December 6, 2025

Sailing the Drake Passage > arrival at the South Shetland Islands, Antarctica

Saturday Morning. Slept until 06:30. The rocking of the ship seems to provide some comfort while sleeping. It was still rocking pretty well when I woke up. This morning I decided to use one of the scopolamine patches. I don’t think the rocking is bothering me, but I want to be awake for everything today.

It is -1C (30F) this morning and snowing. As I make my way to the Arts Café for my cappuccino I stop on the observation deck. I meet Wilson, one of the expedition Guides, and he points out a pod of whales and several albatrosses flying about. We have indeed reached the waters of Antarctica. The sun has been up since 03:00 this morning.

We are headed to the South Shetland Islands, specifically Half Moon Island, where we hope to be able to “land” today. Half Moon Island is a one of the minor Antarctic islands. It lies in the McFlarlane Straight 1.35 km (0.84 miles) north of the Burgas Peninsula. It is a fairly small island with 171 hectares (420 acres) of surface. There is an Argentine Cámara Base located on the island which is only accessible by sea and by helicopter; there is no airport. The base only operates in the summer.

The goal of today’s expedition will be to see the Chinstrap Penguin (Pygoscelis antarcticus) colony on the island. The names stems from the narrow black band under its head, which gives it the appearance of wearing a helmet. They have a a loud, harsh call. They are also called by other common names such as ringed penguin, bearded penguin and stonecracker penguin.

The Chinstrap enguin grows to a length of 68–76 cm (27–30 in) and a weight of 3.2–5.3 kg (7.1–11.7 lb), varying with the time of year. Males are greater in weight and height than females. The adult chinstrap's flippers are black with a white edge; the inner sides of the flippers are white. The face is white, extending behind the eyes, which are reddish brown; the chin and throat are white, as well, while the short bill is black. The strong legs and the webbed feet are pink. Its short, stumpy legs give it a distinct waddle when it walks. The chinstrap penguin's black back and white underside provide camouflage in the form of countershading when viewed from above or below, helping to avoid detection by its predators.

Or course, the important thing for today is actually stepping and spending time on Antarctica. This will be continent seven! We shall see how the day progresses. It looks like it has stopped snowing, but there is a lot of fog. From here in our cabin there isn’t much of anything to see. Neither birds or whales out there right now. We aren’t due to arrive at Half Moon Island for another three-hours-forty-five minutes. Just waiting, anxiously.

Unfortunately, the weather isn’t cooperating with us, and we won’t be able to go ashore today. Maybe tomorrow. So, today we attended a reception for first time cruisers in the Explorer lounge on deck 4 at 11:00. Iraco, the Future Sales Representative, welcomes us to Silver Sea and then spent another forty-five minutes talking about Silver Sea and its ships.

It was almost lunch time by the time Iraco finished up. We walked down the deck towards the rear of the with the intent of going into The Restaurant, however, it doesn’t open until 12:30. So, we took a U-turn and went up a deck to deck 4 to grab lunch in the Grill.

Simple lunches all around. I had a hotdog. I only wanted mustard, ketchup and relish. We had the problem on the world cruise, no one seems to know relish. A small bowl of relish arrived shortly after lunch was finished. Mary chose a cheeseburger. Richard’s choice was a vegetarian burger. And Susan had a simple salad.

After lunch it was nap time again. Before I knew it the clock had gone 15:30. The plan had been to go upstairs to the Observation deck (9) and play a game of cards with Richard and Susan. Susan and Richard apparently did an exploration of thee ship after lunch and then went down for a nap. They slept though the time for the game.

Mary and I went up to the Observation Deck and waited for them, but with they didn’t show up by 16:00 we just went and played a game between us. The view was wonderful. We could see the Half Moon Island, we ever saw a penguin colony on Livingston Island. We were too far away to really see anything without binoculars. Tomorrow hopefully we’ll get much closer.

We had dinner with the Captain and one of the Expedition Team members in the Restaurant. Susan and Richard joined the four of us just a little late. We didn’t finish up dinner until it was about to go 21:00. I was too full to go to bed right after dinner, so I want and had a cigar.

I finally got to bed just before 22:00. It was still light outside, enough so that you would all it daylight. At 03:00, it was light again. The sun dosen’t set here in the months of December and January.

Buonanotte e ciao,

Enrico e Maria