Arrival at Half-moon Island

January 31, 1994

Half-moon Island

7:00pm

We approached Half-moon Island right around 3:15pm, since it's just off of Livingston Island. The first thing I noted about it was that it was very small, and consisted primarily of several large rocky blobs of land connected by lower segments in a short arc. The Argentine Station was plainly visible near the center of the island, away from the Penguin rookeries at the far West side (on the left, nearest Livingston Island). They had the Argentine flag clearly painted on the sides and roofs of their buildings, quite clearly saying, "This is our land."

Argentine base on Half-moon Island

While we were waiting for our turn onshore, we saw several humpback whales a ways away from the boat, sounding and rolling in the waves. They were too far away, and didn't come out of the water enough to photograph. It wasn't very exciting in person, either.

I also watched the crew transporting the lost luggage from the Argentine station to the ship. There was quite a bit of it, and they had to carry it all from the station down across the snow field and the beach to the zodiac rafts, two of which had been reserved for this use. I'm sure that the passengers who got their luggage back here were very grateful and relieved.

You can go ashore with us, or return to today's table of contents.