On our way back home

Panorama picture early am in Gerlach Strait. Margot only person on the bow. Paradise

The last day on the Peninsula we visited Port Lockroy and Culterville. Saw killerwhales again, and leopard seals and lots of gentoo penguins with babies. Abundant wildlife. And again, sunshine. We lucked out completely with 10 days of beautiful weather.
The Drake's Passage crossing lasted 40 hours, but was very calm. We made good speed and had time to sail past Diego Ramirez Islas as well as Cape Horn. Hundreds of albatross around the ship at one point.
Margot

After a long journey seeing the last of our Antarctica Peninsula, seeing baby Killer Whales chasing a
penguin, Seeing Rockhopper Penguins at Cape Horn, and sailed across Drakes Passage we finally arrived at Ushuaia harbor. We then took a flight to Santiago,Chile and we are still waiting to get on our flight to Dallas,Texas and there to San Francisco. The bad thing about this trip is now we really want to go back to Antarctica and see penguins. I hope maybe I can work there and go back a lot.
Callum

Our last day on the peninsula

Today is the final day on the peninsula. We're starting the Drake passage crossing late tonight. Forecast is for mellow weather. No 40ft waves then.

Just a few photos here of some recent activities.

Gentoo penguin with chick

Ice arch

A wee story from Callum

Yesterday we continued our journey along the Antarctic Peninsula. On the way to an island along the Peninsula we saw some killer whales feeding on a minkewhale or a couple of leopard seals. On our ship we have two whale researchers called Bob and John and their favorite whales are killer whales so, after everyone got some pictures they rushed out on a zodiac and shot three arrows off a crossbow onto a whales dorsal fin (which didn’t hurt the whale.) The three arrows got two DNA samples and a satellite tag so they could see where the male went. They said that they would probably go up the coast of South America almost to Brazil. 

After we saw the whales we stopped to see a penguin colony of adelie penguins. I got to help counting the adelie chicks. There were 369 chicks when I counted them. The penguins swam, walked funny and they looked at you like you were from mars or even Pluto.

Adelie penguins

Callum getting a Zodiac driver lesson from Sven Lindblad of Lindblad Expeditions

Callum counting penguin nests and chicks for the Oceanitis survey

 

Making our way North again

The internet connection is very slow today. No photos yet therefore, but a little writing.
For those of you with a map, this is where we've been so far:
We left Ushuaia the evening of Jan 8 in the direction of the South Shetland Islands. We arrived
the morning of Jan 10 and visited Hannah point (penguins - Gentoo and chinstrap), followed by Deception island (Antarctic "swim" which I admit only lasted for 10 seconds). Jan 11 we sailed South-East towards the Antarctic Sound hoping to make our way to the Weddell Sea but could not get past Andersson Island because of ice. We turned around and arrived at Charcot Bay / Lindblad Cove on the West side of Trinity peninsula in the evening. Beautiful zodiac ride there. Jan 12 it was South West again through the Gerlach Strait and Lamaire channel. On Jan 13 (yesterday) we spent time near Pourquoi Pas Island and Adelaide Island. Today we spent time at Detaille Island. So, we are gradually making our way North again. Still plenty sunshine and calm seas. We cannot believe our luck.

Yesterday was magical. We started with a kayak in a bay surrounded by snowcovered mountains. Full of seals, a couple of humpbacks and seabirds. Afterwards killerwhales were waiting for us a few miles West. And at the end of the day we visited another colony of Adelie penguins. Callum helped count.
This morning we ended up at a deserted research station. The station was abandoned without much warning in 1959. The team had no time to clean up and pack up, so everything in there is exactly what it looked like when they needed to run.

