Antarctic Peninsula landing and snorkel - Curtis Bay

It's 27 December at 8pm when we set off to do our first step onto the Antarctic Peninsula, and follow it up with a snorkel. As you know, we've already enjoyed some landings on the Antarcic continent, but yet to touch soil on the peninsula itself.

It's tricky. There's not many options for landings where we are so they've found a very small spot where you can set foot on land, and we're going 1 or 2 zodiacs at a time for maybe 10 minutes each. Of course, it's unbelievably beautiful with all the majestic mountains and icebergs, and contrasts of pristine snow, stark rock, the crystal waters and sublime lighting at this time of the day. 

We're excited about our snorkel and anxious to try out the tips to prolong our comfort in the 2 degrees water temp. Ana has brought some lube for our hands and we've all brought warm water to pour into our gloves. It works!

Where my hands were hurting to the point of distraction within the first 10 minutes of the test snorkel, they don't get there until the very end of about 35 minutes for this one. Stoked. I'm now loving my in water experience. It's possible that the slight difference between the 1 degree temp on the test snorkel, and 2 degrees today also has an impact. 

For this snorkel it's mostly about the atmosphere and the surrounds. The landscape is extraordinary, and we're bobbing around among giant ice cubes like we've dived into a massive vodka on the rocks.

 We're in a gorgeous, sheltered bay at 100m depth. We're ecstatic to be exploring what Antarctica looks like under the water. It adds to the thrill that this is a new spot the Aurora snorkel crew have not explored.

looking down the rock wall into the 100m depths