During our expedition briefing after day 1, we were told that the goal for this day would be to become the Seabourn ship that made it the farthest south ever in St. George’s sound. 

Because our cruise was two days longer than typical and the sea ice had likely melted because it was late in the season, our expedition leader believed it was possible. Expectations were high!

We woke at 6:30 a.m. to a ship wide announcement that there were four Emperor penguins visible from the front of the ship. We were told it is very unusual for them to be this far south so we put on our warm clothes and went up on deck.

There were four Emperors, one Adélie penguin and a sea bird.  This was the first time Seabourn Venture had seen Emperor penguins this year.  Emperors are seen in only one of 20 cruises.

The ship maintained position to watch the Emperors for more than an hour.

We could also see two seals lounging on the sea ice.  Our presence didn’t seem to bother them.

These flat patches of ice are frozen sea water and very different from icebergs.

Later there was the official announcement that we were the first Seabourn vessel to ever come this far south!

 We went forward with the intention of breaking through the sea ice.

They hoped to get far enough into the ice sheet that passengers could safely walk from the ship right to the ice. 

Alas, the captain determined that we were not going to be able to do that safely. 

The estimated ice depth was 2 to 3 meters.

However, plan B was amazing! They began lowering zodiacs to allow people to transport over to walk on sea ice.   That was another first!

There were two more Emperor penguins!

While transport to the ice was beginning, they called those of us who had kayak reservations to get ready. Were we really going to miss walking on sea ice?  This was early in the cruise, before we knew to trust that our Seabourn expedition crew would arrange everything so we could almost always do it all.

At the time, and in hindsight, getting the gear on to go kayaking, including dry suit, special boots and more was daunting. 

It was eventually accomplished but is our least favorite memory of the trip!

The kayaking adventure took a little more than an hour, and was so beautiful. 

The only sound we could hear was the occasional ice chunk breaking away.   

The idea of kayaking in Antarctica is just mind-boggling!

At the end of our kayak excursion, the expedition crew took us by zodiac to the sea ice.

The great Seabourn Venture crew were prepared!

 

We had our picture taken with a Seabourn Antarctica flag, and enjoyed a glass of celebratory champagne.

We walked over towards another Emperor penguin. 

We watched Adélie penguins.

They were so cute! These closeups were taken by the ship’s photographer, Harry.

We got back on board the Venture and, happily, shed our kayak gear!

We had lunch and spent a very nice afternoon sailing by and looking at icebergs. 

Randy got all dressed in his expedition gear so he’d be warm enough to stand on our balcony.

I just popped in and out of our cabin!

The iceberg below looked like an “Ice Games” stadium to me.

In the late afternoon, we got down past latitude 70. 

We were the farthest south passenger ship in the world at that time and the farthest south a Seaboard ship has ever gone, adding to the record we’d accomplished earlier in the day.

As always, we concluded the day with a wrap-up meeting and a few points of interest were mentioned.

While trying to cut through the ice, color was stirred up. Passenger speculation was that it was paint from the ship. We learned that it was a type of algae under the ice (critical to the food chain) and we had churned it up.

The marine biologist said that there had been some question about what this entity was that some had seen on the ice.   No one on board knew.

She sent the photo out to other marine biologists that work in Antarctica.  Collectively,  they figured out what it was.

The day was so epic that the Seabourn company sent out a Facebook post telling the “world” about our experiences.

Unsaid in Seabourn’s post was that there were 18 of us who kayaked at, very likely, the farthest south anyone has ever done so.

I am usually very careful to not “advertise” on social media that we are away, but got carried away and reposted their post.  Those of you on Facebook may have seen it!

The captain and expedition leader were always at the ready to modify our itinerary to try to give us the best experience possible.

Penguins, icebergs, kayaking and champagne on the ice sheet. It was a pretty good day in Antarctica!

Next Up: Another epic day!