Today was our last day making stops and we are sad about that.  It seems like it went so fast.  The weirdest part about the trip is that it never gets dark.   The sun is up  until about 11 p.m. and then it seems to dip a little so its still  light, not even dusk but not sunny. It is very hard to keep track of the time, especially bed time when it stays light all of the time.. Of course, in the winter, it is dark all of the time so it evens out somewhere. 

We arrived at Portal Point at 7 a.m. and half of us went hiking and half took a Zodiac Cruise.  An hour in, we switched.  The weather conditions were amazing, and believe it or not it was warm.  41 degrees with sunshine.  We had to use sunscreen and take water with us due to the blazing heat.  But, whatever you think the forecast is….it isn’t.   It changes in a split second.  We got on the Zodiac and were immediately met with windy conditions, colder temps but still sunshine.  We cruised the area for sometime, looking for whales and seals.   As it turns out, because there is so much ice, Penguins are not too interested in mating here or even visiting.  There were a couple but that’s it.  For sure not enough to smell up the place.  

There are two types of Penguins that stay in Antarctica all of the time but only breed in the summer months.  Macaroni and Little blue Penguins.  Both feed in the cold Southern Ocean and are year round residents.  Adelie Penguins migrate and cover about 8000 miles in a circular pattern.  Magellanic Penguins winter in Argentina and Chile, sometimes Peru and Brazil and Emperor Penguins breed in the winter in Antartica.   

In addition to the couple of penguins we saw today, we saw a beautiful yet ugly Elephant seal.  They have a large long nose and no ears.  I talked about them earlier in the trip.  They migrate between Antarctica and some sub Antarctic Islands.  
Some other seals stay in Antarctica in the winter and some spend their winters drifting on ice and only come to shore to breed.

Whales however are a little different.  We saw a couple of them today too.  Mostly humpbacks in the area this time of year.  They migrate from polar waters to tropical waters.  They travel great distances every year and have one of the longest migrations of any mammal.  

Our hike this morning was beautiful and full of ice and snow.  We got to the top and the view was breathtaking.  (Like every other view).  This one seemed to be special, maybe because it was our last.  

We made our way this afternoon to Enterprise Island.  Here we took our last excursion.  Zodiac boats were cruising around the island this afternoon and we tagged along on the early trip (not in our Zodiac group) so we could get back for an afternoon Wine Tasting.   Enterprise Island is a small area of rock covered in snow. It is beautiful and surrounded by icebergs of all shapes and sizes.  

During our cruise, we went to see the shipwreck of the Governoren, an old whaling ship.  Because whaling facilities in Antarctica did not really exist, ships became perfect spots to carry whatever whalers needed to hunt and kill whales.  The ships were also big enough to process the whales by removing their blubber and other parts that were “useable.”

In 1915, a whaling mission had wrapped up and the crew threw themselves a party below deck.  While a crew member was dancing, he accidentally knocked a lamp off a table and the entire ship caught fire because of the thousands of gallons of whaling oil on board.  The oil allowed the fire to spread quickly and out of control.  Luckily all 85 crew were able to escape but the ship was burned.  I have attached a picture of the shipwreck that lies on the edge of the water.

As we were heading back to our ship, our Zodiac captain told us he saw another Zodiac ship that was in distress and we needed to go over and help them.  We coasted into a cove and over to the boat and lo and behold it was our Expedition team waiting with champagne and glasses for us to celebrate the end of our Expedition.   It was truly emotional, happy and sad and together we celebrated everything we accomplished.

Upon our return to the ship, we attended a wine tasting.  Our sommelier, Daniel, had four Cabernets for us to try in a half blind taste test.  There were 6 of us in attendance and as Daniel went through the important stuff:  taste, acidity, alcohol content, color, we all looked up, smiled and drank all of the wine in front of us.  It was a very pleasant end of an amazing day. 

The nightly briefing was quick, our expedition team put on a funny little show about the swells in the Ocean and we then met up with our friends to rehash the day.  Dinner was long but delicious but now we are exhausted.  

Cici at sea signing off…..