Antarctica Log Book: Elephant Island, Antarctica

If you can zoom in, there are penguins sliding around on the iceberg!!

Cruising Schedule:
7:00am - 10:30am: Elephant Island After leaving Elephant Island the ship will enter the Bransfield Strait. We will pass several islands appearing on our starboard side, beginning with Gibbs Island at approximately 12 Noon, King George Island 4:00pm, Nelson Island 5:00pm, Robert Island 6:00pm. and Deception Island 8:00pm.
Position: 61*07 S, 55*07'00 W
Weather conditions: partly cloudy
Wind: N NW 23 mph
sunrise: 5:17am sunset: 8:57pm



Woo! We made it to Antarctica!! It is so cold outside - the temperature may not sound so bad, but the wind chill makes it unbelievable! Your hands freeze in seconds - which makes it impossible to take pictures with heavy gloves on! Now as this entry is from the second cruise, I will tell you a bit about the first, too, since today we don't have such luck with the weather - it is so foggy that visibility is extremely low, so we didn't go outside and brave the cold to take pics today (have great ones already!) First trip the weather was perfect - cold and windy, yes, but the sun was shining and weather was clear. We went out on Deck 4 and took some amazing pictures! There were tons of Chinstrap penguins "flying" through the water, playing in the ship's wake. All of a sudden I went from seeing dozens of them to seeing none ... then a few seconds later I spotted a seal or sea lion. So those poor little penguins were probably swimming for their lives. They came back after awhile, though. We also spotted a rare fin whale! Only for about three seconds, so fast we didn't even get a picture - but I don't care, at least I saw it =)



Now today, second Antarctic journey, the weather is not good and visibility is very low - we could barely see Elephant Island. The captain has made several announcements about the weather because tomorrow's destination is where the rough weather is forming. There's a low pressure system coming in, and it's raining, snowing, and crazy windy in the Paradise Bay station - crazy that we see the almost non-existent rain and snow on the biggest desert on Earth. We may not be able to make it to the bay, the seas are already pretty rough, the ship's really shaking. Sad that you can barely see anything, in my head I pictured Antarctica as penguins hanging out on icebergs (I do have an awesome picture of a big group of them on a giant iceberg!)

Update: okay, Paradise Bay is a no go :-/ Weather is too bad and directly in our path. Changing tomorrow to an auction day and sea day instead... lots of guests pretty angry, but if I shared some of the horror stories I have heard from other crew members...

Note: make sure you also bring chapstick! it's windy and DRY! It is the largest desert in the world, don't let the ice and ocean deceive you!



The land just behind the iceberg is where Shackleton's men set up camp: Point Wild.