The plan for this day was to start with picking up the campers from the previous night (the ship had moved to a position to be out of their sight), then sail through the Lemaire Channel before heading to Damoy Point. The channel was between Booth Island, which was just north of our position at Hovgaard Island, and the mainland, and is just 1600m across at its narrowest.

Damoy Point was further north, halfway back to Orne Harbor, almost. The landing site, Dorian Bay, is near old British and Argentine huts. According to the expedition team, the British hut was built first and, given the history between the two countries, the Argentinians decided to build theirs real close by to keep an eye on them. There was also the possibility of seeing Gentoos, terns, and maybe seals. Those who were picked for snowshoeing got their chance here.

It was lightly snowing when I woke up. I didn’t lock my door overnight (to make less squeaky noise if I wanted to go outside) and at about 7:40a, there was a whale so close to the ship that I heard it blow from bed. I opened the door and ran onto my balcony but all I could see was the ripples of where it had been. It sadly didn’t resurface on this side of the ship. (My father referred to this as ‘a picture of a hole in the water filled with water’).

My impromptu German immersion lessons were going well; I was in the shower when the morning announcements were made in English (couldn’t hear a thing), but I was able to pick out some details from the German version that followed. We would be at Lemaire at 9a and the temperatures (air and water, I later found out) were 1 and 0 C.

At about 8:50a, I geared up (thermal pants, t-shirt, fleece jacket, Hurtigruten jacket, thin gloves, hat, and buff) and headed for the observation area on Deck 7. I snapped a few pictures from here, but as the ship started moving, it got more and more crowded. I decided that shots from Deck 11 would be better since it would hopefully be less crowded and I’d be able to capture the front of the ship in the pictures.

If you’re having trouble spotting the channel in the above picture, don’t worry, so was I. It’s right in the middle of the third image; there’s actually a narrow gap between those mountains. Sailing through the channel was absolutely incredible…

Eventually, I got tired of being pelted in the eyes with sleet, so headed back inside. We were almost to the end of the channel at that point anyway. Once the ship was back out in open water, it started snowing even more.

At about 11a, an announcement was made that although we were not visiting Port Lockroy (all Antarctic bases were closed to visitors this year to prevent the spread of COVID), the crew was able to take postcards there for mailing from the Penguin Post Office. The cards had to be brought to the reception desk and the mail service was 3 Euros per card, charged to our ship accounts. I’d bought cards back in Ushuaia since we’d been warned the ship had none in stock. The crew was going the extra mile for us – when they dropped off completed cards to be mailed, they would also pick up blank cards that passengers who didn’t buy anything in Ushuaia could purchase, and then they’d drop them back off at Port Lockroy the next time they were in the area to be mailed.

Just before 11:30a, there was a much less exciting announcement. The Captain told us there were 2 positive COVID cases onboard. He recommended that we wear masks, avoid touching our faces, and wash our hands often. It was good to know that Hurtigruten did have a policy of informing guests of cases instead of letting everyone assume things were all fine. 

Lunch was in Fredheim; I’d skipped breakfast in order to see the Channel (which was totally the right call) so I was hungry. The pork steam buns were pretty good, though messy. I resisted getting another delicious hazelnut crepe.

The ship arrived at Damoy Point while we were eating. We were there sooner than expected, so the afternoon activities would either be on time or a bit early. The Minke Whales weren’t scheduled to land until 3:25p. Not only did they rotate the order of the four animal groups each day, they also rotated the order of the subgroups within each animal group.

The Orcas, first subgroup of the Whales for the day, were called just before 3p instead of the expected 3:15p, which caused a lot of confusion because they weren’t ready for it and many weren’t listening. The Humpbacks were called soon after. Most of the Minkes were proactive and started congregating on Deck 3 waiting to be called… and waiting… and waiting… They started loading us onto boats since we were there and spots were available, but then we confused the crew in the tender pit because they couldn’t keep track of whether Minkes had been called or not. Oops!

The path to the shore took the zodiacs through a shallow part of the harbor along a massive ice wall. The boat driver pulled the propeller higher and higher as we went so it wouldn’t scrape bottom. For the last few feet to shore, the zodiacs became ‘hybrids’ – the propeller was totally out of the water and a few members of the expedition team pulled the bow of the boat into the shallows.

This was my favorite experience getting out of the zodiac by far. We had to sit on the side, pull our legs over and then hop down into the water. No walking straight off onto rocks at Damoy Point! It felt like what you would do on a “real” expedition.

After everyone was ashore, we got a briefing on where to go, grabbed hiking poles, and headed up the steps that had been cut into the snow. We could go investigate the British and Argentine huts, or hike a loop to see penguins. We decided to start with the latter since there was already a big group by the huts. We looked at those on the way back.

Every time we were halfway through a hike, we’d ask ourselves, “Why are we dragging ourselves up a hill through the snow again?” And then we find the penguins and/or the view at the top and go, “Oh, yeah, that’s why.” 😊 If the snow at Orne was like a snow cone, the snow at Damoy was a slushie. Even the beaten path would sometimes give way and you’d be thigh deep in snow. (Very shortly after the picture of me hiking was taken, I sunk in.)

Back aboard the ship, we had a bit of time to get out of landing clothes and sort through pictures before dinner at Aune. The weather, of course, got prettier, too.

Apparently we’d had truly great weather during the week and got through more optional activity groups than anticipated, so they added more groups. My father was selected for the newly created Kayak Group G, though I still didn’t make the science boat. I thought it was pretty awesome of the excursion team to take on the additional work instead of just stopping with the original list.

After leaving Damoy Point around 8:45p, we took a detour north to Bōrgen Bay to see if there were whales about. The ship then continued NE along Neumayer Channel to head toward tomorrow’s destination, Neko Harbor. I randomly woke up at 2a, just in time to indeed see whales.