Highlights: Ice Berg Sightings - Penguin Island Landing - Climbing the Volcano - Christmas Caroling!
We were up at 8, went to breakfast and then a mandatory orientation on visiting Antarctica. There are specific requirements outlined in the Antarctic Treaty that we must comply with in order to be able to visit. Most are common sense, but there are all kinds of people who visit here, so you have to review the requirements.
The water temperature has dropped from 55 degrees to 39 degrees. We will be at anchor in the late afternoon. We saw another chapter of Life in The Freezer (highly recommend others to view this for information on Antarctica), and then we went to Boot Decontamination lesseons so we will know how to clean our boots when we return to the ship. Apparently the "guano" (penquin and bird shit) is extensive in many places.
We had lunch wtih Tommy and Tim and then we walked on deck for a while. Huge white and blue ice bergs are everywhere by our ship. This is so thrilling. I was surprised at the various colors from the light refraction. It is fascinating and I'm taking lots of pictures.
Larry took a nap before our landing and finished reading a book. Tim went to hear a lecture by one of the naturalists (Trevor Potts) but he said it was boring and he slept through it. We are passing King George Island which is part of the South Shetland Islands. We'll anchor about 4 pm at Penguin Island and an advance crew will go ashore to ensure it is safe for us to land too. Since the sun really never sets, we don't need to worry about running out of daylight - we have 24 hours a day of that!
We got all dressed up for the first time in our insulated underwear and warm clothes. Excitement was building on the ship as everyone prepared for our first Zodiac landing. We signed up for the "Chinstrap" Landing Group named for the chinistrap species of penguins. As a joke we renamed it the Jock Strap Group and had some laughs about that. We went down to the lounge to wait and while we waited we could see penguins swimming all around the ship - so fascinating. We were the first to load in the Zodiacs for our group and off we went to Penguin Island - about a 6 minute ride.
The shore was very rocky but right away there are small penguins all aroun dus. They walked right up to us and were not the least bit afraid. The beach was FULL of them. And seals laying in the sun too. They are molting and will grow a whole new body of hair for the coming winter which starts in late March / April. We were right by them all. We took lots of pictures and we were so excited.
Then we went with Luciano on a one mile walk up to the peak of the extinct volcano. A very hard walk but we had a 360 degree panoramic view of the islands and the cone of the volcano. From the peak we could see two whales swimming in the channel far below. At the rim of the caldera, strong gusts pelted us with ice crystals at one point. The winds were so strong. But the climb for the view was well worth it. The climb up took 45 minutes and 30 minutes to come back down. We went straight to the Zodiac for the short ride back to the ship, showers and dressing for dinner. Boy did that shower feel good after that long climb up the volcano.
Tim had brought battery pack Christmas lights so once we were dressed for Christmas Eve dinner, we put the lights around us, turned them on and went to the Club for a drink (or two) before dinner. We were a big hit and a lot of people wanted to take our picture. We received a round of applause as we entered the dining room for dinner - it was all festive for Christmas and in fun.
We ate with our group of 7. After dinner we went back to the bar for drinks and Christmas caroling with Sergyii at the piano and electronic keyboard. They passed out the words to several carols and of course, Tim knew the words to those and more. So the staff asked Tim to lead the caroling which he was happy to do. The best was the 12 Days of Christmas and it was a riot to watch Pat and Roger (England) singing. THey loved our lights but Pat touched her beautiful set of pearls around and neck and I told her - OK, You Win!
We talked to a lot of people until midnight, wished everyone a Merry Christmas and then went to bed. A fabulous first day in Antarctica.
One last remembrance - my favorite bartender is Lena from The Ukraine. She sees us walk in and fixes our drink before we get to the bar. She looks like she could be a Russian agent - and talks like one too!!!! She was fun.
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