Wednesday, February 5 - At Sea Arriving in Antarctica

 Last night was not exactly what I was hoping for.  As warned, we didn't get to Elephant Island until around 11 pm.  We went to bed and left our TV on the bridge cam station so any announcements would come over that, which worked well.  We (well, actually just me) woke up when one of the naturalists was telling us that we'd be there pretty soon.  There was still just enough light to make out the island as we approached.  Elephant Island is where Shackelton left 22 of his crew while he and 5 others went off in search of help.  I believe it was almost 5 months before they were rescued and they all survived, albeit one man had his frostbitten toes amputated.

By the time we got as close as we could get, it was pretty much fully dark so no penguin sightings for us.  Rats.  But the sky was perfectly clear so I did get to see some stars.  Michael was a bit underwhelmed by the experience and went back to bed.  

No hanging about the pool for a while.

This morning we had a lecture about the breeding cycle of penguins.  Then just before lunch we arrived at the South Shetland Islands where there are some research stations.

The Republic of South Korea's station.  There are also stations nearby from Argentina and China.

That snow pattern in the middle almost looks like graffiti.  I thought we'd finally gotten away from that! 😁 

And as we moved along, we came across these beauties.  Now we're cooking!

I saw a few whale blows in the ocean, but no breaches.  And we've seen penguins soaring through the water.  They move a bit like dolphins, although they're not as big and don't come out of the water very far.

We hung around Half Moon Bay for a while before moving on to Deception Island.

It was overcast for most of the time there, and it actually snowed a bit, but it was still beautiful.  The temp is pretty cold - in the upper 30's - but if you stay out of the wind, it's OK.  As we moved on to our next stop, we saw lots of penguins jumping around.  It's so surreal to be sitting in a nice warm ship bar, sipping an adult beverage and watching the icebergs and penguins go by while you listen to some nice live music.  We are very fortunate.

Trivia was moved downstairs to the theater (the regular location up on Deck 12 with the best views was reserved for those who wanted to watch the scenery).  We only found out when we went upstairs.  We were about 4 questions in when Roger arrived.  He and Bob had been upstairs and Bob finally gave up and Roger was told that it had been moved.  We only got 11/15 so no points for us.

Dinner at Compass Rose was great, as usual, and we got to watch the glaciers and icebergs go by as we ate our dinner.  Doesn't get much better than that.  (At least some of us watched the glaciers.  Others stared at their phones throughout dinner.  Too bad for them.)

Sunset is around 9:40 pm and sunrise is at 4:49 am.  Hoo boy.