Land Ho!

17th February 2012

Another very good night sleep. Although there is a slight hum from the engines its not enough to keep us awake. Again we are woken by Rodrigo and a different tune this time. Breakfast was another sumptuous fill of toast, eggs, bacon, yogurt and fruit. We were told there was a change to the days schedule due, due to the fine weather. What had happen over night was we had made really good time and we would be reaching Antarctica earlier than planned and this meant we would be getting an extra landing in. This was great news and you could feel the excitement in the dinning room.

The first sight of Antarctica

There was still the rest of the day however to enjoy and there were two lectures planned. The first was on wildlife and the second was a compulsory talk on the rules of going ashore. The other exciting thing which was to happen though out the day was the numerous sighting of whales. Never that close to the ship, but never the less they where out there and it seemed in quite a large number. As for the birds well other than Cape Petrels it was much the same as yesterday, NO WIND!
Bob one of the guides gave a very interest lecture and many interesting facts about the white continent, after which we enjoyed another very nice lunch. It was later in the afternoon that the first faint outline of land could be made out on the horizon. All you could make out was a white dome with a few faint rocks. It was our first sight of and area which few people get to see. The evening lecture was mostly made up of common sense, but it was part the course.

Arturo Prat

This evening we set foot on one of the islands which make up part of the Shetland's. Greenwich Island was our destination and we were to visit the Chilean Field Station Arturo Prat. We received a warm welcome from the base commander and were shown around by one of the men who was stationed there. He spoke only Spanish, but we managed to understand most of his talk. The island was pretty sparse other than the building and a couple of penguins which was our first close encounter with Antarctic resident. The scenery around us though was amazing, with glaciers around and the sound of them cracking and occasionally large distant rumble could be made out, which sounded more like thunder, but we were told it was the glaciers.

Sporting this year latest fasion!!

Back aboard we enjoyed another wonderful meal and the dinning room was filled with our excited chatter of our first Antarctic landing. We also enjoyed our first of many wonderful sunsets over the snow. The captain intends to sail us to our next destination early in the morning.