This morning we were back in the “north” being closer to 65°S.
We were in the Argentine Islands and the sunrise above the ocean, mountains, and glaciers was spectacular.
We had breakfast and got to our operations point were we were out into our zodiacs. First was a cruise through some icebergs, where we saw a Weddell seal and some great ice. This piece was a good 40m tall, and only 10-20% is above the water’s surface.
We then landed at the Vernadsky Research Station, a former British station built in 1947 and sold to Ukraine in 1996 for one pound sterling on the condition that all of the existing research was continued.
They were all ready for our arrival with the G Adventures flag flying beneath the Ukrainian Flag. They don’t let every ship that comes by land, but it helps our case that we have a Ukrainian captain. Once we got ashore the first thing both Mike and I noticed was the little chapel right out side the main door.
We were invited in for a tour of the station, which ended at the bar. The only thing on the menu was home brew which was good… a little cinnamon flavoured.
After our enjoyment of the station we were back into the zodiac and had a quick trip across to Wordie House. It was the former British station from 1914 that was replaced by Faraday Base (now Vernadsky). It has a hill with a great view of the area.
From there we headed back to ship for lunch and to go to our second excursion today. We worked our way towards Pleneau Bay to make a landing and cruise through an iceberg graveyard. However on the way there we were stopped by too much ice. But there was a Minke Whale who was surfacing there (picture by our friend Joanne),
Now we are off to an alternate spot to see how it looks.
No comments:
Post a Comment