Cuverville Island, Antarctica Strolling in sunlight along the shores of the Beagle Channel, amid the knotted lenga forests, we tried to piece together what we had just witnessed. A great, white silence. A howling maelstrom. The barren scowl of rock and ice. Ice as blue as summer sky. The night lit by one million stars. The albatross, the petrel and the sheathbill. Giant whales passing beneath our boat, turning and dancing in the water. A team of crabeater seals twenty strong rushing to greet our Zodiac. The sea raging at the mouth of a sunken volcano. Whaling huts just visible in the blizzards of Deception Island. Elephant seals bellowing in their wallow. Vast glaciers calving into a glassy sea. Ice thundering and falling in the bay around us as we lay in our graves at night. Gentoo penguins porpoising through the water at Cuverville. Gentoo penguins stealing each other's stones to make good their nests. Gentoo penguins crying out as skuas prowled for chicks. Ukrainian moonshine at Vernadsky station. Cans of food rusting on the shelves at Base W. The bones of a blue whale laid to rest just so on the rocks. Curious humpbacks skyhopping near our vessel. Majestic light on the Southern Ocean. Sights that no longer seem real. Sights we will never forget.
