It is STILL our first day actually in Antarctica, and we’re not done yet. Around 9pm, we were approaching the Lemaire Channel, a narrow channel that’s 7 miles long and a little less than a mile wide at its narrowest point.

Everyone was outside on the decks, cameras in hand, as we approached the entrance. The entrance is between those two mountains in the photo below.







It was sailing through here that we saw a huge chunk of glacier calve, falling into the water.





At some point, the Quark team brought out hot chocolate with Bailey’s for everyone, but I didn’t get any photos of that.


And then the most incredible part–a minke whale breaching, which, according to Jimmy the whale guy, is extremely rare.


And then he did it a second time!


Icebergs were like clouds, in that you could always see shapes & objects in them. I thought this one looked like a soft-serve ice cream cone.







It took about an hour or so to sail the whole length of the channel, and by the end the light was fading.




Around 10pm I went inside the ship and spent some time downloading my memory cards from the day. I couldn’t believe that we’d been there just one day so far…we’d already done and seen so much. It felt like much longer. (And I was, by the way, really, really tired.) Totally epic first day.

Next up in the morning…crossing the Antarctic Circle.