Our Captain is renowned for anchoring in Paradise Bay, as close to the Petzval Glacier at Scorntop Cove, as safely as possible,
and he did us proud! We all came out from lunch to find the most stunning scenery so far during the trip, enclosed in the bay & not alone.
A small sailing boat was already moored up, and was later to be joined by another.

Although the weather wasn't very good, with drizzling rain in the air, all five Zodiacs were taken out by the expedition leaders,
and we were to find out that this was actually ideal weather for a calving. Monika was very keen to see a glacier slip, hoping the
resulting wave would reach the Grigory Mikheev & wake the Captain! She explained to her entire English speaking Zodiac passengers
that the rain water soaked into the Glacier face & could cause a break. She asked us all to concentrate & see what we could do.

After a tour round the bay edge, and spotting an almost albino penguin, she decided nothing was going to happen, so we went off to see the
Crabeater Seals & Leopard Seals spotted earlier on some icebergs. After this we went out to a nesting colony of Cormorants, high on the cliff
faces, and then back to the bay. Another trip around the perimeter culminated with a 30 metre high Glacier face crashing into the water,
with an immense splash, large blue iceberg bobbing up & then a wave rising in our direction! Some very swift & skillful manoeuvring by
Monkia got us out of the way!

After all that excitement, we returned to the Grigory Mikheev to find that Phil & the crew had setup an enormous BBQ on the rear deck
and Peter & Renso had baked a birthday cake for Emi, one of the Japanese guests. She was so overwhelmed, she burst into tears, and the
poor guys were very embarrassed.
As the party moved off to the bar, a few of us stayed huddled round the warmth of the BBQ & then had the bright idea of toasting marshmallows!
Of course this seemed completely daft, as you can't get them in Antarctica, unless of course you have a hotel manager like Phil!!
(We ensured he was kept supplied with regular forkfuls behind the bar, even if it did mean running the full length of the ship!)