Today has probably been the best for wildlife viewing.  First thing this morning everyone loaded into the zodiacs and we were off to tour Michelson Bay.  There were two large glaciers that dumped ice into the end of the bay.  The ice was so thick we could not even get close to the glaciers.  There were icebergs of all shapes and sizes and they had a lot of what they call “ice caves”.  These were places where the waves had washed caves into the iceberg and as the swells pushed the icebergs around you could see into the caves while sitting in the zodiac.

It did not take long for the humpback whales to start spouting off and showing their tails, or what they call “fluking”.  There was a leopard seal that stole the show for the day though.  He swam, jumped, rolled around and followed us everywhere as we looked for whales.  He came so close to the zodiacs you thought he was coming on board.  You could not have hired a better actor for a bunch of tourists.  The penguins were climbing onto the icebergs and diving off chasing their favorite food, the “krill”.

We followed some whales for a while as they “blew off” and showed their tails, and then we made our way back to the ship.  The leopard seal followed us back to the ship and played around the zodiacs until the last person went up the gangway to the ship.  He sat there and looked at the last people as if to say “hey where are you going?”.  I really do think the wildlife is more curious of us than we are of them.

We picked up anchor mid-morning in went up to the tip of the Arctic Peninsula via the Arctic Sound and into the Bransfield Straight.  Eventually we made it to the Weddell Sea where we met up with the other boat who had run their marathon the day after we did.  We had a “cookout” on the back of our boat in the afternoon with the people from the other boat coming over to join us.  They brought food from their ship and it was quite the cook out even though it was cloudy, cold, and freezing drizzle.

It was quite clear that I was on the better boat when 28 of the people tried to stow away onto our boat.  They had to do a search and capture of the missing persons.

We stayed there until dusk and watched the whales and seals for the afternoon as it was very active.  We are under way tonight to another “unknown destination”.  All we know is that it is an early expedition in the zodiacs with a “landing” so we can stretch our legs.

It has been 6 days on this boat, and to be honest, if I could run home…I would.  I am tired of the cold and as much as it is pretty, it is still dark and grey most of the time.  I’m having trouble trying to understand why anyone would like or want to live here.

Today they gave us the rundown of the people on this ship.

The crew as I said is Russian and there are 42 Russians on the ship.  We also have a wide rage of countries represented on the boat:

• USA – 74
• Canada – 14
• Great Britain – 8
• Argentina – 7
• New Zealand – 7
• Australia – 6
• Netherlands – 3
• India – 2
• Poland, Japan, Germany, Ireland, Portugal, Iran, & Sweden – 1 each

It has been quite an experience to meet all of these runners who make me look like a rookie.  One guy I talked to today ran 56 marathons……last year.  Seven in seven days.  I felt like a slug talking to him!

I got to go rest up and get ready to run  57 marathons next year!  Good night!