The Naples Circumnavigators Club held their January brunch on Sunday, January 15, 2012, at the Club of Pelican Bay. There were 74 members and guests attending.

Tom Moser, Tom Maher, Dave Bernauer

Two new members were introduced to the group: Laurence McDonald and Dave Bernauer.

Tom Moser and Dave Bernauer were the guest speakers. The ship “Diamont”, through the tour company Zegram, carried a small passenger load and was able to go into the nooks and crannies as they took the 18 day scenic trip through Antarctica. Leaving from Ushuaia, South America, they traveled to the Falkland Islands, South Georgia island and the Antarctica Peninsula. Even though the ship was their home, they spent a lot of time on land as they usually had two sojourns a day to land. The passengers boarded rafts called Zodiacs, to reach the islands. The guides introduced them to the wild life and explored with them the history of the areas. The route they traveled, followed in the footsteps of the great explorer Shackleton.

The wings on the birds, Southern Royal Albatross, flying over their ship, as they started their journey, were 11 feet from tip to tip and they get to be as old as 70 years. They are known to fly millions of miles.

“The penguins and wildlife accept the humans and actually do not pay any attention to them”, Dave told the group. The pictures were magnificent as they showed the Albatross penguins with their young. These young penguins are in a hole and the mother feeds them squid for about three months until they reach full size. At this time, they are shoved out of the hole, jump off a cliff. and join the others. They may travel a long distance, but they always come back to that place to mate.

South Georgia was the most beautiful island. One picture of a penguin showed the mother feeding her baby. The mother has to go a far distance to get the proper food, and will be gone three to four weeks before returning to feed her young. When she feeds the baby, he eats and eats and eats all at once expanding to be almost bigger than the mother.

The iceburgs, some as old as at least 1200 years, are blue and the scenes were spectacular with the different formations and size. The rafts would travel between the iceburgs.

When asked when is the best time to travel, they responded in January when the chicks are born.