Wednesday, February 21, 2018                                    Sunrise: 0546/Sunset: 2110

The Lemaire Channel & Penola Strait

Our Wake up call came in at 7:15 this morning.  After an early Breakfast we went up to the Bridge to take advantage of the view as we passed through the Lemaire Channel.

The Lemaire Channel is 7 miles long and averages 1 mile in width. There were spectacular peaks and cascading ice walls on each side. We will spend much of today exploring the Penola Straight region directly south of Lemaire.

The Penola Strait region is steeped in history. The nearby islands were explored and utilized by Jean-Baptiste Charcot during his two expeditions to Antarctica. His ship, Francais, explored the west coast of Graham island and wintered in 1904 on Booth Island. A later voyage on the Pourquoi-Pas in 1909 allowed for more exploration and an over winter on Petermann Island which we will visit today.

The infamous Skua bird……We are not liking watching him try to steal baby penguins!

Pelting rain and sudden high winds have postponed our zodiac cruise.  To fill in the downtime McDuff gave a great Photo Lecture.  The expedition team is busy searching the weather satellites to try to find clear weather for our zodiac cruise. The ship has to move about 25 miles to find an internet connection so they can get input from the satellites.

Finally the weather settled a little and we went out on our zodiac cruise late in the afternoon. Some pelting rain and winds but we were able to cruise about the bay around Booth Island and see the “Iceberg Graveyard” which was an eerie and awesome sight.

At the end of our outing, we spotted a lone seal.  He was curious about our zodiac and repeatedly swam under and around us.

We had a special South American dinner this evening and were invited to sit at McDuff’s table.  Joining us were his wife, Mary, (who we adore!) and Peggy & Andy, and Dick and his wife.  We had a great time and afterwards adjourned to the bar to continue visiting.

During the recap & briefing this evening Kaitlyn (our diver) showed some great photos that she took on her dive earlier in the day.

Another great day in the winter paradise!