Hello Antarctica!

For All:

Hello from Antarctica! The crossing was quite rough in the beginning 
Mary, Susan, and Lori got sick.  We then had the Drake Lake for over 20 
hours and had to motor since there was no wind.

Yesterday we went to Whalers Bay at Deception Island. We were fortunate 
to have nice weather. We met a couple there from another sailing boat 
who were stuck there for two days because of bad weather. Yesterday was 
the first day they could get off their boat and explore the old whaling 
station. We saw chinstrap penguins and two leopard seals. We hiked up to 
the lookout at Neptune’s Window. There were fantastic views to the other 
side of the caldera. Below was a black sand beach.

We anchored in Whaler’s Bay overnight. It snowed during the night and 
the landscape of Whaler’s Bay changed dramatically.

This morning we sailed to Fumarole Bay, also in Deception Island. We 
headed out for a long hike to a chinstrap penguin colony on the other 
side of the tall hills. It was about a two hour hike there and back. 
Lots of ice and snow over the reddish volcanic sand. We had to go up and 
down and up and down. It began to snow.

The chinstrap colony was spread out over several thin fingers of land 
separated by valleys. It was a bit windy and continued to snow. We were 
told it was much better weather than last trip where they had fierce 
wind and had to stop and sit down very often so as not to be blown down 
by the strong gusts.

We sat on one of the cliff top areas overlooking the rocky beach below 
where the penguins come and go from the ocean. We ate the lunch we 
brought with us, sandwiches and fruit. It was great watching the 
penguins antics.

And there were penguin chicks! Most of them were larger grey colored 
fluff balls. There were a few smaller white fluff balls. They did not 
mind that we were there. A few were curious and came quite close to 
check us out while we were sitting for lunch.

We were able to move around the various groups of penguins. We just had 
to wait to cross the many penguin highways going to the groups and to 
the sea.

We are heading further south. Where we stop will depend on the weather.

Food has been delicious and everyone is nice. We had a belated birthday 
party for Mary last night. She had her favorite beer, the black Beagle. 
We had berry cheesecake for dessert. On her actual birthday Calypso 
baked her a chocolate banana cake.