Antarctica had already stolen our hearts and it was safe to say we were very excited to be waking up to ice. And we were extremely excited to also be waking up to SUN.

That’s right my friends – it was a sunny day in Antartica – we put on our ski gear and our sunnies and hit the deck, pina colada in hand (well… actually hot coffee and tea… And not on deck because that would be breaking the Antarctic treaty…)

Our morning was spent sailing through Paradise Harbour – a wide embayment behind Lemaire and Bryde Islands in Antarctica – the name was first applied by whalers operating in the vicinity and was in use by 1920.

Seeing this magnificent landscape in the sun made Antarctica even more spectacular than we had first thought – which hardly seemed possible.

There was not a breath of wind and our ship smoothly sailed through the smooth, calm sea. With each small wave we would spot more whales, seals and penguins – each moving so gracefully through the perfectly calm waters.

Bright blue icebergs floated by revealing the most stunning contrasts of textures and colours. Some of these chunks of ice would have been sitting on he continent for thousands of years before breaking into the small chunks – only a tenth of which we could really see.

It was all perfect. It was everything we had hoped for plus more.

That afternoon we headed to Cuvehrville Island, where we spotted a huge penguin colony – being visited by some red tourists from a ship I was destined to board only a month later.

Cuvehrville is a dark, rocky island lying in Errera Channel between Arctowski Peninsula and the northern part of Rongé Island, off the west coast of Graham Land in Antarctica. It was discovered by the Belgian Antarctic Expedition (1897–1899) under Adrien de Gerlache, who named it for J.M.A. Cavelier de Cuverville (1834–1912), a vice admiral of the French Navy.

The day had become a bit more grey but as the sun set through the haze the most beautiful strokes of pink lit up the sky and our day ended as it had started. In complete beauty.