The morning skies were clear and at 8:04 local time, the DAP airplane took off form Punta Arenas. Two hours later, our passengers had crossed the Drake and arrived at King George Island. King George island is an interesting place. Its one of the more northern most Islands in the South Shetlands. It is also home to many many National Antarctic Bases – Including Chile, Russia, China, Uruguay, Brazil, South Korea, Argentina, Peru, Poland, Ecuador. And its also home to the runway to welcome our passengers!
All arrived at 10am, disembarked, and walked down to the beach to get into the Zodiacs. First penguins!!!!! Cameras were quickly pulled out to capture the first gentoos, and chinstraps, and adelie’s walking around!!! How exciting! It took a while to get everyone to the beach – too many interesting things to take in and absorb! By 11, all were onboard and getting settled into their cabins.
Living on a small boat, there are many new things – new ways to flush a toilet, new ways to move on a floating home! Before lunch we reviewed “how to live” onboard. After lunch it was time for the ship safety briefing, as well as the Antarctica briefing – guidelines to follow to protect wildlife and keep it pristine for future visitors.
By the time we were done with that, the winds had changed to the North, bringing clouds and snow and dropping the windchill to –7 degrees C. burr… we’ll see how many takers we have for the afternoon stroll up to the Russian Church at Bellinghousen Station. (I’ll let you know how many go in the next blog!)
For now – a photo of our great passengers – we love them already! Super relaxed and friendly – we have so many nationalities onboard now! French, Belgian, Indian, Swedish, New Zealand, American, Argentina, Uruguay! What a great group to share an adventure with!!!!
