Monday, January 30, 2012 Day 25 Antarctica

The weather began to change yesterday.  We woke up to –30 below zero and 10 foot high waves. We thought we were hardy Minnesotans, but this chilled to the bone! We entered Iceberg Alley from the Bransfield Strait where hundreds of icebergs traveled from the south pole north.  Some that we saw were several stories high and several blocks long.  The penguins made colonies on some of them and we could see them with our binoculars. Also, they would dive in front of the ship in schools of 50 to 60.  We haven’t see any whales yet, but did see dolphins, seals and plenty of penguins. The northern most record of an iceberg siting was at Rio de Janerio in 1894. Thoughts of the Titanic danced in our head! We went to the 9th deck to take pictures and enjoy the scenery.  There is no way to tell you how dazzling and set back we were by the complete beauty of this area. What an amazing God we have to create such wonder and beauty. We’re now sailing toward the South Shetland Islands.

Here is base camp.  They have 35 children that live there.  They attend school during the day.  We sailed between Elephant Island and Clarence Island through Prince Charles Strait. During the day we also passed near D’Urville Island and Hope Bay (base camp).

Here’s Jolly – he’s loving the glaciers and the artic air!

As you know, it’s NEVER too cold to enjoy ice cream.

With love from the South Pole, Jerry and Nan

Sunday, January 29, 2012 Sea Day–Day 24!

Another sea day.  We are getting closer to Antarctica as the temperature has dropped to the 40’s.  Funny how some people walk around with about 5 blankets wrapped around them! The fog rolled in this afternoon which means the Captain blows the fog horn continuously – so much for a decent night’s sleep tonight.

After our workout, we went to two different camera classes today.  Wow, I have learned so much, I just need to put what I’ve learned into practice soon or I’m afraid I’ll forget it.

This is Jolly, Emily from Pine Island’s walrus, sitting on top of Antarctica on the globe at the travel consultant’s desk.

I had a spa appointment today and asked the beautician to do a complete make over…well I’m not seeing a big difference, but it was fun to get pampered. We also went to the main theater tonight to watch Motown singers, then swung into the casino for about an hour. We’re on our  longest sea stretch now and I feel antsy! How can people do NOTHING all day?

Saturday January 28 2012 Falkland Islands Port Stanley Day 23 World Tour

What a night we hit fog about 2 am and the fog horn blew constantly and it was as though it was right in our cabin. We tiredly woke at 6:00 am to be ready to take the launch in at 7:30 only to find out because of the bad weather that we couldn’t go till almost 9:30 .

Once we finally got to shore we decided to take a tour to the Gypsy Cove were the Magellanic penguins were. We were about two weeks early  and only a few had migrated there. The scenery was breath taking and the wind was fierce almost blowing us to the sea. 

Looking back at the harbor were the ms Amsterdam our ship on the right and the Princess on the left.

The area has 100’s of sunken and half sunken ships in and around the horn and the Island.

Well a little shopping and back to the ship.

A couple sea days than on to Antarctica.