The REAL Antarctic

After the race yesterday we left King George Island and headed towards the
Antarctic Peninsula. We woke up early this morning to a wonderland. We were
in the middle of a channel with glaciers rising up on either side and
ice-bergs floating all around us. The sun was just rising over the
mountains. We went ashore on Cuverville Island, which is one of the largest
gentoo penguin breeding grounds. Because we are so much further south, the
penguin chicks were much younger than the chicks we saw on Aicho Island.
They were still grey and fluffy and absolutely adorable. Many of them were
curled up together in the rookeries waiting for their parents to come feed
them. There were also 5 or fur seals who would occasionally get up and hop
around and bark before they went back to sleep. Then we got to go out in the
zodiacs and cruise around the ice-bergs. Each ice-berg is beautiful and
unique in its own way. Our favorite are the oldest ones, because the ice is
the bluest. After lunch the weather changed drastically. The wind is now
howling and it's sleeting. So the plan to go ashore at Fort Lockory will
likely be scrapped. We braved the wind for about 30 minutes to watch a trio
of finback whales, but it was pretty difficult not to blow away!