Hannah Point
22-01-2012 10:00

In the middle of the night the ship start rolling again. We left our anchorage and are sailing from Barrientos to Hannah Point. With breakfast the view on starboard is filled with a long line of glaciers and rocks. The weather deteriorated.

It is cold, lots of wind with sleet snow. It is going to be tight if a landing with our zodiacs is possible at all, with these waves, but we are lucky and manage. On Hannah point we are greeted by large numbers of Chinstrap and Gentoo Penguins and....by snow blowing horizontally in our faces, typical Antarctic weather so it seems.

In Antarctica there is a big risk that you become a slave of your own camera, so this snow has a positive side, the camera stays in the backpack and I have to look with my own eyes.

If you follow the behaviour of a group of penguins for a while, you will notice all kind of family scenes. Daddy comes home and enthusiastically greets Mamma; the kids play touch and run. Two other kids try to push a young away that is being fed by a parent that is coughing up some food. The result is tough reaction from the parent followed by a chase, but they are stubborn and keep on trying. We also see a lonely Macaroni penguin.

Walking through al these volcanic features, we find beautiful coloured stones in bright green and orange, all made by volcanic activity. A little later a large Giant petrel is landing in front of our feet and sits there for minutes and just as we are walking back to our zodiacs, we are getting a show of two mating Elephant-seals.

Soaking wet we arrive back on board of our EUROPA where hot coco and a grand evening meal from Marianne and Aleida is waiting for us.