After last nights celebrations the restaurant was relatively empty even though everyone had an extra hour in bed as we put the clocks back an hour as we are now back to Argentinian time rather than South Georgia time.
The seas were flat calm - very unusual we were told but everyone was very grateful for the amazing sea state - apparently the Captain didn't even have to use the stabilizers today which is an unusual phenomenon.
On the schedule today we had three more lectures on - the principles of bird migrations, by Franz whose day job is Director of a German Bird Institute so we had the must up to date thinking which was great; a more historical lecture which explored sea monsters and mermaids and tried to explain what some of them might have really been; and finally s lecture of the politics of the Antarctic and the Antarctic Treaty which focuses on peace and scientific research.
The day started however with a film on Frank Hurley an extraordinary cameraman who was on many pioneering trips including with Shackleton and Mawson, and also on Ross and Smiths flight from London to Australia as well as documenting the world wars... We watched it in our room and it gave s very good insight into this early events and his skill with a camera.
In the evening we saw more tabular icebergs indicating we were getting closer to Antarctica itself.
(Today's photo is of one of the light mantled sooty albatrosses we saw at Coopers Bay on 30/12/14 - I love the use of its feet as stabilisers in the wind!)