A day at sea in the Southern Ocean is always a good day for studying the many seabirds that make these latitudes their home. Relatively calm seas but accompanied with a strong breeze brought us close to a great number of species including the most magnificent of them, the wandering albatross. Several individuals came so close to National Geographic Explorer that we could photograph them even with our phones! Earlier in the morning we have had a good encounter with at least fifty sei and some five fin whales, some of them surfacing very close to the bow of the ship. Several other marine mammals were sighted during the afternoon. There was still time for lectures and presentations preparing us for the days to come, visiting the wonderful archipelago of the Falkland Islands.