Sunrise is a little after 5AM. We left the curtains open last night so we would wake up early. Carolyn wakes at 3:15AM and looks out, but in her sleep induced blindness she only sees what she thinks is fog...well it is white. Back to bed and another 90 minutes of sleep and she looks out again and sees sun breaking through the clouds. Dick is still sound asleep so she dresses. As she is leaving Dick wakes and says he will join her in the Observation Lounge.
We are at the back of Deck 10 and the lounge is in the front of Deck 12. Up the aft elevator and across the open deck for pictures is a great plan until Carolyn opens the door on deck 12 and is met with snow and ice covering the mini golf course. On closer inspection, the whole top deck and the pool area on Deck 11 are covered!! Well, now we know why it was white outside at 3AM! A couple of fast pictures
and back down, over and back up to the lounge. Unbelievable, but by the time she gets to deck 12 forward, the weather has turned and it is blowing a gale! There are about 12 people who have been up since 4:30AM hoping for a beautiful sunrise; not going to happen! The speed of the weather change is incredible!
We how have gale force winds, rough seas and poor visibility! The ship is underway. Snow and ice pieces are blowing off the ship. Dick arrives a few minutes later.
There is a lot of ice in the water around us and we see another big berg with some penguins on it. A whale is cruising by the berg.
At some point, maybe about 6:30AM, the Captain comes in, sits down and chats with us. We are leaving the area because the weather turned last night and we had snow. The bay filed with bergs and brash ice during the night and is not safe for us to reenter now. We are heading to Half Moon Island and hoping for better weather there. We should be there about 2PM. Without a doubt, this is the friendliest Captain we have ever had.
We sit in the lounge for another hour or so. The skies clear some and we can see the snow covered Palmer Islands on the West and the mainland on the East slide by bathed every so often in bright sunlight
...then again a great studies in shades of black white and gray.
The sea has a lot of ice in it this morning and we see a very nice rainbow.
By 8:30AM we are starving so we head to breakfast. Terry came over the PA earlier and told us about the change in plans. The new plan is that we will spend the afternoon at Half Moon Island in Half Moon Bay. This is a small Island in Livingston Island’s Moon Bay. Also, since we are running ahead of schedule, we will stop at Elephant Island tomorrow.
After breakfast we go to Terry’s lecture on Shackleton’s ill-fated, 1914, expedition to Antarctica. About 1:30PM we go back up to the observation lounge to watch the approach to Half Moon Bay. The plan for this area is to check out the Argentine Naval Research Station and one of the largest penguin rookeries on the continent. The island is a snow covered mass with the same low clouds that have been everywhere.
We are treated to another nice rainbow.
As we round the tip of Livingston Island we are about blasted out of the water by 60 mph winds; ...not good.
Terry tells us the Captain will do what he can, but we can’t go into the Bay in the high wind. He gets close to a small island in the middle of the big bay and holds place while we all rush outside to take pictures of the small black island with the tiny black dots
and the reseach station in the distance. What lonely duty!
We can see the penguins moving around with binoculars, but the pictures will not be good. We hang around for 45 minutes as the Captain turns the boat in a circle so everyone can see. Then we beat a fast retreat heading on to Elephant Island; ETA 9AM.
Dick goes on back to the room and Carolyn hangs around, but the clouds stay low and the wind is still blowing hard so the sea is too rough to really be able to see any passing creatures so she goes back to the cabin for a nap while Dick goes to Trivia.
Carolyn doesn’t want to dress for dinner and opts for room service. Dick goes to La Veranda, but the international menu of the other night is now an Argentine Steak House menu and isn’t as good.
The wind dies down some and the skies clear a little, but the only thing of interest before dark is a huge tabular iceberg we watch from the balcony. Hopefully we will get better skies for tomorrow.
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