Magical Mystery Tour 65 22.8'S 064 01.9'W 

This morning we heave anchor at 4:30am. The southern cross glittering overhead, and the white tips of the mountains contrasting with the blue of the Antarctic "night" sky. The sunrise is spectacular; streaks of pink light stroke the high cirrus clouds; little by little the beams make their way west as the earth rotates around its axis. The world is lid by a soft glowing pink light radiating from the mountain tips in front of us. 

Today we decide to divert from our original plans and visit an area where we haven't been before: the Barthelot archipelago and it's surrounding water Collins bay. Perfect conditions for a day in the age of exploration: calm ocean and clear skies. After a couple of hours we're deep in the ice; slowly we find our way through brash ice, around icebergs and bergy bits. Measurements are taken with the sextant: the ice towers to heights of 58meters. The depth sounder reads somewhere around 200m, these giants are stuck on the ocean floor.

After some hours of pushing south; we can't go any further. We manoeuvred into a quiet pool and now are surrounded by bergs on one side and the glacier front on the other. We stop the ship, shut down all engines and just let the scenery sink in, the peaceful slow movement of the ice on the ocean swell, sunlight reflecting on melting surfaces, the crispy air set free from air-pockets in the ice after thousands of encapsulated years. The rumble of the 10 mile wide glacier calving in the background.
All hands on deck, all beaming, this is the stuff that dreams are made of.