Sunday, January 01 - Happy New Year!
Antarctica

Antarctica - Our first full day in Antarctica! Almost 24-hour daylight will allow us take full advantage of our days here. Possible landing sites include Cuverville, Neko Harbour and Paradise Bay. Thousands of Gentoo penguins and their chicks await us at these sites, and we'll be in excellent whale watching territory. At Neko Harbour, we'll be able to hike up onto a small icecap for an incredible view of Andvord Bay. Be on the lookout for calving glaciers as we sail through some spectacular channels!

JOURNALS for Sunday (Updated 11:00 am EST)

Geoff Green

Happy New Year!

We are presently in the Bransfield Strait on the south side of Livingston Island, South Shetland Islands, Antarctica.

JOURNALS for Sunday (Updated 5:00 pm EST)

Geoff Green

We arrived this morning to Deception Island. Sunny and windy. We made a spectacular landing at Baily Head. This is one of the most incredible wilderness sites perhaps in the world. About 500,000 Chinstrap penguins greeted us on shore! The students were actually speechless... at least for a while After lunch we sailed through Neptune's Bellows into the flooded caldera of Deception Island and landed at Whaler's Bay. This is the largest flooded caldera in the world! This old whaling station is littered with whale bones, old tanks, old buildings....so that it is a bit like stepping back in time...and there can be an eirie feeling here. Since this volcano is still semi-active there is geo-thermal activity and steam visable along
certain parts of the beach. Therefore we dug ourselves a nice hottub this afternoon and all the students went for a swim. But the rule for joining the Antarctic swim team is that you first have to jump in the freezing cold ocean before being allowed in the hottub!

It has been a wonderful day. We're now beginning our journey further south towards the Gerlache Strait down the western side of the Antarctic Peninsula. We plan to make our first landing tomorrow morning at Cuverville Island.

JOURNALS for Sunday (Updated 10:00 pm EST)

Sophie Breton

Salutations à tous!!

Le réveil ce matin a été difficile, étant donné l'absence de coucher de soleil. Ce fut un des mes plus longs jours de l'an! Après ce réveil brutal et un déjeuner rapide, nous avons enfilé nos pelures de linge pour se rendre en zodiac dans un endroit que l'on nomme "Deception Island". Pour ceux qui me connaissent, c'est à cet endroit, après avoir escaladé un des sommets, que j'ai laissé une partie de ma peine. ça aurait énormément plu à Ruth. J'ai eu des larmes mais également des éclats de rire, ceci grâce à toute l'élégance que peut mettre un manchot pour traverser un ruisseau minuscule! Deception Island a essuyé plusieurs éruptions volcaniques au cours des derniers cent ans. C'est un désert de roches volcaniques, mais également une ancienne base de baleiniers. Les ruines humaines et les restes de baleines nous renvoient une image plutôt macabre, mais tout de même, c' est un endroit magnifique qui ne porte vraiment pas bien son nom!! Évidemment, je ne peux pas vous laisser sans vous avoir expliqué le titre du mail. Et bien oui, vu l'activité volcanique omniprésente à Deception Island, nous en avons profité pour faire officiellement partie de l'"Antarctic swimming team", et nous avons pris notre courage à deux mains en plongeant dans les eaux froides antarctiques pour ensuite se réchauffer dans les eaux chaudes volcaniques si on peut dire (je me suis presque brûlée en creusant dans la plage!!).

Là-dessus, je ne suis pas seule, je laisse donc ma place. Encore bonne année à tous!

Antarctiquement vôtre,

Sophie Breton

Jason Hammond

Happy New Year! With waves crashing over the bow, and spraying the Bridge windows, we are riding swells even more exciting than our Drake Passage crossing. A few stomachs are less than thrilled. As we head south toward the Antarctic Peninsula, we are continuing to witness the beauty of the islands and icebergs around us. As we left the ship, our Zodiac driver (Eric, the oceanographer) shouted "Okay, we're going to hit the beach, then you'll do a slide and spin! It will happen very fast!" As we passed an iceberg on the port side, a penguin "porpoised" to the starboard. The welcoming committee had arrived. We landed safely, and stood enthralled amongst the largest Chinstrap Penguin colony in the Antarctic Peninsula, over half a million birds strong. As the mates exchanged duties protecting the chicks and heading out to sea to feed, they formed a penguin highway, with rows of white bellies and black backs tracing a path from the rookeries at the hilltops down to the beach where we made our Zodiac landing. Crossing this line of penguins was quite a challenge, but we were guided by Daniel, our ornithologist, and we were able to cause very little disruption to the procession. Many of the Chinstraps did turn and watch us pass. They are so curious, and as we chose a route at an undisruptive distance, they seemed to be saying, "you silly humans, we have the best route figured out over here." There was a continuous din of bird calls from the rookeries, where the basic message was "Over here, darling! Getting a bit hungry." It is truly amazing that the mates can find each other amongst hundreds of thousands of individuals.

