Wake up call was a tad early at 5.30 even for a busy expedition day, but we needed to pack up tents and sleeping bags and be back on board to attempt a transit of the Lemaire Channel. This is beyond superlatives, something dreamed up by writers or film directors. The mountains rise up to 1000 meters either side of the channel in a dramatically steep fashion interspersed with glaciers that tumble their way into the icy water of the channel. The channel is maybe up to a kilometer wide and is often chocked with ice. But we were lucky with several bergs in the channel but our passage through not being obstructed, and made the second successful crossing this season. Sensational.
After lunch there were shore parties that landed at Peterman Island where we got to see Adelie penguins and our first Elephant seal behind the hut there. Energetic is not a word I would use to describe them, they did not move whilst I was there. Just big, grey, slug like blobs. There is also a memorial cross erected here for 3 British Antarctic expeditioners that perished in the vicinity in 1983.
Then it was back on board for the push to the Antarctic Circle.
Regards
Walter
Brilliant, just brilliant!