Friday, 8 July (Part III)
What a morning we had in Woodfjorden. First a Blue Whale sighting (post here). Then bears on the ice, which we got to watch from a zodiac, our mobile sightseeing platform (post here). And all of this in a breathtakingly beautiful setting of ice and water rimmed with jagged mountains still wearing a light mantle of snow and ice. That we had spectacular weather didn’t hurt either — blue skies, sunshine, and temps rising to 45.3F (7.4C).
What more could we ask for? How about a minke whale surfacing right outside the window of our suite when we returned to the cabin to drop off our zodiac life vests. Even though my camera was not handy to document this close encounter, the image of the whale coming to the surface and slowly diving back into the water is forever ingrained in the gray matter that is my brain.
You want more ways to improve our morning? How about a cruise through the ice as Silver Explorer repositioned into Liefdefjorden, which branches off from Woodfjorden. And to make that experience even better — how about watching Silver Explorer’s progress from the bow of the ship. Not from Deck 6, but from a lower vantage point that had been off limits to passengers.
On our Antarctic voyage, the bow had been accessible at all times — except when Professor Molchanov was dropping anchor or otherwise preparing for zodiac operations. I’d missed having that access on Silver Explorer until this point in our voyage.
Looking down from Deck 6 to deck 4.
Looking up from Deck 4 to Decks 5 and 6.
What a great experience the ice cruise was. Being on a lower deck allowed us to see the ice cracking as the ship slowly and ever-carefully pushed it’s way through. As well, we could clearly hear the distinct thuds, and bangs, and clangs as the ice met the hull before parting to allow us passage. Oh the joys of having a 1A ice rating!
I’ll share some photos, but first a short clip of our cruise through the white stuff. I took the footage with the video feature of my Canon G-12; not bad, if I do say so myself. (Thanks go to Mui for putting it all together for me.)
[click the arrow to start the video clip]
And now for the still images … I have to tell you, it was hard to pare down to a reasonable number to put on the blog.
Glaucous Gulls
If you’ve been reading along for a while, you know I love photographing reflections. Well, during this ice cruise I had a lot of opportunities to double my viewing pleasure.
Hint of a reflection.
Glaucous Gull
And when reflections and bergy bits come together ... well, I'm in ice heaven!It's not always water that mirrors back an image. yes, that’s me with the camera!
Oh what a beautiful morning,
Oh what a beautiful day,
I’ve got a wonderful feeling,
Everything’s going my way!
Oh, yeah! I felt like breaking out in that Rodgers and Hammerstein song. But in consideration of my fellow passengers’ auditory senses, I restrained myself and just hummed the music to myself instead.
spectacular!!..nuff said!.. :)
ReplyDeleteWonderful shots from fellow Smuggers! Great job!
ReplyDeleteLet me just say, I was NOT having this much fun on 8 July ;)
ReplyDeleteIf every wonderful memory can affix a special room to the Castle in our mind, this day was a Great Hall. A very Great Hall indeed.
Yansıtmalı fotolardan özellikle 5.'si çok hoşuma gitti...gözüne, eline sağlık. Eniştemin videosuna da bayıldım, geminin sudaki gölgesi adeta hayalet gemi gibi, o’nun da eline gözüne sağlık. -- SIS
ReplyDelete(Translation of the comment: "Of the reflection photos, I particularly liked the 5th one... health to your eyes and hands. I loved BIL's video too, the shadow of the ship is like a ghost ship; health to his hands and eyes too.")