Thursday, February 22^nd, 2018                                          Sunrise: 0549/Sunset: 2056

I was unable to sleep so I moved into our living room at 3:30am to work on my blog.  Thankfully, there is an internet connection and is unencumbered in the wee hours so I got a lot of writing done.

The ocean swells have increased dramatically during the night and walking about is challenging.  The winds are about 35 knots this morning.  We slipped down to breakfast at 7:30 to dine with the early risers.  The ship is anchored in the bay by Port Lockroy.  Unfortunately, we are experiencing Katabatic winds which are hindering the Zodiac transfers.  The Captain is holding the ship steady against the winds and is hoping that they will eventually decrease so we can disembark.  We can see the 2 little buildings on the tiny rocky island along with several Gentoo penguins.  We are downwind of the island so we can also SMELL the presence of the penguins!  The Union Jack flag is flapping wildly in the winds.

Sean was able to take a Zodiac over to the island and retrieve Lauren from the UK Team that staffs the base during the summer months.  She gave a short lecture on the history of Port Lockroy and specific details about who visits and how the base operates.  The UK team is in residence there from early November to early March and then the base is shut down for the winter months.   Their job is to maintain the base & museum and do research for different entities.  Most cruise ships with less than 200 passengers visit the base every summer.

Port Lockroy, which was used as an anchorage by whalers and established as Base A by the British in 1944 as part of a secret wartime initiative to monitor German shipping movements.  This expedition was code-named Operation Tabarin, after a well-known Paris nightclub, because team members would be staying there during the darkness of the Antarctic winter.  After World War II the station continued in a civilian capacity until 1964 when it ceased operations. This historic base was recently restored, and is now open to visitors as a museum and has a post office where you can send out mail. 

Late morning, we finally got to hop in the Zodiac and head over to Port Lockroy to visit the museum and purchase a few souvenirs at the gift shop.  There is a large penguin rookery as well as Antarctic Shags and Skua’s on the island.

After lunch the Captain set the ship out to an area know for whale activity.  Just as we were heading to the theater for a Whale lecture, 4 Humpback whales emerged and everyone began moving around the ship to catch views of them.  We followed along and watched them for about 45 minutes.  Most of the seals, whales and penguins feed on krill fish.  Our naturalists thinks one of the whales is a nursing mother and that there are abundant Krill in this area which is why we’re seeing 4 whales feeding together.  Caitlin has taken a net and caught some Krill so everyone can see what they look like.  Chris Croxson followed up our whale viewing with a lecture on Sea mammals.

The ship will continue North on a path through the Neumayer Channel, Gerlache Strait and Dallman Bay enroute to the Weddell sea if weather conditions are favorable.

We’re enjoying watching Mary, McDuff’s wife paint in her free time.

The sea swells are significant again tonight and making moving around the ship is challenging yet again.  We enjoyed several presentations during the Cocktail Hour recap.  Chef did an amazing chocolate bomb dessert for dinner.  My tummy is happy!

Off to bed to enjoy the rocking and rolling motion of the ship.