This was our "jumping off" point.

It had been several years since our last visit here .... so we arrived several days early

in order to visit old haunts & familiarize ourselves with the changes

FYI :  for those of you who have never gone to Antarctica ... but want to ...  the bigger ships  do not have the capability of making landings

nor are they allowed to ... because of the number of people aboard.

Life Boat Drill  takes on a whole new meaning ... when you actually have to cram into one of those things

Hourglass Dolphin

The majority of us were far from novices, regarding zodiac travel ....

but the conditions made even the most experienced of us to have a few doubts about our sanity in attempting the landing.

In spite of the "sanity"  question  ( or maybe because of it ).... we decided   " oh hell... let's have a crack at it ".

Yep ... Any guesses about who's in that zodiac ?

They  referred to this as  " a bit of  a  wander ".      Humph !!       A blasted "survival trek".. is what it was.

When we reached this area... our normal Gale force 9, peaked to # 10.    No matter what you've been told on some "regular" cruise ships, about wind force...

just take a look at the sea for yourselves.  THIS is what force 10 looks like.  ( it looks like the waves are being blown in the direction of the wind ).

This was a "first" for us.  We've seen lots of  turquoise in icebergs before ... but never  GREEN.

By the way ..... that long iceberg in the background , on the radar ... measured a bit over 1 mile long.

Many icebergs had fantastic shapes ..... almost like a set designer had done them.

Southern Right Whale

( iceberg & whale photos were taken from zodiac)

You have to admit that

there is a

magnificent

compelling

wild  beauty

in the

sea & ice.