Deception Island

It's 8 am, and I think it's Friday, but I'm not sure.  The day of the
week is totally insignificant here.  We're gone to interesting and
wonderful place.  Yesterday we made two landings.  The first was to
Penguin Island, appropriately named.  It was full of chinstrap penguins,
an entire rookery.  They are only about 2' tall and the cutest things
you've ever seen.  We sat on rock and they came right up to us.  No
fear of humans.  I so want to take one home!!  I took zillions of
pictures.  There were even some babies.  They're almost as tall as
their parents except they are all grey and fuzzy and little chunkier
than their parents.

In the afternoon we went to another island that has a Polish research
station on it.  We saw Adalie penguins, a couple chinstraps and some
elephant seals.  Boy, as cute as the penguins are are as ugly as the
elephant seals are.  We then visited the research station.  There were
only 11 resident at the station, some their for 6 months, and some for 3
months.  They are mostly marine biologists, divers, climatologists and
glacierologists.  They are happy to have visitors after the solitude and
having a population of only 11 people.  They were so guest friendly,
sharing their precious snacks and drink with us!  Most are torn between
the love of Antarctica and missing their families.  I can understand
their position.

This morning we are arriving to another island called Deception Island.
Again, please open your computers to google and/or Wikipedia for more
information.  We'll be making two landings here today.

On a more personal note.  Last night Bob took sick.  He's in bed now and
won't be going on the morning landing.  It's seems that there is a
virus going around that one or more of us must have picked up in Ushuia
and have passing along.  The ships doctor is so busy and not getting
much rest.  The crew spend last night disinfecting the entire ship.
We're thinking that Judi had "the virus" and not just seasickness.
Me?  So far so good.  I did have a fever yesterday for about 10 hours
but it's gone now.  We're all trying to stay as healthy as possible
and make as many landings as possible.

To my professors at Hebrew College.  I'm getting in as much reading as I
possibly can.  But when there is a choice of watching God's most
beautiful displays of water, glaciers and wildlife, it's difficult to
concentrate on my studies.

I'm on my way to the bridge to watch our arrival to Deception Island,
which I'm told is quite tricky.  The ship has a 24 hour open bridge
policy.  So anytime we can visit, talk to the officers.  But there's no
playing with the equipment!  Bummer!