They had pretty well blocked us from getting into the traditional anchorage with both stern and bow lines but we dropped the two anchors in tandem in 17 meters of water and backed quite close to shore in 10 metres with two stern lines.  There are no strong winds in the offing so we will be fine.

En route we actually had a few minutes of broken sunshine which totally transforms everything you see. As we approached Pleneau, behind Hovgaard Island in uncharted waters, through a route recommended by Pelagic’s skipper we encountered several humpback whales.  This time we got fairly close and all got the obligatory tail shot.  Nik and Paulo got some film footage as well.

19:00

A fourth yacht appeared this evening but anchored in a different bay. We can only see the tip of his mast.  We tramped ashore for a bit and saw several seals.  The fur seals were awake and honking but the leopard seal was sleeping off a big meal; he was actually snoring.  In the dinghy, we approached a small iceberg where the French film crew were filming a pair of leopard seals.  One was quite aggressive and went for their dinghy which has a protective covering.  The crew were unperturbed and carried on filming. The seal eventually got bored attacking and went back to his berg but it took him several goes to haul his big mass out of the water.  On the way to the iceberg in the dinghy we saw several dangerous rocks in the water which we had missed with Spindrift on the way in and need to miss on the way out.

21/2/04 9:00AM

Another grey morning with the odd snow flurry.   Our fantasy of a bit of sun here isn’t going to be realized.  It is beautiful here in Pleneau even in the grey but in the sun it would be truly amazing.

Attached photos include:

Snow on the windscreen (Nik)

Pelagic waiting for our parking spot

Vistas  leaving Vernadsky

Lamaire Channel Entrance

Whale tail