Today was a big day as the last excursion of the day was to be at the expeditions Farthest Point South. It was also a big day because it started earlier than usual with a ship wide wakeup call at 6:00 am that encouraged us all to "get outside and watch our passage through the Lemaire Channel".

The Lemaire Channel proved to be spectacular, surrounded on both sides by steep mountains with lots of glaciers that had filled the passage with floating ice. The weather even cooperated and provided some good light for the thousands of photos that were taken.

After the Lemaire and breakfast our first excursion of the day was a zodiac cruise around Pleneau Bay just at the southern end of the Lemaire Channel. This was an opportunity to see floating ice in a myriad of forms. We even got a chance to disembark on a small ice flow.

Luck smiled upon us and we discovered a Crab Eater Seal resting on a small ice flow.

We also got to see a Krill, the small prawn/shimp like creatures that whales eat. I had always though Krill were microscopic but it seems that they are around 2" (50mm) in length.

The final execurion of the day was at a small island called, Petermann Is. The island had a number of colonies of nesting Gentoo Penguins, some of which were nursing new chicks.

The ice in the sea made our landing and departure from this island more than a little difficult. The incoming tide packed the ice up against the shore and the zodiac drivers had to force their craft through the pack.

We were assured by the expedition crew that even had we not been able to rejoin the ship until the tide turned we had emergency shelter available on shore (the crew carried such supplies on every landing) and in any case we could make use of the little shelter hut that was near our landing spot. The hut is the property of the Argentine Navy.