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The Melchior Islands are a small gathering near the eastern edge of the Drake Passage. As our final outing, the Melchior cruise was a perfect finale to our Antarctic journey.

Seal of Approval January 11, 2004

Ttrealtravels
2005-12-24 23:42:58

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The Melchior Islands are a small gathering near the eastern edge of the Drake Passage. As our final outing, the Melchior cruise was a perfect finale to our Antarctic journey.

Ship's historian Ian was our zodiac driver, and he gave us another wild ride. First we visited Weddell City -- an icy tract with a dozen Weddell seals in residence. Mostly the seals didn't care about us noisy humans clicking our cameras at them. But one seal decided to take our leave, then stuck her nose out at us from underwater.

In the main channel, we drove between two flat bergs, each topped with a different type of seal. One had a Leopard seal with dinosaur smile; the other had a silvery recumbent Crab-Eater seal.

Blue Crush

Further on, Ian drove right up on top of an iceberg. Well, it was a U-shaped berg, and he drove over the submerged middle part. It was splendid, all that radiant turquoise blue, like that fake blue painted on the bottom of swimming pools, but real. At the edges of the berg, near the old tide lines from before it flipped over, you could see the most marvelous light. The ice glowed neon blue from inside, like a Vegas trick. The pockmarked surface showed that what was now above water had recently been under. We got close enough to touch it and feel the icy, melting roughness.

The Secret Iceberg

In an open bay between the islands, we spied a large tabular iceberg. These are the flat-topped bergs that broke off glaciers all in one, giant chunk. In the distance it towered like a squared, six-story building -- some modern, opaque-glass construction, solid and austere. But as the zodiac rounded the corner, we discovered that the dense table had a giant scoop taken out of it. The berg wasn't a block at all! It was a thin, exquisite cove inside a square box. A sweep of crisp, blue ice made a narrow beach inside, ...