Day Three February 17

Day One was the most awe-inspiring but Day Three was the most exciting. We entered a wide channel on our planned course and found that we couldn’t make it through because of the drifting ice. We were in contact with a Russian ship that was trying to get through from the other side and not succeeding. We tried for almost an hour to find a way through but the captain and our ice pilot deemed it too dangerous to proceed so we had to turn around and go in the opposite direction. So we didn’t get to see several places that were on our itinerary but our silver lining was a large whale and a lot of huge icebergs that were so amazing that people were running out of the dining room to see them. The biggest of all was estimated to be one mile wide, 100 feet above the water, about 600 feet under the water and millions of tons in weight. It was called a tabular iceberg because it was completely flat on the top as if it had just sheared off from the side of a mountain. It was breathtaking and a wonderful end to our Antarctic Experience.