📍 Lemaire Channel / Pleneau Island / Port Charcot 利瑪水道/普萊諾島/夏洛特港 - Part 4/9

Justin: "Team inspire - team inspire - team inspire". Our captain's sea-battered voice reverberated across the ship's speakers - a 6:45 am morning call.

By the fourth day, the feelings of jet lag and novelty had been completely replaced by a consistent routine of briefing, discussions, lectures, punctuated by some quiet moments spent admiring our frigid surroundings. Still, a full days worth of meetings can never dull the excitement participating in outside excursions.

We got to Lemaire Channel, a place so photogenic it's nicknamed "The Kodak Channel", that is if the water was still. Unfortunately, that day the weather had ideas of its own, alternating between bouts of snowstorms and sudden sunny conditions. It felt like we were experiencing all the seasons in that one day.

We made our first landing at Pleneau Island, the happy home of a gentoo penguin colony. Penguins are curious creatures. Many times, they tried to approach our team in hobbling droves, but we made sure to keep our distance. As it is moulting season, most penguins during this time try to be as inactive as possible to conserve energy as they put on a new layer of fur that would allow them to survive the cold winter.

Finally, we came across the Iceberg Graveyard. In this place, the tide comes bringing in pieces of icebergs, only to leave them stranded when the water becomes too shallow. Despite the grim name, it is beautiful to see sculptures of ice pose against the dark brown rocks. Here, the ice holds so much memory: building on layers for decades and decades until it melts away peacefully as part of a large cycle too long for our minds to comprehend.

「團隊激勵…團隊激勵…團隊激勵…」船長的聲音從喇叭傳來 — 那是早上六時四十五分的電話。

及至第四日，一連串的簡介、討論、講座已完全取代時差感與新奇感。當中不時穿插著些安靜時刻，讓我們得以欣賞身旁嚴寒環境。即便是一整天的會議，亦絕無減少我們戶外考察時的興奮。

我們前往了勒梅爾海峽。若水流靜止，這地風光如畫，又稱「柯達水道」。不幸的是，這日天氣頗為隨意，暴風雪與晴天交替著出現。而我們在這一日間，似乎便已渡過四季。

我們首次登陸普萊諾島。這是巴布亞企鵝的棲息地，更是其幸福家園。企鵝是好奇的生物。它們成群結隊，多次試圖接近我們，但我們一直與他們保持距離。由於換羽季節已至，大多企鵝在這段時間需要節省能量，換上新羽以渡寒冬，所以它們都會安靜不動。

終於，我們到了浮冰最後的安息之地。在這地方，浪潮帶來了流冰。當水變得太淺時，它們才會被擱淺。雖其名稍顯冷淡，但冰雕在深褐色的岩石上如此美麗。在這裡，冰，擁有如此多的記憶：它們層層積聚，數十年又數十年。直到平靜地融化，最終融入大循環的一部分。這對於我們的大腦來說，實在過於長久，難以理解。