A young fur seal. We watched a little guy like this just chasing a penguin around on the beach, just like a little kid chasing pigeons.

We couldn't get near enough for sharp close-ups, but this picture (borrowed from the Internet) shows what the Macaroni penguins look like, with the long yellow feathers over their eyes.

This is a Macaroni penguin colony, stretching all the way up this steep cliff. The wealthiest penguins have their homes at the top, with the best view.

Today was spectacular! The weather, which everyone feared would be bad, actually turned out just fine. We had zodiac tours of Cooper Bay on South Georgia. South Georgia island is a British overseas territory and thus has different rules & regs than Antarctica, we are not allowed to do a landing until we have cleared the ship in Grytviken, which happens tomorrow. In any case, we toured the coast, stopping just short of actually landing. Wildlife everywhere, loads of fur seals (and a leopard seal) snoozing on the beach, King and Macaroni penguins, and prolific seabird life.

After a couple of days of moderately rough sailing, we have arrived at South Georgia island. And we are seeing a color which has been entirely absent for more than a week. Green!

In the meantime....the Reign of the 2-time Stanley Cup Champion L.A. Kings extends to Antarctica!

Still sailing, sailing.....but we get into South Georgia island early tomorrow morning, so there ought to be new stuff to report.

Well, after a string of very fortunate weather-days, our luck ran out. Yesterday's landings had to be canceled due to high winds and deteriorating weather conditions. So we have set sail for South Georgia island a day early, which means we will have an extra day there rather than on the Antarctic peninsula. With luck the weather will be ok and we will have a lot of time with the King penguins, the BIG guys! In any case, South Georgia is two sailing days away, so no penguin-pictures for a while!

Very, very faint, flattened rainbow after dinner last night....

The Expedition Team leader found two penguin eggs, the one on the right was "unsuccessful" he said (it smelled bad, so even the skuas and gulls were disinterested). The other one, obviously, was breakfast for somebody.

Self-explanatory, I'm sure. Penguins eat krill. Krill is red.

"No, 'e's just resting. Beautiful plumage". (inside joke)

Our landing today is at Yankee Harbour. It's considerably colder, windier, and foggier today than previous days. Our "ghost ship" appears in the background.

This white penguin is not albino, it's a genetic variation called "leucism" - only about 1 in 20,000 penguins has it. The other penguins apparently have no awareness of the difference, there is no race relations problem.

In the second photo you can see the egg - which will hatch any day now.

Today's landing was at a seldom used but still active Chilean Naval Station, Gonzalez Videla. Far more penguins than sailors.