The Antarctic Circle, The Gullet, first landing Horseshoe Island – 17 March

Awoke before breaksfast call to the most stunning views of icebergs out the window. Steve was eager to get out and off he went. I layered up a little to go outside on the observation decks. Man it was cold and very windy, but the scenery just takes your breath away.

So today we are attempting to enter the Gullett via the wider Gunnell channell. It was windy and icy and spectacular. The sun rose over the range on our port side and there were lots of icy bergy bits and mountains either side along with myriad icebergs of all shapes and sizes.

The captain and team are hard at work wending their way between bergs to get us through some thin Straits and to navigate the channels.

The birds we were chasing have paled into insignificance compared to these views.

We can move around between decks – fore and aft. Level 8 has an inside and outside observation area and the majority of passengers are here following Howard’s announcements. One deck lower is the bridge deck – which is much windier but has less people. Looking ahead it’s hard to imagine we can get through anywhere with ice and bergs and icy bits everywhere

Well, get through we did. What a day!!! I can’t believe how absolutely fantastic and stunning and action packed today has been.

We wended our way through ice and bergy bits and between icebergs heading up the Gullet with our destination being Horseshoe Island. On the way we had icebergs in every shape and side. At 11.30 we’re called to the back deck 8 for our Captain Cook’s Day toast to mark the crossing of the Antarctic Circle where we did at 4:53 am, Jonathan read Captain Cook’s toast and we had champagne on the deck. We were all then ‘christened’ with a circle mark – a perfect circle ⭕️ on our foreheads created by a shot glass dipped in an ink pad?’, then onto our foreheads.

Directly after the toast we had a call of orcas – which was really exciting. There were pods of 2, 3, 4 and more Orcas chasing around the boat. There were seals in amongst them too, which we figured were prey. They were not pure black and white, a bit paler and yellow tones. Turns out they are most likely Type 2b Gerlache Orcas- which we learned at a very informative recap of today with Julia. The colour is diatoms on the skin of the whale.

Then at lunch which followed the Orcas there was a humpback whale breaching on the port side.

Photo tip of the day – use your nose., to unlock iPhone when you have gloves on.

As we continued sailing towards Horseshoe Island we continued to see icebergs and stunning (chocolate ripple cake) mountains.

Howard couldn’t have predicted a better day. The light, the glow on icebergs, “super grandeur” of the place.

We arrived at our destination and were called to get prepared for our first landing at Horseshoe Island. This is the only landing below the Antarctic Circle. The island is home to a 65 year old British Station, still standing and looks like they walked out and never came back.

The Island was overlooked by Mt Searle – 587m high.

Deck 7 was first called to zodiacs and Steve and I were first up and into the hut. We had to avoid the rocks which barked at us, heavily camouflaged Fur Seals, lounging all over the island.

No lighting in the hut – the crew has put a few head torches in but we had to use our phone torch. A good look at how tough conditions were.

Then we met Mary and Phil at their Zodiac and we walked up the hill along the trail marked with flags by the crew. I slipped a couple of times on the ice under the snow – bloody clumsy clot. All’s well, hardly even a bruise.

The outlook was stunning 360 degree views across the bay where we landed and over to the ship on the other side, with icebergs and bergy bits. The island had a frozen lake as well as some smaller huts and other equipment deserted by the Brits.

Returned back down very carefully and then explored around the back of the hut. Wildlife to be seen including Fur Seals, a handful of Adelie penguins and many birds – mainly skuas.

We were in the last couple of zodiacs back to ship, only to find that the polar plunge has now been scheduled for now/in about 15-30minutes. We all decided it needed to be done and returned to Cabins to don togs. Yup! It was cold and some of us were pretty quick to scramble back on board, to get back to the robe and a slug of very warming Sambucca/Ouzo.

Recap/precap

Tonight/ tomorrow – High winds about 40knots

Morning at sea, heading for Prospect Point, only option for continental landing. Pre marked by Stephi and Howard.

Tomorrow night 6-7 hour run through Grand Didier channel and Penola Strait.

It’s St. Patrick’s day so we celebrated the achievements of Irish Polar explorers in the mould of Shackleton, Crean and Mc Carthy.

Some facts from today:

⁃ We crossed the circle at 4:53am.

⁃ Polar Plunge water temp – 2degrees Celsius.