Antarctic Cruise Day 30 / 40 - Fournier Bay, Antarctica - We have ice!

Antarctic Cruise Day 30 / 40 - Fournier Bay, Antarctica

Trip day: 30 / 40

Port days: 11
Sea days: 18
Countries: 5
Continents: 3
Ports/Landings: 7

Astute readers might notice my counts look goofy today.  I'm counting today as a port day with a port/landing, even though we aren't landing today.  But, we did get off the ship, so I'll allow it.  You may have also noticed that my continent count did not go up.  That's because we didn't set foot on the continent, so that will wait until tomorrow.

That’s snow and ice covering the lower windows on the front of Polaris.

We started encountering small ice at first, but that changed quickly.

The first ice from our window

A shy seal was hanging out by this one.

Larger and larger pieces started to float by.

This appeared to be as large, or possibly larger than our ship - and that's only the 10% that is above water - the other 90% is below the water

Wine

Mulling the wine

Beverage Manager Tammy ensures that we visit in style and comfort

Brr

This guy showed up on deck #4 aft

A southern fulmar was checking out Polaris.

Here are a few more sights as we held our position in Fournier Bay for the day. Some of the super-dense ice was amazingly blue.

Hey - look at the elevator - that's where we went to college

A snowy petrel swung by for a look.

We attended the mandatory Zodiac safety briefing. It was briefly interrupted by humpback whales off the starboard side aft.  

After lunch, the toys started coming out for this afternoon's expeditions.  Zodiacs were out.  Kayaks were out.  Submarines were out.  Special Operations boats (SOBs) were out.  The weather went from snow to blue skies and back through the afternoon.

Getting the kayaks ready

Expedition team members scoping things out

Dive support boat

The two subs getting ready

Dive support and a sub

Getting ready to kayak

And, they're off

The subs

Zodiacs and an SOB

SOB

An SOB, just to bring some scale to these ice floes

Those two dots on the right are Zodiacs

Arlona opted to enjoy the view from the Caulderium outside on deck #5 aft.

Arlona did spot a whale off the side of the ship while out there.

Our turn on the Special Ops Boat came at 5PM.

We took a walk before our SOB to take in the scenery.

As we walked on deck #5 port side, we heard someone call our name.

We looked up and Captain Olivier was calling to us from the bridge.  He said that we should pop up to deck #6.  When the captain says to come…you come!  He welcomed us into the bridge, just to share the magnificent view from up there.  Then, he had us sit in the main seats and took our “Kolbs take over the Polaris” photo for the blog!

While on the bridge, expedition leader Mark asked what we have done and will be doing today.  We said we only had the SOB at 5PM.  He asked if we wanted to do a Zodiac ride as we could do a 20-minute tour before our SOB ride.  We jumped at the change and went and got dressed quickly.  When we arrived at the launch area, marine mammal specialist and Zodiac pilot Laura was waiting to take us out.

Laura, taking us for a great ride.

Arlona, doing her water thing – this time, with ice!

It was a great ride and we got back in plenty of time to head out on the SOB.  We watched as our SOB returned to the ship.  

The cool thing about SOB rides is that you board the SOB inside the ship in the hangar.  Then, the SOB backs down a launch ramp and you head out.  When you return, they drive the SOB onto the launch ramp and the ramp rolls the SOB into the hangar.  So getting in and out of the SOB is no muss, no fuss.

We zipped around for a while, taking in the sights.  The weather in the afternoon was absolutely amazing with brilliant sunshine and light breezes.

We joined friends for dinner to help celebrate a birthday.  It was a great first day in Antarctica.   We're holding in a channel overnight and heading to Danco Island tomorrow where we'll make our first landing on the last continent.