The camping was great. I don’t think it got much below freezing. Only my toes got cold and that happens at home anyway. After breakfast we motored over towards Cuverville Island. We thought we were on our way to yet another penguin rookery, but we floated past some magnificent ice bergs and then we heard 3 HUMPBACKS over the radio. We arrived in time to see all of them floating near the top of the water breathing through their blow holes and then diving down (fluking) to stir up more …

We finally made landfall on the actual continent today. Twice. Not on an island this time.
Paradise Harbor and Neko Harbor were the two stops of the day, we started out with a hike up a relatively steep glacier in Paradise Harbor. Great views once again and a nice place to watch for iceberg calving. Usually the chunks that fall in aren’t that big and by the time you look in the right direction all you see is a splash and some waves, but we managed to see a few. …

We set sail on Jan 16th and after 48 hours of sailing across the Drake passage and the Antarctic Convergence we set our feet on terra firma once again. The first stop was Peterman Island. Here we were greeted by Adelie and Gentoo penguins. The place is covered in rookeries and the penguins are hilarious to watch. They have no fear of humans. Sometimes they actually sneak up on you. According to the resident penguin expert, they are quite curious and not all that smart. They do “construct” penguin highways …