Friday 23rd February
Brown Bluff
This is a significant visit for me - the only time we will set foot on the Antarctic Peninsula - the very northern tip of the continental mainland.
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This was our first proper interaction with a penguin colony, so we were given strict guidelines to stay within certain marked areas and not to get closer than 5 metres from penguins or seals.
It was quite a tall order! The penguins strolled around nonchalently, wherever they wanted to go, even if it meant coming close to us humans.
Here, a Gentoo chick stands in the red kelp on the water's edge.
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The basalt rock of Brown Bluff rises up over the penguin colony.
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On more than one occasion, passengers were invited up to the bridge, where the trainee captain, Henry, answered questions about navigation and other aspects of seafaring.
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This looks like a well scrubbed adult Gentoo.
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A wider view of Brown Bluff from out on the sea.
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Another chick, the photographer caught it in the act of spitting or doing something similar with water.
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A group of penguins, the one on the left looks like he or she may be moulting.
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Groups of penguins always seem to be doing something different, coming and going, feeding or standing still looking into the distance.
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A section of the ice shelf on the Peninsula.
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Three penguins, an adult and two chicks at different stages of development.
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A penguin chick still in its pyjamas.
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Saturday 24th February
Elephant Island
The island where 22 men of Ernest Shackleton's crew made their home while awaiting the rescue promised by Shackleton.
The island is wild and rugged, with hardly any flat areas or beaches.
Shackleton kept to his promise, summoning help at a whaling station on South Georgia.
On 30th August 1916, a Chilean ship, the 'Yelcho' arrived and took the 22 men off the island.
Our visit to this island was a kind of tribute to the great explorer.
The image shows the island under clear blue skies, as our ship heads towards it from the south.
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A metal memorial bust of Captain Luis Pardo of the Chilean Navy who came to rescue the remaining crew of the Endurance from Elephant Island.
The memorial on the shore is close to the site where the men lived and survived in makeshift shelters formed by their two upturned boats.
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A Chinstrap amongst the large colony of penguins which make their home on this island.
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A glacier where it reaches the sea adjacent to Point Wild.
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This atmospheric view framing our ship shows the ruggedness and desolation of the island.
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A Black-browed Albatross glides majestically over the sea.
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Penguins cluster on the lower slopes of the rocky crags.
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Fur seals have found some areas of rocky beach on which they can live.
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The Island Sky anchored off Point Wild as we make our zodiac trips along the island.
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The red stain on the rock beneath the penguin colony is as a result of the Krill which the birds predominately feed on.
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Contrasting shades of blue in the sky, the glacier and the sea.
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A Sooty Albatross almost seems to walk upon the sea surface as it searches for food.
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A whale at the surface, with its blow hole at the front.
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The angle of the volcanic rock strata shows the major upheaval of the earth at the meeting of the tectonic plates.
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A pod of whales reveal their prescence by their blows as we leave Elephant Island.
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A silhouette of the memorial stands as the sun leaves one of its rays on the sea as the day's zodiac trip comes toward its end.
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As we leave Elephant Island and sail northeast, we finally leave behind the South Shetland group of islands.
In the meantime we have almost two days at sea until the next land at South Georgia.
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As we head across the loneliness of the Southern Ocean, sightings of large sea birds such as this Sooty Albatross are not uncommon.
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