February 11 - Lemaire Channel, Pleneau Island, Petermann Island, Palmer Station

Today was a big day, and our last down at the Peninsula. While we are down here, we definitely pack it all in. I wish there was some way to speed up the Drake Passage so that we could have more time on the Ice.

My alarm went off at 4:30am and I was very sleepy. As many of you know, I am not the best morning person. I was on the bridge by 5am to sail through the Lemaire Channel, which is just beautiful, and then on the water by 5:45 am for a zodiac cruise around Pleneau Island. The ice around Pleneau was spectacular and I've attached a photo of one of the bergs for you to see just how blue they are and the colors the water becomes around it. On the cruise, we also had some Leopard Seals playing around our zodiac. It was fun to watch.


Blue iceberg

The landing at Petermann Island is our furthest south landing. I helped Cheli at the landing and then took a little walk with the passengers over the snow to see the Gentoo and the Adelie penguins.

In the afternoon we headed for Palmer Station. I am so lucky because this is my second time that I will be visiting Palmer Station. Each ship gets one visit per year. This ship was supposed to have their visit previously, however, it was cancelled due to Princess Anne visiting. Today was the only day that they could reschedule. The brash ice was very thick getting into the station and was challenging to drive through. Before heading into the station we got a chance to see a few Elephant Seals. They are very fun to watch at this time of year because they are molting and laying all over each other and just snorting and annoying one another. Since I attached the photo of the ice in Paradise Bay last night, I thought I'd attach the ice from today so you can see how varied the conditions are that we are in.


Brash ice at Palmer Station

Tonight we head back into the Drake. Rusty and I are doing the slide show this week so we hope that the seas are calm enough to get most of our work done tomorrow so that we can relax (sort of) on the final day at sea.