First of all a Ross Seal decides to interrupt our lunch - it's such a rare sighting that the captain very kindly and adeptly manoevers the boat for the best position at a really close range (for a 400mm lens that is!). To put the rareness of this sighting into perspective - Sue Flood, our expedition photographer, says that in 35 years of working in the Antarctic, her husband (film-maker Doug Allen) has never seen even one Ross Seal, and now we've seen two!
“We will be starting with Zodiac groups 3,4 and 5. When they get back, it will be groups 6,7 and 8, then 9, 1 and 2. I cannot guarantee that we will be able to get you all to shore safely, and if conditions change, we will have to stop the zodiacs” said Shane, rather prophetically as it turned out. This time luck was with me - I was in Zodiac group 5, the last Zodiac of the first group of 5, heading out to Peter 1 Oy (or island), a very remote peri-Antarctic island, some 450km from the mainland on the rarely visited est coast of Antarctica.
