Happy New Year!

It was a rock and rolling New Year’s Eve and I don’t mean the music. Sometime in the night the low pressure that we were staying behind stalled and we came into a bit of weather. The seas swayed our ship just a bit more than we had been experiencing until then. Most of the waves averaged 10 – 12 feet (3-4 meters) but every once in a while a 20-footer (6.5m) hit us. Spray covered the bow and just reached the bridge windows. Many of us watched from the bridge, amazed that the tiny black-bellied storm petrels flew about as if nothing spectacular was happening.

Midday was a completely different story. We arrived at the South Shetland Islands and made way for our first landing on Half Moon Island. This was our first experience of penguins. How remarkable these little creatures are. They leap out of the water and hop up 100-foot elevations and more to reach their nests. Once this feat is accomplished, a raucous, wheeling utterance ensues which instigates the entire colony into a cacophony of exuberance. These are the chinstrap penguins. We sat by their highway and watched them come and go. Occasionally, while they watched us, one brave individual would inch closer and closer, turning its red eye on our red jackets. This interest lasted only a moment or two but each one who experienced it will remember this for a lifetime.

Time is what we shared this day and time is what we honored. It was New Year’s Eve and a delicious dinner was followed by evening entertainment and finally the moment when 2013 ended and a new year of adventures began. In accordance with tradition, the oldest on board rang the bell for the ending of 2013 and the youngest aboard rang in the New Year. Our youngest was only six months old. We wondered if Otto, our young companion, would be up to the task. Like an experienced mariner, he rang the bell and thus our first day of 2014 began. We wish you all the very best for this New Year.