January 30 to Feb 1 –

January 30, 2017 – Sailing toward Antarctica.
I awoke at 6am to bright sunshine outside. The ship is rolling a bit. We are traveling at 18.5 knots with winds of 25 knots. The Captain said that we should start seeing ice this afternoon. The schedule is filled with lectures from the Antarctica Team. There will be little rest today.
The first lecture was A Cool Web of Life – The Antarctic Ecosystem. We learned about both the terrestrial ecosystem and the marine ecosystem. This was followed by The Sea Birds of Antarctica. After lunch and trivia there were 2 more lectures – Antarctica Explorations and Getting to Know Penguins. The location lecturer also talked about the next 3 ports. By 4:45pm I was tired from learning do much.
Tonight is the Winter Wonderland Gala night. Most people are getting dressed up for the gala nights which is really nice. We had the Guest Relations Supervisor join us for dinner.
January 31, 2017 – Antarctica Palmer Station
I woke up at 6:15am and there was Antarctica outside my window. I ate breakfast in the Lido and was on deck 9 forward by 6:45am.
OMG – Today was spectacular. The morning was spent sailing through Dillman Bay heading towards Palmer Station. We had 4 or 5 large pods of humpback whales popping up next to the ship. Occasionally we could see a few penguins jumping in and out of the water as they fed.
Icebergs were on both sides of us. At 1pm, 2 zodiacs from Palmer Station came out to the ship. 10 of them boarded and 4 stayed on the zodiac to take back food that the ship was giving them. Those who boarded took advantage of the spa and got haircuts. They gave a talk explaining what they do. The National Science Foundation runs the station.
We continued sailing through Lemaire channel which had a very narrow exit. It looked like we couldn’t fit between the mountain on the right and the iceberg on the left. We made it through very slowly.
February 1, 2017 – Cruising Antarctica
Today started early again with humpback whales near the ship at 7am.
We sailed from Dillman Bay to Paradise Cove. As we neared the Chilean research facility we could see thousands of Gentoo penguins. They were on the shore and surrounding the buildings.
As we sailed today we saw many humpback whales, seals, and penguins. For the 2nd day in a row we had beautifully sunny weather. The onboard Antarctic lecturers say this is highly unusual. It is hard to find words to describe how beautiful Antarctica is. We are only seeing a very small part of it.
Tomorrow morning we go to see the large ice shelves and then start heading north. The internet is very slow so I’ll just post 3 pictures. When we get back to South America I’ll post more Antarctica pictures.