Feb 18

Today is Wednesday, February 18, 2009. It is the 6th day on the boat. I woke up at 6:45 to go on an excursion. We left at 7:00 to go to Mikkelson Harbor. We walked around trying to find a good spot to sit down next to some penguins. We didn’t want to disturb them, so we had to find a good spot. There were a lot of fur seals in that area. They are a little aggressive, so we had to keep our distance away from them.

            We found a nice little hill where the wind was blocked a little bit. We laid down and were very still so the baby penguins would come over and check us out. After a little while one of the brave little penguins came over and started to bite at us. Slowly they all came over to us. They started pecking at our jackets, jumping in our laps and over all being curious.

            Every so often a skua would fly over our heads and all the little penguins would run back to their parents. They would do that because skuas eat baby penguins and penguin eggs. They were scared they would get eaten and die. They hate skuas. One time one of the baby penguins was standing on my chest while I was lying down and it saw a skua, so it ran across my face and back to its mom! It hurt a little bit. Before the penguin ran across my face all the other penguins looked up at one time and saw the skua coming and ran away.

            After a while of sitting there we decided to head back to the boat. We had a lovely time and were ready to go back. At the boat they were serving brunch. Everyone had missed breakfast to go on the excursion.

            Jason did a lecture on plate tectonics at 2:00, so I went to that. It was interesting in many ways. I learned that the magnetic pole changes every 500,000 years from North to South. That is pretty remarkable. He also talked about the plates of the earth and how there are 12 large plates and 20 small plates. I never knew that.

            Then there was hot dogs and beer on the Aft deck. I didn’t have the beer though. We had the hot dogs because we were about to land on Deception Island. I got to drive the zodiac to Deception Island. It was my very first beach landing. It was a little hard. Once we landed on Deception Island my dad and I had a good walk. We walked up to a point on the island where you can see both sides of the island. That point is called Neptune’s Window. It was a good hike.

            About an hour from coming back on the boat everyone was going to go to the beach and swim in the ice cold water.  It was so cold. I was in and out. Some people stayed in for a long time. I laid down in the water for about a second or two then headed back out. I was freezing. I am never going to do that again.

Once everyone got in we headed back. I was glad to take a nice hot shower when I got back. I ate dinner and fell fast asleep. I was well worn out. I went to bed thinking of my mom, brother, sister, and grandma. Thinking if they were all right or not. I will just have to wait and see. Bye!