Day 5  Although who knows? The outdoors change, morning and night but no sense of which day..so which day was it we did a watercolour class? An almost adventure or at least a first. A Teacher and high quality brushes and Windsor and Newton paints  in pretty white box. Instructed to lightly sketch a large maple leaf which Teacher had painted and then, wet on wet, mix the colours and go, I went, and went and am startled by what I made,not a true copy or as ‘accomplished’ as some many others but a handsome maple leaf, and it was FUN, part of our introduction and instructions. Can hardly wait for the next sea day  for the next class ( but not sure I really want to paint a geisha.). who’d have guessed! Having had no expectations of myself besides lingering doubts- I’m no good at this- and being far from a perfectionist, the surprise was greater. 

And day 5, cruising literally – moving slowly up through glacier bay, carried away by the horizontal clouds,the spikey hills, mist fog raindrops on the vast glass windows near the bow, only a little snow high up, and bits of glaciers , pathetic by Antarctic standards, I was  consumed with sadness, the retreated glaciers here, black schist dark green low growth, a sign of what will come to Antarctica.