Many of us also took the opportunity to join the Antarctic Swim Team. We dove into the Southern Ocean from a beach within the flooded caldera of a volcano. It was. exhilarating. There was one single penguin present to watch us go. It probably thought we were nuts. Perhaps you do, too. That would be entirely reasonable, you know. The volcano was Deception Island, where a section of the caldera wall has fallen in to allow a bay to be formed inside.

Well, it is quite late; the constant sunlight allows us to see the beauty that surrounds us at all hours. I mustn't forget to get some sleep; in Antarctica it is called a Big Eye. So goodnight, all!

Cheryl Horton, Chaperone

Happy New Year once again!!!! We had a beautiful morning here in Antarctica!!! We are just returning from Deception Island, where over 500,000 Chinstrap penguins nest. It was awesome!!! What we were seeing were only about half of them, as one half was out feeding. They are very organized. As they leave the sea and head back to their nests, they stay on the right side.and as they are leaving the rookery going to the sea, they are in a line on the left.this is called the penguin highway. The penguins have the right of way, of course. Words cannot describe what we saw.you saw countless nesting penguins all the way to the top of the volcano ridge. We saw baby chicks of varying ages...and were told that by March, if the babies are not old enough to leave, they are left behind. Deception Island is a volcano, with its last eruption 1992, I believe. We came up along one side of the caldera. This afternoon, the ship went into the harbor (called Whaling Bay) created by the caldera. A whaling station and research station were located here.but since the eruptions---the ash covered most of the buildings and ruined the rest (most of this was in the 1960's when this eruption occurred. We did quite a bit of hiking both am and pm outings. We also created a hot tub by digging hole in the sand.the natural heat of the volcano then heated the water that filtered into it.so we went into the ocean and then into this "hot tub".the water was really hot, so it felt very good.but not as good as the shower felt once we got back to the ship. This evening will consist of a dinner and then a talk. I am sure the kids (and all of us adults) will have a hard time staying awake, as it has been a very busy day for us.with a lot of physical exertion. I miss you and hope all is well. Talk to you soon.

Jenny Chimbo

It was great to start the New Year with penguins. Lots of chinstrap penguins! Viewing these massive colonies was just shocking and as Geoff said it was a penguin super bowl. Thousands of penguins were all over, they would walk up and down the beach. It was like a highway which had penguins instead of cars! The best moment was when we were going up the hills and got to see the chicks. This was the best part since they are adorable! The part I hated was when a skua was eating a baby penguin. It was horrible. At the end it was all good since I saw thousands of chicks. This was unbelievable once again and it is so hard to put in words.

Later in the afternoon we went to the other part of Deception Island. I got to see through Neptunes Window. This was just amazing as if we were in another planet. We were able to see a bit of the continent through it. Then we also saw cape petrals which were nesting on the cliffs. About quarter after five we finally got the change to swim. Yes we got into the Antarctic waters and then into the hot tub Geoff and Drew created. This was crazy but we all became part of the Antarctic swimming team at that instant.

The day couldn't have gotten better after spotting two hump back whales. The positive karma we all had definitely kept on making our day better and better.

Lucas Alvarez

I cannot ask for a better way to start the year. January 1st started off with an unusual breakfast. We all woke up late because the PA system wasn't working and then we waited in anticipation for news of our first landing of the day on Bailey's Head. When Geoff told us to get ready, excitement was in the air. We were all ready to see the over half-million chinstrap penguins on rookeries all over the landscape. After we landed, we saw a skua feeding on a chick penguin and thousands of penguins moving up and down the penguin "highway." It was amazing and pretty amusing to see the multitude of white and black masses waddle through. After that point, we went on a short hike up a hill to end up at the top of a ridge. The view was beautiful. I could really feel the power of the wind that was blowing at gale force. We came back on the ship and then went to the briefing for the day. When we were done, we all got ready to get wet! During our lunch we crossed through Neptune's Bellows, an opening to the inside of the caldera of Deception Island. We took the Zodiac Boats and landed on the shores of Whaler's Bay inside Deception Island. This island was amazing because we actually got to see an old whaling station from the 1930's. The site had a reverend feel to it and it made one feel a deep respect for all the majestic whales that were killed there. I think it serves as monument to the dark era in our history. We also got to see Neptune's Window, which was an opening in the caldera walls that lets one view the Antarctic main land(on a very clear day). Our stay at Deception Island culminated with.. A SWIM IN THE SOUTHERN OCEAN!! It was incredible to jump into the -1?? C water. It was all worth it, though, after the bath in the hot water in the geothermic water. I repeated the above steps three times. I am proud to say that I am officially a lifetime member of the Antarctic Swim Team! When we got back on the ship, I immediately went to take a hot shower. We had a briefing and then dinner after that. In the time we exited Neptune's Bellows, the waters started to get extremely rough, although there is a blue sky and a bright sun out (even though it is 9:12pm). Right now I am feeling a little bit sick, but I have to thank God for Dramamene! Today was a jam packed day right now I am ready for a bed. I am looking forward to write about my adventures tomorrow!

By the way, I mention a lot of terms and places that you may not know. If you can, please research the different places on the internet so that you can get an idea of where I am. Thank you for keeping up with us and thanks for all the support!

Much Love,

-Lucas Alvarez