officer did a magnificent job of steering the ship through these dense fields of ice. There was ice everywhere, not only were there huge tabular icebergs there was a fair amount of broken pack ice that we had to navigate our way around. This we guessed is why the Russians are the best in the world at polar navigation. It was just incredible and we just didn’t think things could get any better, until we heard Troels booming out of the loudspeaker saying that there had been Killer Whales spotted at 10 o’clock from the front of the ship. Just unbelievable!

The Captain and Watch officer changed course and headed towards the pod. There were at least 5 - 8 Orcas moving quickly along the ice edge! This again brought it home to us the advantage of being on a small ship and having a wonderful crew who wanted us to get the best out of the enigma that is Antarctica. It had been and was continuing to be one

of the best days of my life. Life didn’t get much better than this. Sea mammals seem to be very curious and we had one Orca head over to the ship and check us out. I managed to get a fantastic photo of one of these superb looking dolphins swimming gracefully through the water. Everyone was left stunned as to how Troels had managed to spot them in the first place, although we did suspect it could have been the Watch Officer or Captain who spotted them first! It didn’t matter who spotted them though, it was just out of this world and something we will never forget! Just before the ship was put back on course we headed over to a large iceberg as Mike thought he’d spotted a Leopard Seal but it turned out it was only a Weddell Seal! How seal complacent we were all becoming!!

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