We had a day of authentic Antarctic weather conditions. It was relatively warm this morning, but today the wind got us. In the morning everybody had to show themselves flexible. We could not do our scheduled landing, because it was too windy; hence we had to alter our plans, but it turned out to be a change for the better: We landed at Neco Harbor which meant we made it to the mainland of Antarctica much sooner than we would have dreamt. The gentoo penguins welcomed us with their fanfares. There was a lot of ice at the landing site, so even the penguins found it difficult to get in out of the water, but we managed fine and were rewarded with wonderful impressions of wildlife and spectacular views of some glaciers.
In the afternoon the wind picked up and it was snowing quite heavily as we were cruising towards our second landing site in Port Lockroy. Now a terrible wait started if the wind would die down enough for us to make it to shore, but in the end all was well and we had a memorable visit to the British museum station. Everybody enjoyed the hospitality of the station’s charming crew and of the numerous penguins that inhabit the island with them. Of course everybody came back with many an everlasting impression of the interesting museum and laden with lots of souvenirs from one of the world southernmost post offices and souvenir shops on the planet. It was a long day, so sleep tight and sweet dreams.