5:45 a.m. – Wake up time!! Why so early??? This morning we are sailing the Lemaire Channel aka the Kodak Channel as this is one of the most scenic channels in the peninsula. Just breathtaking!
“Kodak” Channel
6:05 a.m. – We grab some hot cocoa and make our way down one deck and forward to the viewing area on deck #6 (should have worn my swimsuit and sat in the hot tub). We see so many cool ice formations and I film a video of the ship running over a decent size chunk of ice and it just tumbles away underneath the ship. (sorry, lost my flash drive with my videos and my best pictures!!)
7:45 a.m. – Breakfast in the Grill buffet. Some scrambled eggs with bacon and sausage to start my day.
8:05 a.m. – Time to get dressed for a landing today on Petermann Island. Penguins everywhere!!! We see 2 different species, the Adele which have all black faces and beaks with white circles around their eyes as well as the Gentoo which have a red beak and white eyebrows. We also see a couple Weddle seals too. They live with the penguins in peace as they are not a predator of the penguins.
Gentoo Penguins on Petermann Island
10:00 a.m. – Back to the ship to rest a bit and just chill in the Panoramic Lounge. One of the best parts of this cruise is that during any “downtime” you can sit in the Panoramic Lounge and watch the scenery. There is always an iceberg, a whale, a mountain or something absolutely beautiful to watch outside the windows.
12:00 noon – Lunch in The Restaurant (the main dining room). Lunch is an a la carte menu and I ordered the Fisherman’s Basket with fried seafood such as salmon, scallops and shrimp. I am not sure where the seafood is coming from but this was an absolutely delicious lunch!!
2:30 p.m. – Our afternoon adventure is a zodiac cruise around Pleneau Bay. The scenery was pretty but truthfully this was the least favorite of the stops. Our guide was super knowledgeable but he was giving us a history lesson on the whaling industry over the years in this region along with penguin and bird of the area. I think he forgot to drive around as we just sat fairly still most of the time. Then another zodiac became disabled and we had to help rescue them so we lost time there too. I really didn’t know what I missed until I saw pictures from friends who saw some of the coolest iceberg shapes. We didn’t see any of that!!
The coolest part of this day was the very beginning of the cruise when we got to walk on sea ice. A huge sheet of ice several inches thick just floating around in the bay. We pulled up to it, got out of the zodiacs and walked around for 10 or 15 minutes on it. Pretty cool to be standing on a sheet of ice in the middle of the ocean.
Standing on a sheet of ice in the middle of the bay.
5:00 p.m. – Lecture time. I attended this particular lecture because my son is in to all kinds of nerdy science things. I thought I could learn something and he would be proud of me. This one was about how the continents were all one giant landmass and divided over time. And how there are officially more than 7 continents…I thought I would get smart but there were so many big words that I couldn’t understand so I may have dozed off a little here and there.
8:00 p.m. – We enjoyed dinner with a fellow advisor, David, and his father, Bill, in the main dining room. Tonight’s choice was steak and veggies.
9:45 p.m. – Tonight’s entertainment was Name That Tune in the Panoramic Lounge. I wasn’t much help but our team of 6 only missed 2 artists out of 20 and got all of the songs correct.
10:15 p.m. – Live music followed the game and is always enjoyable.
12:30 p.m. – Lights out!!
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