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 between the rookeries and the water.

In the afternoon we visited Vernadsky Station. This is now a Ukrainian research station that continues to monitor the hole in the ozone layer. They were nice enough to give us a tour. They also have the southernmost gift shop in the world and some homemade vodka for sale. We couldn’t resist Ukrainian vodka! The station WAS British and just across a small channel we visited historic Wordie House and climbed up a snow field for FANTASTIC views. This is probably as far south as we will get, about 65°15′ south.

Day 2 in the Antarctic started with wet weather. We visited another penguin rookery on Pleneau Island and toured amongst the icebergs. But being nasty weather, neither one of us was interested in taking too many pictures. The afternoon provided much better weather and wildlife viewing. After lunch we landed on shore in Dorian Bay. More Gentoo penguins, another terrific hike up a glacier, Weddell Seal watching, and being attacked by 2 different types of birds. First, we unknowingly walked into an Antarctic Tern nesting site. We realized what we had done when Mike almost lost an eye when being dive-bombed by one of them. After we backtracked and thought we where on the right “path”, Mike almost stepped on a Skua chick. The parents had left it alone to go fishing and returned just as the couple behind us reached the nest. We missed the dive-bombing that time but the couple behind didn’t.