Antarctica Day #2 (Paradise Bay, Neumayer Channel)

Monday, February 11

No alarm today. I got up a little before 7 am and went to the buffet to get a muffin and coffee. With our cabin at the front of deck 1 and the buffet at the back of deck 8, I did get a little exercise doing this! Staff from the Palmer Research Station arrived by zodiac about the same time and were spending the day on the Zaandam.

Bob and I dressed in our arctic gear and went to the back of Deck 6. This time we were the only ones there. The day began with sun and blue skies but was turning gray by noon.

Looking out our cabin window.

Our private deck. 😉

No wind, no crowds!

When we got cold, we went up the two decks to the Lido buffet to get something warm to drink and saw Kent and Laurel just eating breakfast. We sat with them while they finished.

Sufficiently warm, we went back outside...this time to the deck above the bow as we sailed through Paradise Harbor. I took my new GoPro camera to try and do a time lapse video.  The ship was going so slowly I didn't want to babysit the camera for the length of time it would take to get any decent video but I did play around with it. At some point I will probably put together a video of Antarctica for YouTube and can use what little footage I did get.

A still shot taken from my GoPro video. I'm sorry I didn't use this camera more on the cruise.

A whale waving his tail around...strange behavior according to the expedition guide.

A large group of penguins just floating on the water...and then all at once they were gone!

See those tiny specks on the ice?

It is a penguin party!

Close up of previous photo.

The ship passed by the Chilean research station which was covered with penguins on a small outcropping of rock where the station was built.

Chilean research center from a distance.

We remained outside until about 12:15 and then dropped our coats in the cabin and went for a quick lunch. At 1:00 we were in the theater for the first of two presentations the Palmer crew was giving. (The same presentation would be repeated later in the afternoon.)

After a bit of a rest in our room, I turned on the TV and could hear the commentary from the bridge. We returned to the back of Deck 6 and just a couple of other people were there. They were concerned about a small bird that was trapped at the bottom of the crew-only stairway leading down to Deck 5. The expedition guides had instructed anyone finding a bird to call and report it (which they had) but in the hour or so we were there no one came to check on the bird. The poor thing seemed to be in distress and looked injured.

While we were out the ship passed by the Lockroy Research Station which consisted of a couple of huts and a research boat. Several whales were visible in the distance and a group of penguins swam by.

Kent had gone inside and gotten involved in working a 3000 piece puzzle with others in the library and didn't join us outside. By afternoon, heavy fog was rolling in so with nothing to see, we went to dinner in the dining room. (Although we did have a nice view of the fog from our table. 😏)

We did have a birds eye view when the zodiac came to pick up the crew from the Palmer station. We also saw a couple of giant icebergs and a few whales so I won't complain. As we were eating dessert it began to snow. A lady at the table next to ours got so excited because she had never seen snow fall! Their whole table began singing "Let it Snow, Let it Snow, Let it Snow!" Even our assistant waiter grabbed his phone and began taking videos out the window. After we finished we walked up to the aft pool to get some photos and could hear the captain blowing the fog horn repeatedly.

Bob and Kent went to the evening entertainment in the main theater...Brett Cave with a show that "blends Elton John & Billy Joel's high energy". Laurel and decided to have an early evening and just went back to our cabins.