Day 18 – Recess Cove, Antarctica

First off, Happy New Year – may you notice God’s presence each day of 2026!

I feel like an explorer. After 17 days, we finally set foot on the continent of Antarctica.

The snow was very deep and so the expedition team only packed out a fairly small loop for us to walk. At the tip of the peninsula, there were a few weddell seals lounging on the snow.

In the afternoon, we took a Special Operation Boat around the cove. There were many humpback whales feeding in the cove, so we had lots of opportunity to capture whale tails. We even had one or two go under our boat.

Anyone ever seen a deep-sea worm? Well, now you have.

Late in the day, we had some beautiful views from the ship as the sun made an appearance.

I thought I had seen the beauty of this place, until the captain pulled the ship into a harbor about 10 pm and my breath was absolutely taken away. What a magnificent place God created here! We were so blessed to be able to see it. These pictures do not do it justice.

If you are curious about sunrise and sunset…sunset last night was at 11:52 pm and the sunrise today was 2:34 am.