Chilean naval vessel. They had an issue with our ship being there, the biggest ship won!

Twins!

British flag with penguins around it.

Humpback whale bones, head on left

Whale bones

Today we went ashore to see another British outpost, this one in better shape, with a gift shop and small museum.  Also saw whale bones from whaling days, and lots of Gentoo penguins.  I think they are my favorite kind.  They are unafraid and so goal oriented that they waddle right by us, oblivious, on their way to whatever they are doing such as getting food, or rocks, or getting to their rock nests.  I have a case of windburn and look like I’ve got measles, but it will pass. We also saw 3 killer whales in the afternoon and watched as some researchers tried to get next to them in a Zodiac and tag them.

Here is the netting in the stairwell in case someone falls over the railing in high seas. We are not looking forward to the Drake Passage again.

When whales get parallel like this it is called logging.

Historic British outpost.

Waddell seals napping on a cozy glacier.

Wake from the ship this morning.

Jeff actually took this one!! Early morning shot today.

Every one is different. Some as big as a city block. Guide told us she never sees the same ones again year after year because they keep changing.

The captain told us that it depended on the weather if we would be able to go this far south.  Well the weather cooperated and when we woke up this morning we had passed below it.  The ship was breaking through the ice.  Activity for today was to take the zodiacs over to an encampment that was built by the British in the early 1950s and abandoned in 1958.  They are back now trying to fix it up and 3 people live there during the Antarctic summer (like now).  It looks pretty rough.  The 3 people got to come over to the ship and take a shower and get a hot meal.

This afternoon we had a photography lecture by 2 Nat. Geo. photographers.  Most of it was over my head but Jeff got most of it.  However, the pics on this blog are mostly taken by me (Carol) and he has his own camera which is better than this IPad.

factoid:  it gets dark around 11:30pm and light at 3:00am.  So, short night.  Rooms have special window covers to block out the light.

There are 140 passengers and 100 cabins.  Most all passengers we think are either American, Australian, or Canadian. Captain is German.

we are about 1700 miles from the South Pole.