Lookout! (updated with pix and video)

Sunburst on Shetlands
(click to enlarge)

Humpback! (click to enlarge)

We are so lucky on this expedition!  Another day of calm seas that is surprising our crew and staff.  We have glassy seas, an air temp of 0 degrees C (All of you are witnesses - Mindy just called a freezing temperature "lucky" - Ed.), water temp 1 C, no swells, and no wind.

Shetland islands panorama (click to enlarge)

Jumping Chinstrap
(click to enlarge)

Chinstrap overwatch

Unfortunately, the site with the blue schist rocks has about a mile of ice in front of the beach, so we cannot do landings to see them in person. Instead we'll sail around the island some more and land at the southern tip, called Point Lookout.

Metamorphic rock (click to enlarge)

Gentoo penguin (click to enlarge)

Point Lookout has a colony of about 20 thousand chinstrap penguins.  We had fun climbing over beautiful metamorphic rocks (grey schists, green schists, garnet-mica schists, and even some deformed cherts) (What, exactly, makes a rock "deformed"? - Ed.).  We also saw fur seals, elephant seals, and gentoo, macaroni, and adelie penguins.

Pink and Green chinstraps
(click to enlarge)

Gibbs Island Bird (click to enlarge)

In the afternoon we did another landing, this time on Gibbs Island.  There is a small spit of land between two tall bluffs that was barely big enough to allow two zodiacs to land.  We took turns spending 20 minutes or so on the beach and then went on zodiac rides to look at caves and glaciers along the shore.  At the landing site there were lots of chinstrap penguins so we had to be cautious.  We saw a leopard seal sleeping on a small iceberg floating in the water.  We also took time to enjoy some very impressive serpentine rocks (many of them had square chunks of magnetite in the rocks). All in all another great day.  Tomorrow we will attempt to land on the Antarctic peninsula.  We hope our good fortune stays with us for calm seas and little ice in the way.