Good Morning from the Vicinity of Elelphant Island -- At the Bottom of the World

Thanks for your emails and comments. It's still very difficult and expensive to get emails out so I'll communicate to you through this blog. Your specific questions:

No Diane, that's not me. However that's a shipmate and I stepped out of the following boat. We were landing at the Chilean Base to see penguins and the Chilean Navy took advantage of the photo op to say they were rescuing us from our iceberg collision. There was no rescue because we were not in danger. The Chileans were looking for a way to get into the newspaper.

Catherine: Trip is really only cut short by a half day -- we are leaving a half day early so we can coordinate our Drake's Crossing with the itinerary of our escord ship - the Russian vessel Academic Ioffe.

David: You are right about who belongs in Antarctica.

Steve - Yes, we are enjoying many reindeer sandwiches. We eat reindeer in many forms.

This morning we are cuising in seach of iceberg B-15 -- which calved off the Antarctice penninsula a few years ago.. It is a huge iceberg and is about the size of Jamaica. We will also be near Elephant Island (of Shackelton fame) and maybe, just maybe we will have a landing to check out the wildlife there.

Our itinerary changes every 10 minutes based on weather and other condidtions. Be assured that one does not travel to Antarctica for a pleasure cruise (in the traditional sense of the word.) Rather it is an expedition and we go where nature permits. And, we abide by all the captain's decisions. Like for example, when we had our iceberg mishap Friday night, we were drifting towards a huge, threatening rock. Colliding with the iceberg was actually what happened while we were avoiding the rock.

If any of you see newspaper articles about us, please save them for me.

The Drake's Crossing back lays ahead later this afternoon. We are hoping that it will be as calm as it was getting here. More later...