We have arrived! After days at sea passing through some rough and raging areas as well as, thankfully, mostly calm and friendly waters, we have made it to the continent. I could say that we have stepped onto our seventh continent of Antarctica, but that would be way too simplistic for the process involved. We took a Zodiac over to the Gonzalez Videla Base, a Chilean research station and inactive naval base now manned by Air Force personnel, on the Antarctic mainland at Waterboat Point in Paradise Bay. When the Zodiac pulls up to disembark passengers, they have a few different ways to do it. This time the boat headed straight in to nose its bow up on a rocky point. The passengers, one at a time, slid up the side of the boat while still seated. (The only place to sit during the ride is on the inflated tube that is the side of the boat.) At the highest point, the next passenger had to swing legs over the side of the boat and spin 180 degrees to point outward, step out into the shallow water, and climb up the rocks that are slippery with ice, snow, and heaps of guano. Along the way, Seabourn crew members are stationed at the hardest points to offer a hand to help the passenger balance and point out the best route among the rocks. Climbing up and away from the boat was difficult, but easier than the downhill return. We both made it without falling, and I had to put my fingertips down in the ice only once to catch myself. Fortunately, I touched the ice where it was fairly free of guano. Nothing obvious stuck to my gloves. During yesterday's recap and briefing, Iggy said that on a guano scale of one to ten, Waterboat Point is a 47.

This base has several Gentoo rookeries that are very close to the buildings, a combination museum and gift shop, a lookout tower, fuel storage tanks, and living space for a small contingency of men who stay there through the summer only to do research and respond to emergencies. There is one leucistic Penguin, a blond penguin, who has been living at this rookery for ten years now. It was standing up posing for photos right on the edge of the first group of penguins we passed. It is not an albino. Leucism is an absence of melanin in the feathers; the eyes and skin are normal colored. We walked around to observe lots of the penguins as they continually built nests, warmed their eggs, and carried on daily activities.

After viewing the penguins’ antics for a while, we stopped by the museum and gift shop. I was surprised that they had a gift shop, but we were advised about its presence during the daily briefing yesterday so we knew to take money with us. (For the first time after four days in Antarctica, we are actually at the place that we expected to land at the night before.) We bought a few souvenirs whose proceeds support an unspecified Chilean charity.

The day has been beautiful and sunny all day with a temperature of near 40 degrees F. After all the Zodiacs were reboarded, the ship sailed through the Gerlache Channel and toward the Antarctic Sound. The scenery is spectacular again—beautiful high cliffs of snow, glaciers between the mountain peaks, pieces of sheet ice and bergie bits scattered through the water—all backdropped by the gorgeous clear blue sky.

We had dinner at a table by the window in the Restaurant with Marion and Frank from the Netherlands. The evening show, the magician again, starts soon, and we are going to go watch. He was remarkable when we saw him a few nights ago.