We are inside the Antarctic circle

Margot:
Some time since we last wrote as we were in various small bays without satellite connection.
The last two days were again incredible. It gets better all the time. We kayaked amongst the penguins yesterday. It was wonderful to see Callum's face. At the end of the day we zodiaced through a cemetery of icebergs, trapped in a very shallow bay. Sometimes the ocean is covered with hundreds of ice structures, all in different shapes. It makes it all look very surreal and incredibly beautiful. We literally spend hours looking outside. Last night we passed the Antarctic circle. Thanks to the wonderful weather we've been having we are getting further South than other expeditions. It brings us to some really spectacular Southern parts of the peninsula.
The weather today was again outstanding. What a trip. Two hour kayak this morning, followed by whale watching (two pods of orcas).

Woke up again at 4am this morning and was blown away by the morning light. It does not really get dark here although the sun officially disappears for 1.5 hours at night.

Callum is going out soon with the penguinologists to count a colony of Adelie penguins. He's constantly super excited.

I have never ever in my life seen so much beauty. Pristine wilderness. The most dramatic and beautiful place on earth.

Near the Gullet. Kayak trip in an incredible bay. Seals, penguins, whales.

5am and super excited to find these beautiful patterns

The light at 4am

An incredible birthday

Yesterday, Callum turned 11 on the 11th of January, 2011.
We had a fantastic time. Callum even had dinner with the captain!
The chef had prepared a cake with penguins on it and he received
several presents from the crew and new friends, all in the penguin
theme of course.
We sailed all day and ended up at Lindblad cove where we Zodiaced
around. There were leopard seals, more Gentoo penguins and a couple
of humpback whales.
Last night we sailed further South. We will be exploring Booth island
as well as Petermann island, where Callum will help two scientists
with the penguin population census.
I've been getting up at 4 or 5 am to catch the early morning light
which is truly spectacular here.

Sailing South

This morning, the gale force winds in the Weddell pushed large drifts of ice into our way. The ship therefore sailed back to the West side of the peninsula. Now we are heading South-South-West to find calmer waters and places where we can go on land or kayak.
It was not so bad though as the sail took us past a couple incredibly shaped icebergs.
The sun is shining full-out.

Blue and white colored Antarctica

Spot the Adelie penguins on the ice

Penguin number 1 diving in

And penguin number 2 following

Amazing ice sculptures

Callum in Antarctica

Callum working on this blog

My birthday!

!

My  best picture of a chinstrap penguin jumping out of the water!

From Callum:Yesterday we swam in the water in Antarctica and went on a mini tour in a zodiac by a island in Antarctica. We saw lots of penguins! The penguins included Chinstrap, Gentoos and Macaronis.
In the morning we stopped really close to an iceberg , got close to a mountain with snow and ice and went close to  a glacier.

Icebergs at 4am

Penguins on the ice

Margot:
I'm going to have trouble describing what we see here when I get back.
Early this morning out on the bow of the boat was an amazing scenery of
floating icebergs and distant Antarctic islands. The morning sun just hitting
the first bergs.

Wind had picked up to a nice Antarctic gale of 80mph coming off the glaciers.

Not so good with words here, so let me show you a couple of morning pics.

Also, it's Callum's birthday today!! He is superexcited about seeing penguins.

And then there are penguins!

Baby penguin running after its parent for food

Elephant seals taking over the colony

Gentoo penguin. Very pretty and cute

Three Gentoos finding their way back to feed their babes

Callum in his element!!!!

And there are the little dudes again

On the Zodiac with glacier in background

Beautiful ice drift

The glacier edge

The little black spot is a zodiac. Gives a sense of scale

The sail route so far

Everywhere you look it's pretty

Little painted petrel following the boat

Smith Island. This was our first sign of land this morning after 36 hours of sailing

Reached Livingstone island by lunch time today. Calm seas and sunny skies.
And hundreds of penguins! I knew this trip was going to be great, but I was
not prepared for the sheer wonder of this remote area of the world. It is beyond
belief to be sailing around here.
Some quick photos here before my computer's battery runs out.

Callum: Once we arrived in Antarctica we saw an island with hot springs (well, not really
hot). We saw lots of penguins!!!! Yay!!! The types of penguins we saw were Chinstrap,
Gentoo and Macaroni.