Wispy clouds kissed the jagged peaks of the peninsula as we disembarked for our early morning landing at Petermann Island. Taking advantage of the morning sunlight, we explored the island. Gentoo penguin chicks clustered together, waiting for their parents to return with a meal, while molting adult Adelie penguins huddled near rocks avoiding the slightest breeze. Some of us hiked up Megalestris Hill to the rock cairn erected by Charcot commemorating the second French Antarctic Expedition which overwintered there in 1909. Others took a moment of silence at the cross honoring three British Antarctic Survey personnel, who perished near Petermann almost twenty years ago.

After cruising through a mist-shrouded Lemaire Channel we arrived at Paradise Bay. With amazing skill the captain brought the Caledonian Star within twenty meters of the steep cliff face to view nesting blue-eyed shags. Our next stop of the day was Cuverville Island. This small island, located between the Peninsula and Ronge Island in the Errera Channel, was discovered by the Belgica expedition in 1897-99, and named for a French vice-admiral. Here we enjoyed personal encounters with fledgling and adult Gentoo penguins, followed by spectacular Zodiac cruises through massive icebergs. As we maneuvered around ice floes, we came face to face with one of Antarctica's fiercest predators, the leopard seal. A few minutes later we were gazing upon several crabeater seals lounging on a floe and bearing the scars of leopard seal attacks. A spectacular and full day!