Antarctica Day 7: South Shetland Islands

Woke up about 7 to go to breakfast, after recovering from the plates flying all over the place dining experience. and then we went back to sleep for a few hours. then woke up and played a few hands of cribbage before we attended the mandatory zodiak meeting where they discussed the procedures for touring and landing in antarctica. Had lunch, and then we started to prepare for our zodiaks. wool underlayer, and then our water proof layer. We are grouped into counts of 50, to prepare to go out on the water. We are the leopard seals group. when they call ourname we head to the mudroom, where we put our boots on, and our jackets and then step out onto the zodiak.

We learn the man overboard procedure as well as the guide overboard procedure and then went for a zodiak cruise around the area. There were some glacial icebergs as well as some sea ice. Then we headed towards the island, and you could see spots of black, which were all the tiny penguins :-0. there were two breeds on this island, gentoo, which are the ones with the orange beaks, and chinstrap penguins which are just white and black and have what appears to be a black strap under their jaw line. they are about half the height of your shin and squawk and move about. curious creatures they are. Luckily we are at the begining of the season, and the penguins are just arriving. apparently the rookeries stink horribly as the penguins stay in teh same spot for months on end, and that spot collects all of their poo. yuck.

After our hour long zodiak cruise, we were able to step foot onto the Aitcho island therefore, OFFICIALLY having walked all seven continents! we walked over a ridge and there were just thousands of penguins everywhere :-) such a cool experience. AFter about 45 minutes, and the camara guy dave fixing our camera, we headed back onthe zodiak to return to the ship. Matt and I popped open our champagne that we brought with to commemorate the experience!!

After warming up, we went to the captains welcome drinks in the lounge to celebrate our safe voyage to antarctica!! After the cocktails, it was roughly time for dinner, so we joined a table of South Africans and enjoyed dinner and dessert and a less rocky cruise. Then we went to our rooms and fell asleep rather quickly. The next day would start about 430 am with us departing to half moon island and deception island.

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