Half Moon Island, South Shetland Islands

There were no more hiccups during the crossing and we arrived in Half Moon Island on time for the first group of guests to head out in zodiacs at 7:30am.

Paul was awake in time to come to the island me but we were delayed getting off. A gentleman was brought back to shore with the medical team and we were ushered back up the steps to the boot room so that the stretcher team could get him off. A woman next to us started crying and a guest asked her if she was ok. She was the gentleman's wife and apparently he had fainted shoreside for no obvious reason. She was naturally upset and worried.

After a short time, we were allowed to continue to the zodiac.

Not far from the landing site there was a seal and her youngster, relaxing. We had a nice walk up to the crest of a hill to a colony Chinstrap Penguins, and had nice views of the bay on the other side of the island. Kayakers were in the water. The scenery was beautiful. We took a walk over the crest of the hill and down to the other side of the island to a short peninsula. Earlier there had been a colony of seals but we didn't see them. We saw Gentoo penguins swimming in the water near us though.

Walking through the snow was quite hard and by the time we got back to the crest of the hill, we were hot and tired.

Once back on board the ship, we had hot chocolate to warm up and then went to have an early lunch in the crew mess. Paul had to be back on the Bridge by 12 noon. I read for a bit in the Bow Lounge until the housekeepers had cleaned our room.

I was going to go out on a zodiac cruise to Edinburgh Hill - a basalt plug that I had cruised around last week. In the end I didn't go. I was feeling very cold and tired, and ended up having a nap. I know I shouldn't miss opportunities to get out but my sleep was a main priority - I was shattered.Read more