Antarctica, Antarctica - Polarsteps

We decided to put an alarm every morning for the entire trip for sunrise 🌅. We started doing this when we were on the Drake Passage and it immediately paid off. We saw tons of humpback whales and even a larger fin whale from the upper deck of the ship🐋. Together with our friends we decided to wake up for sunrise (05:30) whenever the weather is clear. If it's not, we turn around again😴. Sometimes we hope for the latter, however today there was no way we would stay in bed. Just the perfect perfect weather!!🌞 And such beautiful views! Wind did not exist, which causes ice to form so-called 🥞🍨(pancake ice if you not get the riddle) overnight. We almost had a collision with some sleeping seals on an iceberg. After some grumpy waving they went back to sleep, thank goodness. After breakfast we explored the area in our Zodiac's with our wonderful guide Ema!🚤 The expedition team told us to take every picture you can, this weather is an 11 out of 10 and might change quickly. So we did! 📸 As well as the weather: in the afternoon the wind picked up and at one point was blowing with the insane speed of 100 knots (180 km/h)🌬️. This was caused by so called katabatic winds, which are an unique Antarctic phenomenon. There was no way to have another exploring on the water. Even higher waves🌊 were crashing in on the ship compared to the Drake and the expedition team was forced to reschedule the program into lectures and a nautical (k)not workshop🪢. None the less, we were still enjoying the views. The rough sea caused terrific waves which were really amazing to see, although we were happy to view them from behind the windows and played some games together 🃏.

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Antarctica