(Today's photo is from Neko Harbour as promised on 4/1/15) Thankfully the day dawned with much lighter seas and stayed relatively calm all day. It must have been good as I ventured to the gym before breakfast and John packed one of our bags. We watched Svens lecture on Antarctic explorers on television but went to Toby's excellent lecture on plants that changed the world. After lunch we watched Happy Feet 2 on television then after tea and Trivia went to listen...

I woke at 4am ish and was aware that the seas enroute to Deception island were now lumpier and they became increasingly so as we pushed into the wind. We had our usual 6.15 am tea but sat at the table as we didn't trust ourselves in bed to keep the tea in the cup - this proved a good move. Tea drunk we headed back to bed, as the safest place, and watched the waves pass the cabin window. I felt a tad queasy and had to rush to the bathroom emerging 10 minutes late...

As we had anchored off Port Lockroy overnight the landings started at 0730 but we were in the last group to go ashore at 0945 as they only take a maximum of 35 at anytime. So I had a leisurely morning going to the gym and then to breakfast before we disembarked. Port Lockroy is a natural harbour and was initially used by whalers before the British established base A on Goudier Island - the earliest example of a British Scientific Research Station on the Antarcti...

I woke early and opened the curtains to a grey day and sat in bed and watched as we passed the snow covered land mass, with an occasional grey peak or ridge sticking through; the cloud line was just above giving it a closed in feeling. As we continued to cruise down the strait, in calm seas, to our next destination we still had to dodge the obligatory small and large icebergs. Interestingly the mountains do not seem that high it's as if you have the tops with...

Today we were awake on and off through the night as I currently have a cough - but my frequent peering a through the blackout curtains suggested it never really went dark albeit I did miss the 0330 sunrise which must have been one of my sleeping moments. Although we were awake the rest of the ship must have been awake from 6.00am onwards as the ship was making its way through an ice filled channel and regularly crashing through large chunks of ice. The jolts dis...