Life on-board the Island Sky
7am: Days started with a beautiful wake up ding-dong from the Lead Expedition, so after that it was time for a yummy breakfast either in the dinning room or in the Lido... the later is where you would find me most of times,...
who would want to be indoors while having such a view?
8:30am to noon: Morning sessions would be spend mostly in the ship attending program activities, although some days we would also do some landings, or both! it all depended on the landings that were scheduled but also allowing for changes due to weather... first lesson learned about leading in complexity: BE FLUID my friend!
1:30pm to 5:30pm: Afternoon session. Some times it was program session, as above, others it was the much expected landings or zodiac cruising! After a thorough examination and cleaning of our clothing and material (you can read this post I wrote about this here) we would jump in the zodiacs in groups of 10 and either land in some previously inspected places or simply navigated around with the zodiacs. We were also fortunate to visit the NSF Palmer Station (USA) and Port Lockroy (UK)...
Penguins, sea lions, elephant seals, albatrosses, so much life and breathtaking views! It was a silent world of blue, white and black, so magnificent and yet so fragile!
5:30-7:30pm: Happy Hour time! this was our 'relax' moment, were grabbing a beverage we would attentively listen to our experienced Expedition Crew telling us about Antarctica: about its history, logistics, biology, geology and of course, climate change.... Then there would be a daily meeting to revise some of the events of the day and a brief description on what the next would (in principle) be. After that, we would all go to an amazing dinner in between icebergs, chill in the social lounge for some laughs and stories, and finally, enjoying the midnight 'sunset' and go to sleep....
Each day was just more amazing than the other!
