Icebergs

The icebergs we saw were just amazing. We sat outside or at the ship's helm and just watched in amazement all day.

The Antarctic Circle and Seals

Yesterday was an amazing day. We crossed south of the Antarctic Circle (Latitude 66.33 degrees). Our entire trip has been exploring channels, icebergs, wildlife, etc along the Antarctic Peninsula which juts out toward South America. The Antarctic Circle boundary splits the peninsula in half. After having gone south of the Circle we realized that Courtney, Abby, Lauren and Dallas are but just a handful of kids who have ever traveled that far south. The day was so nice that the captain decided to take The World farther south than it had ever been. We went south along Adelaide Island and saw some amazing icebergs.

For dinner, our group was joined by several member of the expedition team. We had a great time learning their various stories and asking questions about the Antarctic.
It was a day of seals and icebergs. We saw three different species of seals, the Crabeater, the Weddell and the Leopard. Seals are different than Sea Lions in that Sea Lions have flaps over their ears and Seal have just holes for ears. Also, Sea Lions are able to move with both their front flippers and rear tail. A Seal typically moves on land with just their front flippers.

These seals have the best views!!

Teenage Penguins

It's amazing how on many occasions the animal world mimics the human world.

The teenage Gentoo penguin had made some kind of mistake and Mom was getting on to her "explaining" what she had done wrong.
They realized that they were being watched and while they were a little embarrassed . . .
there was still a lesson to be given.
Once the lesson was over Mom had stuff she had to get done. The teenager was still smarting over the "lecture" and obviously gave Mom a "look".

Here, the teenager leaves very satisfied that she has one upped her Mom!!

Young'in Penguins

A Gentoo penguin with two chicks.
The nests are made with small pebbles and rocks. Sometimes penguins "borrow" pebbles from their neighbors.

As the penguins chicks get older they eat everything!
And they keep eating such that before they lose their baby down fur, which is replaced with the tight, water proof feathers of a mature penguin, they weigh more than Mom or Dad.

Port Lockroy and Finback Whale

Our internal clocks have been a bit off. Dinners have started at 8:30 and not finshed until 11PM. That's a late night for Dad! Anyway, today we arrived into Port Lockroy and we were first up on the Zodiac ride. Port Lockroy is an old British research station.

There was a small Penguin rookery here, but we were amazed by the skelton of this Finback whale. The Finback whale is the second largest whale and can grow to 88 feet long.

Sun Up and Sun Down

Before we came we knew there would be a lot of daylight since we are in summer way down south in the southern hemisphere, but we really didn't know how much daylight we'd have. While we haven't gotten up at 4AM it appears as though the sun rises at 4AM. Dad couldn't sleep this morning and so got up and took these pictures of sunrise. In addition to the beautiful sites we have been amazed at how quickly white out fog rolls in and out. Sometimes in kind of creepy.

As for sunset it is at about 10:00PM or so.

The Sun and the Ozone

Due to pollution and CFCs (Chloro Fluoro Carbons), which were internationally banned in the 1980s, Antarctica has the largest hole in the ozone layer. Ever time we go out we wear lots of sun screen and our sun glasses.

Sometimes we get a little tired when Dad takes us on long walks.