Our ship arrived here at around 1 am and the anchor made a racket and woke me up - but only briefly. I am sleeping like a rock on the ship. Here's what I saw outside my cabin window.
Port Lockroy - which is on a small rock island, just like this one.
We took a zodiac tour as we awaited permission to land on the island which had a tourist shop. I was not interested in shopping and had already been on the zodiac for more than an hour and needed to get back to the ship to use the "facilities." We were in this protected cove with many varied sights. Of course, there were Gentoo penguins on the island. But even more impressive (to me after seeing so many penguins) was the Weddell seal basking on the shore. See how much the seal looks like the rocks on the island? There are nesting Cormorants as well.
Waddell seal kindly posed for our cameras.
This is called fast ice. Fast as in fastened to the shore, not moving fast. It's freshwater ice and very dense. This was broken up and our zodiac actually cruised right into :(
Peaks surrouding Port Lockroy
A sailboat anchored in Port Lockroy. We could see the occupants taking a hike on the glacier (not the one behind the ship.)
Port Port Lockroy restored. The quanset hut is where the staff live. The larger building is the tourist shop and the smaller building is the museum. There are Gentoo penguins, King Cormorants and the Waddell seal (pictured above) on the island as well.
Blue iceberg. Really, it was that blue.
See the bent railing with the sign on it? When we went through the two days of rough seas, the force of the swells bent those railings. Glad I didn't know about it until now.
Snowy Sheathbills seem to like the barbecue fare.