February 23,

Up by around 7:00 before alarms. Jeff went and acquired some Muesli from Paula’s pantry. He also got him some hot chocolate. I made coffee in the room. We were at Goudin Island. We were supposed to do a cruise/landing, but there was strong wave action, so it was changed to a Zodiac cruise only. The weather is very overcast, and rather dismal with some wind. It was cold, no doubt about it.

The first group was 1 & 2, and was called at 8:20. But they had troubles, so we didn’t get out until just after nine. We did note the difficulty in getting aboard the Zodiac (this was the trouble the first group had). Anyway, our guide was Isidro. He didn’t speak too much and seemed to not go as close to shore as others. But if we asked a question he did answer at length. We asked about the green and pink colors in the ice. He said they were natural algae only known to exist in Antarctica! We saw Chinstrap, Gentoo, and Adelie Penguins. We also saw some larger, adult male Fur Seals, which seemed so much bigger than the pups… didn’t see any pups. Also of note there are more icebergs and bits of ice all about.

We returned to the boat, around 1015. This was very cold, against the wind and pelted with cold sprays of water. On board we went back to our room, doffing our wet gear. Jeff got us a Paula’s Pantry ham and cheese toasty and a mixed cut up fruit dish. Then we went up to the Dome. They announced a Hot Pot for lunch, so we went down. We didn’t partake as it was all kinds of seafood. But the buffet was a whole carved roasted lamb, chicken pot pie, and cream of potato soup. Those were more our speed and were great.

We finished and went back to the Dome as we started moving toward Brown Bluff. The wind really picked up now, back up to the low end of hurricane force and it started sleeting/snowing! Then they announced the afternoon venture was cancelled. Next, Chad announced they would try to position to do a Polar Plunge! That seemed crazy to us!! But this ended as a no-go too, as the wind kicked back up. So the yacht moved again and found a spot to reattempt the Polar Plunge. The sleet/snow at least stopped, and the plunge successfully happened. We did not participate in this – not even interested. Sometime during this repositioning we passed by the Argentin, Esperanza base and a supply ship leaving from there. It has been the only other ship we have seen, surprisingly!

At 1930, we went down and met with Jan for supper. The others were the two sisters we had previously eaten with and an older man from Wyoming. We ended up sharing a table with another group with Glenda. It was fun and good conversation. We had the Indonesian Chicken Satay and Creamy Caribbean Soup as starters. For mains we had Pan-fried Grouper in a white wine sauce with morel mushrooms over sauteed spinach and roasted sliced potato; and Duck a l’Orange with Hoisin sauce and broccoli and wild rice. Then we had an Aurum Crema, which was a mousse like dessert of Espresso, salted caramel, and cocoa profiles. We were so busy talking and eating we missed the nightly Briefing and Recap. Bed by 2145.