After a spectacular time walking on the fast ice last night we all needed a relaxing start this morning. After a hearty breakfast, expedition staff member Mary-Lou gave an interesting presentation entitled: “The Many Dimensions of Ice.” She educated us on the many ice formations we have been seeing during the expedition and what changes have occurred over the past few decades to Antarctica’s glaciers.
Later in the morning the photographic team took the stage and gave us another fascinating lecture on how to best use our cameras to capture this remarkable landscape and the plethora of animals that we have been encountering every day. After the presentation, we broke out into small groups for an friendly hands-on session so we could learn more about the pros tricks and tips to capturing that perfect photograph.
In the afternoon our captain anchored the ship near Galindez Island, a small island in the Argentine Islands group. We headed ashore in the Zodiacs to visit a Ukrainian research base, called Vernadsky (Академік Вернадський) named after the Soviet mineralogist Vladimir Vernadsky.
The active research base has twelve permanent residents and conducts scientific studies in many diverse areas, such as meteorology, upper atmospheric physics, geomagnetism, ozone, seismology, glaciology, ecology, biology, and physiology.
The highlight of our stop had to be our visit to the station’s bar, which served us a locally brewed alcoholic beverage that had a close resemblance to sweet vodka, but created with a powerful concoction of honey, almonds, and sugar.
Before we returned to the ship we went for a short Zodiac cruise around the island and were lucky enough to encounter some crab eater seals hauled up on the fast ice surrounding the island. They graciously posed for our cameras in between their fishing expeditions in sheltered harbor.
