Antarctic Cruise Day 32 / 40 - Cuverville Island, Antarctica - Georges Point is out, Cuverville Island is in

Antarctic Cruise Day 32 / 40 - Cuverville Island, Antarctica - More Gentoos

Trip day: 32 / 40

Port days: 13
Sea days: 18
Countries: 5
Continents: 4
Ports/Landings: 9

Wow, did it snow last night.  It was near white-out conditions a lot of the time. About four inches of snow piled up outside on the railing in front of the Explorers' Bar.  I'm guessing that had at least a part to play in the absolutely horrible internet service.  There is only so much you can do when you can't see the satellites. This afternoon, I was able to get the rest of the photos loaded in yesterday's blog, so if you want to see them all, take another look. (It's mostly more penguins)

This morning, the plan was a landing at Georges Point.  For the grammar nazis out there, that is not incorrect grammar as it is not possessive.  From Wikipedia:

Georges Point is the northern tip of Rongé Island, lying west of Arctowski Peninsula off the west coast of Graham Land, Antarctica. It was discovered and named by the Belgian Antarctic Expedition, probably after second-in-command Georges Lecointe.

That doesn't really matter, though because that all got called off.  The potential for really lousy weather forced the expedition team to pivot and come up with another plan. Luck for us, they are really good at doing that and we found up at Cuverville Island.  Again, from Wikipedia:

Cuverville Island or Île de Cavelier de Cuverville is a dark, rocky island lying in Errera Channel between Arctowski Peninsula and the northern part of Rongé Island, off the west coast of Graham Land in Antarctica.

One thing that's fun about a trip like this is seeing the crew.  Many come from places where they didn't grow up with snow.  While many have seen snow, it is still such a novelty for them, it lets us see the joy in discovery.

Here is one of our world cruise crew, Merial, showing off her coffee-hat snowman.

The glass below the railing on deck #5 was interesting today.  The design of the snow on the glass looked like someone designed it, but it was all done by Mother Nature during last night's snowstorm.

With the change in landing sites, all scheduled landings were canceled and the expedition team opened up operations for as many guests as there were that wanted to get onto land.

Senior Shorex crew, Nerma, keeping things running smoothly

See all her spiffy expedition clothing? It is a little nicer (obviously) than what we get.  Don't get me wrong, the gear they supply is terrific.  But, as a bigger boy with not what you'd call a "waist", having waterproof pants with only a drawstring becomes an exercise in defying gravity.  Thank goodness for the life vest's through-the-legs strap to help with the effort!  Bib overalls (like she has) or at least suspenders would help a lot. If you don't have much of a waist - don't say I didn't warn you!

The line was long, but it moved quickly.  We did have one delay as they had to deploy zodiacs to push away the drift ice that kept clogging up the entry to the landing site.

Gentoos were there to welcome us to Cuverville Island.

Until you see it, it is hard to appreciate what an exceptional job the Viking expedition team does.  When the first landing group with guests arrived, the trail to walk had already been flattened and made safe by expedition team members.  They went over the entire walking area with snowshoes to pack and flatten the snow.  Then, they carved stairs up from the actual landing area to the snowpack, complete with handles that they bury alongside the stairs.  Multiple crew members were there to assist the guest in the tricky area, keeping everyone moving and safe.  It really is impressive how good a job they do.

After climbing up, we took the short walk (complete with walking sticks supplied by Viking) to the observation area.  Here are the sights along the way.

Based on the color of the snow, Gentoos poop a lot!

A seal with a couple of kelp gull visitors

Marine mammal specialist Laura said this looked like a Weddell seal

Occasionally, they would flop on their bellies and then scoot rather than walk

Gentoo tracks

Sneaking a view at the visitors

All too soon, our time on Cuverville Island was over and we headed to the waiting Zodiac for the return ride.  It was a little dicey as the drift ice had completely closed off our exit path.  Our Zodiac driver did an excellent job bobbing and weaving through the ice field to get us back safely.

Always a beautiful view

That's what we had to plow through in the Zodiac

Me, admiring our Zodiac pilot's skill in navigating the ice

You can see how clear the water is as the bottom is clearly visible

The dense ice makes the Antarctic water a nice Caribbean blue

This ice that looks like bubble wrap used to be the submerged part of this block of ice - at some point, it flipped over

A nice natural arch in the ice

Back on the ship, we stopped by the Finse Terrace and the Bow for another look around.

The sheathbills seemed to enjoy sitting on the hangar door

In fact, they seemed to enjoy sitting (and pooping) everywhere - this one plopped a full load right after this photo

This huge group of Gentoos was a little way away from our landing zone

There were Gentoos all over in the water putting on a show for us

We wandered up to the bow next

We encountered a pirate!  He has lost an arm, nose & eye, but Arlona put him back together

Captain Olivier signaled his approval from the bridge

Can you say "dramatic"?

After the excitement of the day, we decided a hot shower was in order and then some lunch.  After lunch, I took advantage of the working internet and get today's photos edited and into this blog for publication.

A little after 4PM, Captain Olivier called everyone interested to the bow for a group photo to mark this inaugural expedition.  They have a film crew aboard with a drone and they used it to capture this photo.  I'm hoping they will send a copy to everyone.  Here we are with the snowman and some of our friends, 

Garry, Arlona, Cinci, Eddy, Linda, Debra

The sun won’t go down for a bit, but the view was still stunning.

They also did another weather data balloon launch today for NOAA.  Since we attended the last launch, we opted to skip this one and let the new folks have more room. Tomorrow, we’ll be in a place known as Paradise Bay.  It is a short sail, so we’re moving slowly tonight.