20th December 10.35pm - At sea to the Antarctic peninsula. 56 degrees 18.90' South/61 degrees 42.29' West, dry, part cloudy, wind SE force 2 (yes, force 2!), air temperature 10 degrees, water temperature 7.2 degrees.
After a memorable day at West Point Island yesterday most of today was spent watching for seabirds from my "office" on the starboard side of the back deck of the boat. I was talking to two of the ships officers this evening and they said they have rarely seen the ocean so came on the edge of Drake Passage, it was almost flat calm. Lets hope it stays that way, but I doubt it. We came across seabirds concentrated in patches with much of the time only seeing a few Giant Petrels and Cape Petrels following in the wake of the boat. As has been the case since we left Port Madryn in Argentina we occasionally come across large clumps of seaweed floating on the surface, this dispels the myth for me that once you started seeing seaweed you had to be close to land. I had to do some work in my cabin this afternoon for an hour and a half and while I was there three Sei Whales were seen not far from the boat - a classic KitKat moment! For those classes following my trip can I wish you a happy Christmas and New Year. I hope the information I have been posting has been of use and I will keeping up the blog during your holidays. Tomorrow is mid-summer's day here (mad, I know!) and this evening sunset was at about 10 o'clock and it was still bright at half ten. Bye for now.

Species seen today:

Sea Mammals
Peale’s Dolphin 20+
Sei Whale 3*

Birds
Wandering Albatross 1
Royal Albatross 1
Wandering/Royal Albatross 3
Southern Giant Petrel 30+
Northern Giant Petrel 1 *
Black-browed Albatross 80+
Southern Fulmar 1 *
Cape Petrel 50+
Antarctic Prion 1
Thin-billed Prion 10+
Unidentified Prion 60+
Grey Petrel 2 *
Sooty Shearwater 100+
Wilson’s Storm Petrel 10+ *
Black-bellied Storm Petrel 4 *
Unidentified Diving Petrel 7
White-chinned Petrel 10+
Magellanic Penguin 8

* New Species for the Cruise.

Note: No Great or Manx Shearwaters today and no large numbers of Prions at dusk. Towards the evening all the Giant Petrels had stopped following the ship.