­­­­­­­­­­­18/2/08 20:00

The Germans vanished on cue as advertised.  Gabriele, Paulo and I went ashore to commune with the Gentoos, of which there are thousands.   According to Jimmy Cornell this anchorage, Port Circumcision, was named by a French explorer, after the traditional day on which it was first sighted, 1 January 1909. The French expedition spent a long winter here with their ship “Pourquoi Pas.”   The initials PP are carved into a rock a few meters off our port beam, and the Germans were all dutifully ferried in to look at the piece of rock. The Island itself is called Peterman Island.

After our outing I had a shower and a general clean up while unbeknown to me Gabriele was out in the cold on the bow filming a leopard seal who had dropped in for dinner.  He caught a penguin and toyed with it for nearly ten minutes before dining.  The Brown Skuas, scavengers of the South, appeared immediately and went for odd bits missed by the leopard seal. It was extremely violent, all happening a few meters from the boat. After our dinner there was another feeding frenzy.

19/2/08 8:00AM

We wake to 40 knots whistling through the rigging.  If the wind dies down later we’ll move on to Vernadsky, the Ukraine Base in the Argentine Islands which used to be the British Base Faraday. If not, well stay put another night and move on tomorrow.

Another cruise ship has appeared and there are a few intrepid red clad travellers ashore in the wind and the freezing rain.   The average age of these groups is substantially past retirement age…not that I’m one to talk.

I attach a few snaps.

Every modern yacht should have a trash compactor.  Here is ours.

Brown Squas feeding

The boat moored

Inside the Refuge Hut

Gabriele Makes a friend