This morning we are scheduled to take a (Longitudinal World Cruisers ONLY )SOB cruise around the area. Its a bright sunny day and perfect for the excursion..
Port Lockroy. An abandoned British base during WWII that has been turned into a research facility run by the UK Antarctic Heritage trust. It is located in a sheltered bay on Guilder Island. Today two of the UK Heritage trust explorers are coming on board to sell postcards,sell souvenirs, give a lecture and most importantly: shower and use running water! They are dependant on passing ships to provide them with drinking water and there are no shower facilities on shore. And even with those constraints, the trust has hundreds of applications a year from those wanting to come here and do research. This is also the southern most Post office in the world. later today, we will buy postcards and mail them with the volunteers and send them home. Ive included a few pictures for you to enjoy…wont narrate much as Im not really sure what was said… It was a glorious sunny morning and we look forward to our landing and walking on Antarctica later this afternoon in Damoy Point.
The snow is so pristine…
The flat shaped ice is sea ice. It is formed on the sea and doesn’t come from glaciers.
Glacier ice is shaped, bluer in color and only the top 10% is visible.
This looked like the perfect christmas card picture.
The dark mess on top of this hill is a colony of penguins
Here’s two that were hoping their way to the water…
Closer view. They do look silly when they walk and then fall into water!
The mailbox.. standard British red! 
Postcards bought, stamped
And written! As we were getting our cards ready it was announced that the afternoon activities would be shortened as there was a medical emergency and we would have to reposition the ship some 200 nautical miles away in King George Island and wait for a plane from Chile to arrive. The ship did reposition us to Damoy point for the afternoon activities in a shortened time frame. So we will get to step foot on Antarctica after all!
Heading to the small hut on Damoy Point
Albert and Linda on Antarctica!
Underneath the hut, a male gentoo penguin is building a nest of stones for his mate. Patiently he carried one stone after another to her.
While she did absolutely nothing!
Look closely and you can see the female just sitting there…it was an up hill hike to get up to the hut. We were both over dressed and got incredibly tired trying to walk up fresh slick snow in our big boots… luckily our friends who are younger were able to walk farther to where there was a large per group of Gentoos. The following pictures are taken by Sue Dietrich and her husband Steve. 
Aren’t these the best photos! Thanks again Sue for your photos. 
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