In the early morning the ship anchored at Port Lockroy, Goudier Island, the rebuilt and refurbished British Antarctic Survey base dating from the days of Operation Taberin in 1944. This is now one of the most popular landing sites on the Peninsula. The day was overcast with a cold wind from the southwest.
While half the guests visited the well-stocked post office and shop, the base was very popular with its profits going towards the Antarctic Heritage Trust’s fund to conserve the numerous monuments and buildings on the Peninsula.
The remainder of our guests landed at Jougala Point to see the scattering of massive whale bones from the Bay’s history as a whaling station in the early 1900’s.
We headed north up the Neumayer Channel with occasional glimpses of flanks of beautiful Mount Francais to the west side and the spectacular peaks of Wiencke Island to the east, the highest mountain on Anvers Island.
The weather gradually cleared to a perfect afternoon for Zodiac cruising in Lapavrere Bay between Anvers Island and Brabant Island. Leopards and crabeaters were basking in the bergy bits.
After a brief cruise the brave and foolhardy leapt into the sea for a polar plunge with the full support by the more sensible members or the party. Our brave leader and his assistant, overcome obviously by the fun the others were, having went in for a swim as well, fully clad. Why not? It was a beautiful day!
