Preparing for Doug Allan's arrival felt rather like preparing for a visit from the queen. In an attempt to make space for the addition camera and dive gear, all of a sudden Ã"stuff' was tidied away rather than swept into piles, and we actually managed to find the table under the snakepit of wires, batteries and hard drives that had previously occupied it. Doug is somewhat of a legend when it comes to cold water filming. He's worked on pretty much every big project you can think of, and was part of the team that got not only the underwater footage of a polar bear swimming from Ã"Life in the freezer', but also the footage of the orcas wave-washing seals off ice floes from Ã"Frozen Planet'. We all wanted to make a good impression. Three out of four of us even showered before he arrived.

In order to get a couple of good hours filming in before Doug's cruise ship arrived, Ruth and Andrew were up and atom really quite early. It was another beautiful sunny morning and my turn to do the shore run. On my return the skipper's dulcet snoring was still reverberating around the boat, putting pay to any thoughts of going back to bed. There was nothing for it but to make a large pot of coffee and have some breakfast. The temperature was a balmy 6 degrees and with no wind it was a lovely day for al fresco dinning. Whislt enjoying my toast and coffee I had a very surreal experience, as a snaffle of about a dozen crabeater seals (we're not sure what the collective noun for seals is, so I've decided on snaffle) started snuffling and playing around the bergy bits about 20m from the boat. Crabeaters have a rather endearing habit of swimming along with their nose in the air like a snorkel, and every now and then blowing loud bubbles like a raspberry. Sitting on the roof of the doghouse with a large cup of coffee I found myself drawing a rather bizarre parallel between watching crabeater seals frolic around icebergs whilst drinking my morning coffee and watching blue tits frolic round the bird table at home. Unfortunately it wasn't all idyllic, as one of the seals had clearly come of worse for wear from something with big teeth, and had hauled out injured on the ice. It was a rather shocking contrast to see the blood red smeared across the ice in a landscape dominated by greys, blues, whites and blacks. But I guess such is the circle of life.

As the morning wore on the crabbies all hauled out onto ice where they remained, asleep, for the rest of the day. It wasn't until mid afternoon that we eventually watched Plancius, the cruise ship delivering Doug, cruise into the bay. After so much anticipation, it was great to finally have him on board. And not only did he turn out to be a great bloke (not that we ever thought he wouldn't be) but also he brought us NEWSPAPAERS! Its hard to explain what a treat it is to sit down with a newspaper, and how that, and listening to the radio, are two of the few Ã"normal' activities I miss when I'm away. And now we had complete overload, with something for everyone. Doug had it all covered: The Times, The Telegraph, The Independent, The Guardian, The Daily Mail (yes, even the Mail) and last but most definitely not least, our newest pride and joy, a copy of Private Eye. It was a very peaceful evening onboard Pelagic that night. Preparing for Doug Allan's arrival felt rather like preparing for a visit from the queen. In an attempt to make space for the addition camera and dive gear, all of a sudden Ã"stuff' was tidied away rather than swept into piles, and we actually managed to find the table under the snakepit of wires, batteries and hard drives that had previously occupied it. Doug is somewhat of a legend when it comes to cold water filming. He's worked on pretty much every big project you can think of, and was part of the team that got not only the underwater footage of a polar bear swimming from Ã"Life in the freezer', but also the footage of the orcas wave-washing seals off ice floes from Ã"Frozen Planet'. We all wanted to make a good impression. Three out of four of us even showered before he arrived.

In order to get a couple of good hours filming in before Doug's cruise ship arrived, Ruth and Andrew were up and atom really quite early. It was another beautiful sunny morning and my turn to do the shore run. On my return the skipper's dulcet snoring was still reverberating around the boat, putting pay to any thoughts of going back to bed. There was nothing for it but to make a large pot of coffee and have some breakfast. The temperature was a balmy 6 degrees and with no wind it was a lovely day for al fresco dinning. Whislt enjoying my toast and coffee I had a very surreal experience, as a snaffle of about a dozen crabeater seals (we're not sure what the collective noun for seals is, so I've decided on snaffle) started snuffling and playing around the bergy bits about 20m from the boat. Crabeaters have a rather endearing habit of swimming along with their nose in the air like a snorkel, and every now and then blowing loud bubbles like a raspberry. Sitting on the roof of the doghouse with a large cup of coffee I found myself drawing a rather bizarre parallel between watching crabeater seals frolic around icebergs whilst drinking my morning coffee and watching blue tits frolic round the bird table at home. Unfortunately it wasn't all idyllic, as one of the seals had clearly come of worse for wear from something with big teeth, and had hauled out injured on the ice. It was a rather shocking contrast to see the blood red smeared across the ice in a landscape dominated by greys, blues, whites and blacks. But I guess such is the circle of life.

As the morning wore on the crabbies all hauled out onto ice where they remained, asleep, for the rest of the day. It wasn't until mid afternoon that we eventually watched Plancius, the cruise ship delivering Doug, cruise into the bay. After so much anticipation, it was great to finally have him on board. And not only did he turn out to be a great bloke (not that we ever thought he wouldn't be) but also he brought us NEWSPAPAERS! Its hard to explain what a treat it is to sit down with a newspaper, even if it is all doom and glom (and condolences to anyone under water) and how reading a newspaper and listening to the radio, are two of the few Ã"normal' activities I miss when I'm away. And now we had complete overload, with something for everyone. Doug had it all covered: The Times, The Telegraph, The Independent, The Guardian, The Daily Mail (yes, even the Mail) and last but most definitely not least, our newest pride and joy, a copy of Private Eye. It was a very peaceful evenin g onboard Pelagic that night.