Antarctica - First Day-Melchior Islands

Today we stopped at a bay in the Melchior Islands. It was our first stop in the cold of Antarctica and we were advised to take all our warm weather gear. The bay is home to the Argentinian Melchior station (red buildings) that has not been continuously used in a while. It used to gather weather data.
After putting on our multiple layers of gear and clothing, we boarded our Zodiac for a trip through the bay and it's numerous large pieces of ice that calved off of the mainland glacier and just float in the bay. We saw a whale and her calf earlier in the day and a multiple species of seals in the water and sea lions on land. And of course, where were just a few penguins. The sea lions lay along the rocky shore to stay away from their predators, the seals and whales that visit the bay.
After we returned, the skies got cloudy and it was even colder later in the early evening. We left on the Special OPs boat which is a high speed boat where we could go out further into the bay and see even more, larger icebergs and more marine wildlife.
When we first arrived, we were able to see them launching the 2 yellow submarines and the pilot navigating them by standing on top and using a remote control to navigate away from the ship. We will be taking a trip on the submarines later on during our trip.
Back onboard for dinner, desert and a lecture on Antarctic Penguins. I guess this is because once the ship re-positions for tomorrow there will be penguin sightings. Looking forward to them....Read more