Weather has been fairly poor, and the hunt for Station N, our new-fangled northern station has been unsuccessful.  A nice flat area near Elephant Island looked promising, but a survey with the Mud SCUD benthic video camera showed the site to be quite rocky and unsuitable for sampling. 

With weather flaky and the crew in need of a bit of rest, today we made a morale stop at Maxwell Cove on King George Island.  Any chance to get off the boat for a little time on land is likely to be the most memorable and exciting part of a cruise.  This was no exception, with a flock(?) of penguins near our landing site to entertain with their curious cuteness.   (Actually, what is a group of penguins called?  Not having Google on the boat is painful!)

We had a rather close encounter with a leopard seal.   These guys are one of the major predators of these waters.  The zodiac offers relative safety, but leopard seals are known to attack humans.  This particular seal was very curious and swam under the zodiac a few times before deeming us a little to hard to eat.




And of course, what trip on land would be complete without a little winter sport.  Our landing location had a great hill that might have been great for skiing if we had skis.

However, we make due with what we have, and we all have butts.  Most of us tired ourselves out sliding down the hill on our fannies as many times as we could.
  We really had a great time out there, and smiles were contagious.