Antarctic Cruise Day 33 / 40 - Paradise Bay, Antarctica - Unbelievable views - above and below the water

Antarctic Cruise Day 33 / 40 - Paradise Bay Antarctica - Paradise indeed

Trip day: 33 / 40

Port days: 14
Sea days: 18
Countries: 5
Continents: 4
Ports/Landings: 10

We've been offline all day today.  That's because we were in Paradise Bay and surrounded by satellite-blocking mountains.  Wow, was it worth it. Captain Olivier teased yesterday that Paradise Bay was aptly named.  All I can say is that the photos I will include do not do justice.  There are a lot of photos because I couldn't choose.  Let's start with photos from the ship.

Gentoos hang out here too

Arlona, demonstrating the height of the mountains

The plan this morning was to land near Base Brown - a research station.  That was the plan.  That plan didn't happen.  Why?  Ice. A lot of ice.  Ice, ice, baby.  It was floating everywhere and getting blown by the wind.  It had all congregated near the proposed landing site, making it inaccessible.  All landings today were canceled and replaced with Zodiac cruises.

Our naturalist and Zodiac pilot, Leone, drove us around for an hour, taking in the sites.  Here comes the big photo dump.

Ready for a tour

Hey - what's that on the ice?

Crabeater seals

This pair was happy to pose for photos - the right one was a little more animated

Howdy!

The left one never moved at all - must be nap time

There was one more up on the snow

Some Gentoos swam by - that one in the back left had a different plan

That's a big hill

Should I do this?

A couple of big hops and it was on its way

 We continued on, taking in the views.

We passed another Zodiac that was science-ing.  They dropped a calibrated disk and measure the depth where they could no longer see it.  This allows the scientists to calculate the concentration of plankton in the water.

I couldn't resist taking photos of our home away from home from the water.

You can really see the difference in bow design that allows us to cut through the waves

We cruised by an absolutely huge iceberg - this monstrosity sticking up turned out to be around 60 feet high and it was attached to an even larger piece

Arlona spotted these guys - the left two are Antarctic Terns - we're still working on the one on the right

A friendly Gentoo popped up for a look

That wall on the right was at least 60 feet high

I think this is the elusive Swiss cheese iceberg

One thing I did not share yesterday is that when we got back to our room, waiting on the door for us were...our tickets for a submarine dive!  Woo! We got back to the ship and grabbed a quick lunch and then got ready to go deep.  We have two subs, named George and Ringo.  John & Paul are on Octantis.  Our ride this afternoon was George.

Here we are, in the bubble and ready to go

The pilot's control area

Chief submarine pilot Nico, getting ready to take us down

Here we go!

One of the thrusters

It is amazing how quickly colors shift - red is the first color of the spectrum that gets filtered out by the water - remember, our coats are vibrant rust-red.

The five-inch thick acrylic bubble provides unrestricted views and virtually disappears, immersing you in the experience as if you are just floating in the water - it is pretty incredible

Here we are, arriving at the bottom - 625 feet below the surface

I can't tell you what everything is and Google Lens wasn't cooperating as I wrote this.

The bigger items are krill - the rest are smaller organisms that make up the food supply for much of the marine life

We don't know what this is, but it was iridescent and cool-looking

A starfish

These were really cool-looking, and a little creepy

They're called sunstars and are a relative of common starfish

Nico called these microorganism sea snow - the oceans are full of them

This little jelly hitched a ride as we ascended

While there simply isn't a lot to see in the water here, there's no mistaking that this is one cool experience.  There is virtually no motion sensation when descending or ascending.  The ride is a little cramped, especially for those with longer legs.  Three long-legged people on the same side would definitely be playing footsie for the entire ride.

Since we were taken to the sub by Zodiac, we wore our gear - parka, puffer, underlayers, hat, gloves, and so on.  The one exception is the muck boots.  Instead, we were given kayak neoprene booties to protect the sub.  Once in the sub, we removed our hats and gloves and were perfectly comfortable.

All too soon, our ride - the last dive of the day, was over and we returned to the ship.

Nico in George, and the dive support boat, returning to Polaris

The dive support boat

Nico's ride is a little slower - two knots at best

Nice and George, returning to Polaris

Captian Olivier made an announcement that a special event would occur on the bow at 3:20PM sharp.  We headed out and this is what we saw.

We were treated to a bagpipe concert as we sailed out of Paradise Bay, Antarctica.  Bagpipes in Antarctica - two words I never expected to appear in the same sentence.

We spotted this - perhaps a channel marker - as we sailed out - those spots are all penguins

We spotted this Hurtigruten expedition vessel, MS Fram - so we are no longer alone

Birds were flying around, so I did a little bird and scenery watching.

Southern fulmar

Southern fulmar

Southern fulmar - a flotilla

Southern fulmar

Southern fulmar

Southern fulmar

Kelp gull

Kelp gull

Kelp gull

Kelp gull

People thought this looked like a whale

Southern fulmar, reflecting

Southern fulmar

Southern fulmar

Southern fulmar

That tipped piece on the right slid off as we watched

Then, the entire thing began to crumble

Within minutes, it was just a huge flat area of little ice

As we left Paradise Bay, we lost the brilliant blue skies, calm sea, and sunshine. It was replaced with a gray overcast and large swells.

We are on our way to Portal Point and we will see what tomorrow holds.