, and would mean a very long passage in the open ocean back to Ushuaia. Therefore, we have turned back, crossed the Antarctic Circle again (having spent only nine hours below the Circle), and have headed back north for Petermann Island. Plan B is to land on several different places in the Antarctic Peninsula, finally reaching the South Shetland Islands, where the hop across the Drake Passage is the shortest distance possible, a fact that has been quietly rejoiced by probably every person on board the Sergey Vavilov!
Petermann Island appeared on the horizon, and the morning’s activities included both landing on the island and zodiac cruising, to view the Gentoo and Adelie penguins who coexist there. A highlight for those walking on the island were the crazy fledgling Gentoo chicks, staggering about taking no notice whatsoever of the five metre clearance rule for tourists.
With the kayakers getting another opportunity to paddle across the waters, they outdid themselves by completing another circumnavigation, this time around Petermann Island.
The afternoon activity was a very pleasant shortish zo diac cruise close to Yarlour Island. Plenty of interesting ice formations were photographed intensively, as well as a couple of leopard seals, and crabeater seals lazing on flat tabular icebergs
We arrived back on ship to find out it was BBQ on the Deck night, with plenty of mulled wine and roast pork, BBQ ribs, corn, potatoes, prawns, grilled fish, and enough salads to sink the ship, followed by a berry crumble and custard. This was eaten outside at picnic tables set up with tablecloths on the aft deck, where the air was cold enough to see our breath, but the seas were calm, icebergs gently rocked by, and it was a lovely feeling to be sitting outside in Antarctica, having a BBQ!
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