Well, at least we still have propulsion!  We are up early for some reason (and I’m feeling quite well considering last night’s alcohol intake) which works out well, because we throw on clothes and run to the laundry room where we are lucky enough to get the last available washer.  Success!  It’s only 6am – but the 2 other washing machines are in use and all 3 dryers – do these people not sleep?  That’s crazy!  But then again, look at us – we’re here.  Next we try the gym – there is one treadmill available which Ed takes.  I’m good, heading back down to the cabin for my shower and to await the washing machine.  

Laundry completed by 7am!  Now we are completely handled for the rest of the trip – clean undies, socks and sweats – because really, what else have we been wearing every day?  Nothing but lounging clothes and it is so cold now, we’re definitely not sweating through anything.  Then it is breakfast and a day of leisure….seriously leisure. There is nothing on the schedule but wildlife and seaweed survey from 9:30 to 11:00, but it is so foggy and misty out there, you can’t see a thing.  There were reports of a whale out there, but no one got any photos, so the general consensus is that it didn’t happen.  LOL. Except that Gennadiy has pictures….so…there is that:

Courtesy of Gennadiy Skorokhod, SH Diana

At 11:00 there is a whiskey tasting.  If it were a wine tasting…ok…but whiskey? Nah.  We’ll just sit here and watch.  And it’s busy!  It’s not like it isn’t all free anyway….but it’s an activity, and everyone does look like they are having fun, so there is that.

Lunch in the club café, the fish is Hake and excellent on that grill. We’ve been so lucky it has been open every day – even when it is too cold to sit outside, they still do the grill and just deliver it inside.

The afternoon is spent in the cabin because there is more cloud spotting – not in this total cloudiness – and a wildlife survey, again, it’s pea soup out there – you’re not going to see anything.  At 4 we have the Evolution of Cetaceans with Carine which is excellent. She knows her stuff boy!  Really, it is fascinated that whales evolved from a water mammal that came on land after the first ice age melted, evolved into something that looked like a wolf or a really mean weasel with long legs, and then went back into the water when a shortage of food on land.  The species then re-evolved into water mammals and that was that. You can actually see the bone structure from the land based mammal that the whale came from when you look at skeletons – things like finger bones, elbows, scapula, etc. can be identified. Fascinating.   

Our briefing and recap at 6:30 went well with Brandon – we have 2 landings, the first at Grytviken, the old whaling station, the second in the afternoon at St. Andrews Bay for the largest rookery in the world with over 100,000 pairs of King penguins.  We’ve lucked out and are in the first zodiac groups, which will be nice to be able to get there first and do what we want before the wandering hordes land. 

Dinner is excellent as usual – the food has really been quite good – and then our after-dinner drink with Allan before heading back to the cabin, in front of the flickering fire place, to watch Shackleton’s Antarctic Adventure documentary at 9:30. We’ll never figure out how they got the video they showed.  It was 1914!  We guess movie camera? Who knows – but it was amazing – all over again.  Crazy explorers and adventurers!