The small hut at Port Lockroy was once a British base and is now maintained by the United Kingdom Antarctic Heritage Trust as a museum. Fascinating artifacts of this region's rich history are on display within. Among other duties, the two summer residents operate a post office, the destination for hundreds of postcards and letters generated by our group on the Caledonian Star.
Kayakers could not resist the calm, glassy sea. Yellow boats dispersed from the platform to circumnavigate Goudier Island where the hut is located. A leopard seal glanced at nearby paddlers from its perch on the floating ice. Hikers and kayakers alike glimpsed into the lives of gentoo penguins and blue-eyed shags at Jougla Point where massive whale bones lay scattered on shore, bleached by years of weathering. Ragged peaks embraced the bay, and a distant cornice near the crest broke loose into a cascading "waterfall" of ice and snow and billowing clouds, an exhilarating farewell to this protected anchorage by Wiencke Island.
Brilliant sunlight penetrated the broken clouds and bathed the snow-covered peaks of the Antarctic Peninsula as we cruised north in early afternoon. Two humpback whales spouted just ahead. We lingered with these magnificent animals and watched them slap their long pectoral fins one after the other as they rolled belly-up with the conspicuous ventral pleats of their throats exposed. The undersides of humpback tails are uniquely pigmented, and when seen from directly behind, can be used by researchers to recognize individual animals. The two by the ship showed very different coloration, one predominantly white, the other dark with a white patch on either side. From the side, the graceful arched profile of the humpback's tail is unforgettable.
Daily High Temperature: 6 degrees C, 42 degrees F; Low: 0 degrees C, 32 degrees F Water Temperature - 0 degrees C, 32 degrees F
