zodiac around allowing everyone to get as close as possible to this magnificent looking seal. The Leopard seal must have swam around our zodiac for a good 5-10 minutes before we moved on and let the other zodiacs have a look. This was really magical and the water was so clear you could still see the shape of the seal from afar. Once we all moved on we saw a Fur seal sleeping on a beach and a few Weddell seals hauled out on some nearby snow. Further around the bay we saw a fabulous iceberg that had a very grand archway. The blue hues were incredible and it certainly was an amazing sight.

After all of this excitement and with the cold starting to bite it was time to head home, our two hours had flown and now it was time to head back to the ship. It was here that Sergey our Gucci clad driver became known and will forever be remembered as Speedy! Once in the open waters he let rip with the engine

and had the zodiac flying and crashing through the waves at a remarkable rate of knots! Of course both myself and Rob relished in his love for speed and thoroughly enjoyed our zodiac ride back. I’m not sure the older members of our party enjoyed it so much but tough luck, we’d had the best zodiac ride of the trip so far and it was a great buzz! On reaching the ship we clocked Speedy with a massive grin from ear to ear, we both guessed that our Speedy had enjoyed himself as much as we had and from now on we would always try and get in a zodiac with him!

Another remarkable thing happened when we reached the ship, the blanket of fog returned right on cue. As soon as the last zodiac returned the fog engulfed Astrolabe Island once again. The weather gods were certainly looking after us. You couldn’t have timed it better and we had a super excited Troels telling us how incredibly lucky we all