A rare thing…

It´s a rare thing when you have just experienced a day you feel that neither pictures nor film and not even words can do justice. That´s how I would describe the past two days; today tops both of them. There is a communal feeling on board that what we´re experiencing right now will rarely be topped in our lives and if so, it will be by the like of weddings, births, and graduations.

After another impressive breakfast, we were briefed on which groups we would be placed in to for the next two nights. This evening as I type, half of the group is out camping on the Antarctic continent and another is relaxing and winding down onboard the MV Ushuaia. Roles will be reversed tomorrow evening. After learning our respective tours of duty for the next 48 hours, we geared up for a landing at Charlotte´s Bay.

Cruising to shore in our zodiacs between icebergs and endless sea ice, we landed in a true ice world where shades of white and blue were the only colours available to the eye. All climbed a single carved out switchback line to the crest of a mountain, as we settled down, mesmerized by our surroundings, to listen to another great lecture from Nic on the importance of trust in all aspects of our lives. About 15 minutes into our lecture, however, he was interrupted by a loud, thundering roar. Heads turned in all directions in excitement and confusion, as we tried to figure out exactly what was going on. Then all eyes landed on the largest iceberg in sight as a massive portion of it crashed into the ocean. And it didn´t stop there. It continued to implode into itself, collapsing into the ocean and creating enormous waves resonating and rocking our ship anchored no more than 100 meters away. We sat in awe with many ooo´s and ahh´s accompanied by cries of “It´s going to flip!” Minutes passed and a much flatter and wider version of the iceberg remained, as the released freshwater from the iceberg quickly transforming into a layer of ice. With the entire team from students to experienced guides in shock from what they had just seen, we all realized we had just witnessed a truly, truly rare and amazing event. I overheard Robert, himself, say later in the evening that even he had never seen anything like “that” before…

The lecture and landing ended by sliding down the same steep hill we climbed up initially. This, of course, eventually lead to a contest to see who could slide the farthest, as Jumper continuously yelled, “legs up, elbows in, legs up!!” A highlight was when one of our guides, Trond, impressed us all with a face-first, beautiful swan dive slide of sorts, ice-axe in hand in true Norwegian fashion.

After refuelling with a late lunch, we heard part three of Robert´s story involving the yacht 2041, its past expeditions, and future plans to launch her on April 7th for the “Voyage for Cleaner Energy”. Our Norwegians also prepared us for the big nights of camping ahead, stressing, “Layers, layers, layers… layers, layers layers.” -6 degrees Celsius can´t be that bad, right? Covering all bases, Knut also covered all bathroom procedures for both the men and women. While I´ll spare you the detail, if you can imagine the procedures necessary for the “Leave nothing behind” mentality, it makes for quite a humorous topic.

Later on in afternoon, Jumper on the intercom beckons us: “All hands on deck, orcas are on the starboard side of the ship. You do not want to miss this, people! GET ON THE DECK NOW!” And there we saw yet another very rare sight; a group of orcas lead by a male graced our ship´s presence as they moved slowly from starboard to port side. At dinner, half of the group was packed and ready to leave in just minutes to land for the night, while the rest of us relaxed with a nice plate of lasagne in front of us, sensing a mixture of nervousness and excitement in the air. The half that will camp tomorrow stayed behind and went to visit a penguin rookery at the British Base Fort Lockroy, capping the night with individual talks with Robert.

Tomorrow promises to be another interesting, likely indescribable day, as we are all eager to hear back from the rest of our crew and tales of how the night went.