Our first full day aboard the vessel was given over to all kinds of briefings, including an intro to IAATO (International Association of Antarctic Tour Operators) and their rules regarding the expected behaviour of tourists like us while ashore and afloat in the Antarctic Region.

Throughout the day we had a lecture on sea birds including demonstration of bird calls by Gary. Annette gave us some facts about the local whales and Nina (not Nina Blackwell but one of the crew with that name) presented a brief history of exploration in the Antarctic up to 1820.

After all the presentations we were introduced to the Mud Room. This is a room on deck four of the ship from which we embark and disembark the Zodiacs through two small doors in the side of the ship. It is also the place were we clean that penguin dung off our boots on returning to the ship by stepping into two trays, one of clean water and one of disinfectant. This process is also applied on boarding the Zodiacs so that nothing from the ship is carried to shore on our boots.

I forgot to mention that we spent some of the early afternoon vacuuming all the dust and dirt from the clothing and equipment we were planning to take on any shore excursions. This was a time consuming activity as you can imagine. Over 100 guests and 5-8 vacuum cleaners.