Through the Amundsen Sea to the Ross Sea

The Amundsen Sea is adjacent to the Bellingshausen Sea and is where we continued westward. Initially, we had quite good weather here (calm winds and - especially in the morning hours - a mirror-smooth sea), and we took advantage of it to get close to the pack ice and explore it with the Zodiacs. We saw a variety of (crabeater) seals, an Adelie penguin (which was walking among a group of seals), and a leopard seal (which is also a type of seal) that was kind enough to yawn for us on camera. This tour was once again a great excursion, as we got very close to the animals (e.g. 3m distance), and with the engine turned off, we could hear the sleeping and breathing sounds of the seals. And of course, there were some beautiful icebergs on top of that.

Otherwise, we were making good progress westward within our capabilities. Every now and then, we saw whales again (orcas, minke whales, humpback whales), and the evening view provided some excitement. Windy.com gave us some insight into how our well-being could develop (so far, we have not had really bad weather), and an ice map based on NASA satellite photos showed us that (a) there was still a lot of ice on our way (and we keep hearing: 'The fastest way through the ice is around the outside'), but (b) a fairly narrow ice-free passage to the Antarctic mainland seemed to be opening up. If it held and the wind, waves, and visibility allowed it, we could significantly shorten our travel distance and have more time for landings, Zodiac tours, helicopter excursions, etc...