Wine, Penguins & More

  Penguins On New Years Eve We finally completed the crossing of the Drake Passage and woke-up to an incredible view in a massive cove (Cierva Cove) on the Antartica Peninsula.  The temperature today is 30 to 34 degree with broken cloudy skies.  Our Norwegian guide on the zodiac is named Rune.  The morning zodiac trip is an hour-plus cruise around this scenic cove.  In the afternoon, we take a second zodiac trip and go ashore with our first steps on the Seventh Continent at the "Bottom of the World".   Today, we saw gentoo and chinstrap penguins - no seals, sea lions and/or whales in this cove, but lots of beautiful icebergs.  On average, the ice berg size you see above the surface of the sea represents 10% of the total iceberg "mass".  The colors also tell a story ie, the darker shade of blue means the iceberg is older and the color happens because the oxygen is squeezed out of the ice.  When you see what appears to be a black color iceberg that means it is really

  Wine, Penguins & More Not much happening today as we continue the transit across the Drake Passage - about two hours ago, we crossed from the Atlantic Ocean into the Southern Ocean -  south of 60° S latitude.  We will start to see random icebergs and the northern most Antartica islands sometime this evening, but will not be at the Antartica Peninsula until tomorrow morning - New Year's Eve - 12-31-23.  Do you see it "1-2-3-1-2-3"? So, the pictures and commentary will get better starting tomorrow.    

Wine Penguins & More      Yesterday (12/28), we traveled from Buenos Aires to Ushuaia via a charter flight - Jet Smart with 200 people starting our Antartica adventure.  The conditions upon arrival in Ushuaia were 39 degrees with intermittent rain and snow showers.  The surrounding peaks were covered with a "fresh" layer of snow - it is summer in South America, but at the "Bottom of the World" any weather is possible.  Before boarding our expedition ship - Scenic  Eclipse, we ventured to Isabel, Cocina al disco for a lunch meal of King Crab.  The King Crab was not presented in the traditional "claws" way, but instead in a cast iron skillet with crab, saffron rice & potatoes - perhaps, better labeled as a king crap stew - it was delicious and quite filling.  Of course, some fine Argentinian "vino" was also paired with the crab.   We left the port of Ushuaia around 6:30 PM headed for Antartica - the seas have a slight roll with 2 to 3 meter