Antarctica, 2026

We have made it through the Drake Passage and are spending 4 days on the Antarctic Peninsula before heading to the South Georgia Islands.

Here’s the visual that I frequently consult, because I’m already losing track of time.

Fortunately both my iPhone and camera date stamp all my photos so if I ever need to tell what I did when, I can always consult my photos.

There are 140 passengers aboard our ship. Because Antarctica only allows no more than 100 people ashore at a time, half of the group is on land, while the other half cruises around in the zodiacs looking for wildlife.

For efficiency in boarding and disembarking, the passengers are further subdivided into four groups of 35. I’m in the albatross group, which will be kayaking at 10:30 today. Because the kayaks hold two people, we all needed to buddy up. As luck would have it, my partner has his own kayaks back home in Massachusetts, so his skill level far exceeds mine. We all know THAT particular bar is REALLY low. Because he’s in the Gentoo group, he was all too happy to trade his 8:30 departure for my later one. As a bonus, I’ll bet it will be warmer then.

I hope to be able to take a video of that experience, but while I am trying to work off the great food and even greater wine on the gym’s exercise bike, I’ll share some of prior days photos.

Well, I TRIED to insert videos of the whales that we saw from the bridge, the penguins and birds from our zodiac cruises, but WiFi isn’t cooperating, so I’ll do that when I get home.

It’s pretty amazing that I’m able to have ANY connectivity here at the bottom of our planet.

Every evening we gather in the lounge for a recap of the day’s activities. Of course, because the talk is in the lounge, we are a very jolly audience, because we can have whatever beverage we desire, and quantities are not limited.

I have time to share a couple more shots before I need to gear up for my kayak adventure.

I SO wanted that seal to pick his head up!