We tried to sleep late again but were awakened when Iggy came on the public address system to talk about the day's activities. We went to sleep planning to have a scenic cruise in the Zodiac near Torgensen Island. Iggy says the weather there is not good so we have stopped in the Neumayer Channel and will have zodiac landings today on Wiencke Island at Damoy Point near several Gentoo penguin rookeries and a British research station hut. It snowed all morning, but the wind was very light. We watched large groups of penguins swimming and diving in the water by our ship.

We also saw two other ships today. One was a tall-masted sailing ship, the Spirit of Sydney, very near the aft of our ship. The other was another cruise ship. It may be from National Geographic; it has the same coloring of the other ship we considered for our cruise, but I cannot read the name of it. We saw that ship last night during dinner, too.

Our group was the last of the guests to go ashore today. A number of the crew members were arriving in the Zodiacs as we were leaving. I think this is the first time the crew members were allowed to go on shore "after all the guests", according to Alexandra. But she thinks all of the crew members who want to do a landing will be able to once during the cruise or once during the season if they will be on for more Antarctic voyages.

We saw several rookeries of Gentoo penguins today and watched as they preened themselves and waddled around, some picking up pebbles for their nests, some incubating eggs. They create nests out of pebbles on the snow or rocks. The pebbles keep the eggs dry up above the melting snow. I didn’t see any chicks today, but we are farther south than we were on Sunday so it’s colder here overall. The day today was actually a few degrees warmer than when we were out on Sunday, but generally it’s colder here so the reproductive cycle is not as far along. Gentoo penguins adapt to the weather to lay eggs and hatch chicks based on where they are although other species keep to a more precise schedule so must go back to exactly the same spot to nest each year. Penguins are able to find the very nest they used the previous year and will stand over it even if the snow between them and the old nest is several meters thick. We are now below 64 degrees south latitude so very near the Antarctic Circle, but as far as I can tell now, we won’t cross over it during the cruise.

After everyone was back on board and the Zodiacs reloaded on the ship, we cruised through the Lemaire Strait through thick, chunky ice. Penguins and seals were resting or cavorting on a number of the ice floes near the ship. One crabeater seal was sleeping on ice quite near the ship. I thought he was going to sleep through as we passed him, but suddenly woke up with a loud “Hawttph!” I don’t think he was happy to be awakened that way. This the first time that a Seabourn ship has sailed through such thick ice. The Quest is an ice-class ship, and we have the former captain of the ship serving as Ice Pilot. It is like having the expertise of two captains for the cruise. We moved slowly and almost silently through the ice with the stabilizers retracted and had a great experience.

This evening, we attended the recap and briefing again. So far we have had three days planned one night ahead, and all three days we were rerouted because of weather. Tomorrow we are supposed to land at a Chilean base on the continent. I hope we can make it to the continent. We ended the evening with a dinner of Thomas Keller style barbecue ribs in the Colonnade this evening and shared a table with a couple from Santa Monica.

Sunset tonight will be at 11:39 p.m. and sunrise tomorrow at 2:13 a.m. I was up and looked out the window at 1:47 to see plenty of light. A slight glow of orange and pink was visible along the horizon.