Port Lockroy and the REAL penguin plunge

Howdy folks!!!
Today we're offloading for Port Lockroy, an English outpost here in Antarctica.  It was used for whaling, staging operations and now it serves as a historical site that has a gift shop, bar, and post office.  There is a good sized colony of penguins there and there are some rules set up for interacting with the natives.  For instance, if a penguin walks toward you on a penguin 'right of way,' one must defer to the penguin.

I'll post an update once I land.  I'm borrowing a crazy lens from Lindblad's B&W cabinet, so I should get some good shots there.

BTW yesterday we went for a zodiac cruise into Paradise Harbor.  Interesting name for the ocean terminus of a glacier bound by giant peaks.  You know the giant peaks are something I didn't really expect.  This place is beyond picturesque.  We went out twice (the Fellows) and examined blue eyed shags - a subspecies of the imperial cormorant, Antarctic turns, the ugly snowy sheathbill, and pintado cape petrels.  The shags were pretty interesting - they setup shop on insets of cliffs so that the snow above doesn't rip off their nests and dump them in the ocean.  They also swim fast enough under water to catch fish.  They have really long necks and almost snake like.   What made this zodiac trip kinda weird was that two sailboats were anchored in the harbor.  We were't exactly sure why they were there, but its good place to drop and anchor and get out of the wind.  Now mind you, these weren't big ships either.  There was some speculation that they were here for a ski trip.  From what I gather they come down here to ski slopes no one has ever skied before - pretty nuts.  One of the ships was from Malta. Girls on Ice' that takes high school kids out to do real science with her and some colleagues of hers.   Check it out!!

  The second round was accompanying Dr. Pettit listening to the glaciers and taking readings.  She presented her data at the nightly debrief and you could see the temperature profiles of the water at depth.  She also compared it to a different area with a more stable glacier that was calving less, and they didn't have the same temperature profile.  She runs a really cool program called '

Alright.  I'll check in later.  BTW - the Drake looks like 8m seas for our return trip.  Looks like I may get the real experience on the return.  Careful what you ask for peeps.