Petermann Island (-65.1706258, -64.1435135)

The drama of the Drake Passage has been forgotten. We are here. The excitement was, certainly in our cabin, palpable. From the moment we booked this trip in March 2019, it seemed neither real or possible that we would ever actually make it to Antarctica. Suffice it to say we were booted, spurred and trussed up like waterproof chickens much earlier than we needed to be. But excited! And keen!

We made our first landing on the Antarctic Peninsula at Petermann Island. The weather was coming and going during the morning as we waited our boat crew's turn to go ashore - it snowed, it stopped, it rained, and stopped, clouds and fog rolled in and out, visibility came and went. Weather in Antarctica is phenomenally fickle - if you think of a real-life real time version of a time lapse video with the weather changing within minutes rather than hours - that would be close. We finally made it into a zodiac about mid-morning and then ashore. Penguins everywhere!

We didn't have a list in our mind of must sees as we didn't want to jinx the trip actually happening - but icebergs and penguins were on our hope to see list and 'lo - the gorgeous, cute and smelly little critters were everywhere. The colony at this landing site were Gentoo penguins. We initially didn't think we'd ever keep the three main species on Antarctica straight… but got there in the end.. Gentoos feature a white splash on their heads (Adelies are solid black with white eye rims and Chinstraps have, well, chinstraps - simples). We had been warned they would have quite the smell about them, but no worse than the Estuary when I was a kid in Christchurch NZ. Which probably says more about school trips to the Estuary than it does about the scent of penguin poop. Beyond cute, they are just so determined - they fall over and pop back up again and are gloriously curious and unafraid. They wandered right up to us to check out these massive red-coat penguins. Thankfully, as they are crap flyers (though excellent divers), it's lucky they don't taste like chicken or they would have gone extinct a couple of hundred years ago. It was lovely tromping around on the snow and we walked to the far side of the landing to see icebergs floating about and minding their business. We were as happy as clams - which is about as happy as we can possibly get. On the way back to the ship we even saw groups of penguins in the water swimming, jumping and feeding - as close as it gets to seeing a penguin fly as it whizzes over the waves.

The weather impressed us once more in the afternoon, turning on brilliant sunshine and the ocean calmed to a mirror like finish. It obviously knew I was nervous about going kayaking. We had three instructors to mind our two groups totalling 16 guest-kayakers. Thems be pretty good odds in the event of an emergency. We geared up, had our 'how to kayak' briefing, got the rudders adjusted to James's feet and then it was down the steps, off the ship, into a zodiac then across the zodiac and settling into our kayak. And yes, that is as awkward as it sounds. The water was crystal clear. As in sapphire blue and we could see the bottom - about 3 metres below us then we were off, kayaking about and enjoying the icebergs. We of course stayed well away from the big ones - christened the sleeping monsters by our Chilean guides. There is apparently a risk as they float, melt and rebalance that they'll suddenly flip over - waves and kayaks don't mix (drysuit or no drysuit). We saw a fin whale and loads of penguins all around us. It was over far too soon.

We got back to the ship, and, just as we were unloading, the snow started. By the time we returned to our cabin it was, literally, chucking it down - Group C went out 45 minutes after us and were drifted in snow and chucking snowballs by the time they made it back onboard. There was a special dinner on in the main dining room 'Aune' - a vegetarian buffet which was divine and a highlight of the trip. We arrived for dinner at 6 pm - and by then the sun was blazing through the floor to ceiling windows - four seasons in five minutes in these parts. It was an early, early night - we barely stayed awake for the 8.15 pm nightly briefing. So. Day 1 in Antarctica. Penguins, Icebergs, fin whale, kayaking. Everything from here on out is gravy.