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Afterward we navigated down the Lemaire Channel toward Petermann Island which would be the Southernmost point of our journey at 65°10′S 64°10′W. The Lemaire Channel is a long and narrow passage filled with ice. In fact at one point we hit an iceberg and the expedition crew looked a tad concerned but luckily there was no need to bring out the orchestra and brandy.



After visiting Petermann Island we headed toward the Pleneau Islands for a zodiac cruise in the “iceberg graveyard”. This was one of the highlights of the trip (though it was the most miserable part of the trip for group 2 due to weather so I really lucked out). We cruised around the area in a zodiac for over an our getting an up close look at scores of icebergs each unique. At one point our zodiac driver drove the zodiac up onto an ice sheet for a few minutes and let us walk around. The ice was cracking in several places so we did not stay for long. Words cannot describe how beautiful this place was but it was almost like a modern museum for ice sculptures!! Simply incredible!!













Today being Thanksgiving the crew prepared a Thanksgiving dinner for the Americans aboard. It was good though the portions were not very American and I missed the cranberry sauce (that somehow made an appearance for a meal two days later – maybe they couldn’t find it??) and pumpkin pie.



The following day we landed at Port Lockroy, a British Station (the first to be open and have “staff” present.) We were able to mail postcards (which many of you should be receiving in 6+ weeks) and even buy some souvenirs. (I can’t believe I was able to go shopping on Black Friday in Antarctica.)