Fish Islands (-66.0144679, -65.3534992) - includes Salmon Island, Trout Island etc.

We are well on our way northwards once more after crossing through The Gullet overnight, also known as the shortcut from Marguerite Bay to all points northwards. We seemed to be coveirng huge distances. Around mid-morning the Captain came over the PA advising all passengers to come to the bow if at all possible for a particularly beautiful iceberg - the ship would be stopping so the drone could be launched and used to capture the moment. Now we've seen some pretty beautiful icebergs on the trip from tiddlers to enormous and every colour from white through grey through every shade of ice blue imaginable. But when the captain says… Well we headed up to the bow and Wow! We know, we know - it's the world's most overused exclamation and first equal with 'Amazing!' on this trip. It was stunning and we took so many photos from different angles as the ship gently passed by. It was one of the many, many highlights of the expedition.

We had lunch and rather entertainingly saw penguins sitting on a different berg as we sailed past. Then, just when it seemed impossible to beat the morning, we came to a gentle stop at Fish Island with a massive (huge! ginormous!) iceberg right in front of us. The water was mirror like and the wind was non-existent. The weather and water was in such a good state that they sent the kayakers out. We headed out in the stunning conditions for some ice cruising in the zodiac. It was great - always enjoyable and no risk of getting wet which was nice. We saw a colony of Adelie penguins for the first time, some with chicks (awwwww…) but couldn't get too close. Our skipper didn't want to get iced in as it was forming in our wake - so we also didn't go into some really icy areas. We were pretty much sticking with our buddy zodiac. Then, on the way back to the ship, I (yes me! with the glasses and the ski goggles on top) spotted 3 rocks on an iceberg a bit out of the way. I said "are they seals or rocks?"and off we went to investigate. Truly - one of the most magical of many magical and surreal moments of the expedition. They were in fact 3 gorgeous, smiley Crabeater seals, having a stretch and enjoying the sunshine. We came right up to their berg and snapped away like our lives depended on it. Possibly the best and most stunning memories of the trip - particularly with the ship and the ginormous berg in the immediate background. Lucky, lucky, lucky. A great many people saw that photo and we were on such a high from our up close and personal Crabeater encounter.