Cruising the Errera Channel by Zodiac

After lunch, our expedition leader Julio made the call to scratch our intended location for a different excursion that would take advantage of the calm water and nice weather we were experiencing. We headed out in Zodiacs to explore the Errera Channel. We saw seals, penguins, and many beautiful ice sculptures. The three most interesting things we saw:
1. We saw an iceberg that looked like bubble wrap. We touched it and it “crackled” under our fingers.


2. We saw a chunk of turquoise ice underwater with four interesting thin sculptures jutting above the water. Lauren started to comment that the four looked precarious, one of them crashed over into the ocean. We teased our Zodiac driver Scott that we’d like for him to detonate small bombs at future strategic moments of our Zodiac excursion.
3. We saw a chunk of black ice, so Scott reached in to bring it aboard. We brought it back to the ship and the staff used it in the drinks tonight at the bar. It’s crystal clear (versus black) now that it’s out of the water.


We also saw a crabeater seal, so cute:


Here is the scoop on icebergs: snow falls over decades on Antarctica and the surrounding islands. It gets packed and packed with the weight of new snow until it is compressed into solid sheets of ice, called glacier ice. Some of the glacier ice forms ice rivers, which is glacier ice that flows over time as new snow is compressed into solid ice. Eventually, some of this glacier ice breaks off and falls into the ocean to create icebergs. The icebergs are freshwater (frozen) while the ocean is saltwater. Over time, the water erodes the ice to create unique shapes.











After dinner, Alan played us some songs on a guitar (there is supposed to be a musician on our trip, but he got sick or hurt himself and couldn’t make it). That was a lot of fun – he started out in the gift shop and eventually took us up to the bar, singing and playing Pink Floyd, Tom Petty, and other rock songs for sing-a-long.

Just after 11pm, the ship started rocking and rolling, so I was grateful that I put a new magic patch on this morning rather than waiting. The ship has an open bridge policy, so unless they’re maneuvering through thick ice or a very narrow channel, they always welcome us to come up and watch them work. I never realized how complex it was – they even have differential equations!