In the afternoon, we visited Mikklesen Harbor, located at the southern end of TrinityIsland in the Palmer Archipelago. The island lies in the middle of the Gerlache Strait and was named by Capt. Larsen of the Swedish South Polar Expedition (1902-1904). He had come here to chart the area while the expedition leader. Otto Nordenskjold, was based over in the Weddell Sea area on the eastern side of the Antarctic Peninsula. Two unmanned huts stand on a small island in the middle of the harbor, which is where we made our landing. Gentoo penguins and skuas were nesting here and numerous fur seals were seen scattered about, as well. The west side of the island is littered with whale bones, resulting from whaling operations in the 1910s and 1920s. Initially, we had good landing conditions and relatively good protection from the strong winds, but that soon changed as the low pressure system passed by and the wind changed direction. Our original landing site was now inaccessible, so we hiked over to the opposite side of the island to catch our ride. At this point we got to experience a classic of Antarctic weather: katabatic winds. In Antarctica, the lowest layers of the air sitting on some of the high ice plateaus come into contact with the cold dense ice sheet. The air cools to very low temperatures and spills over the mountain ridges driven by gravity as a katabatic wind. These Antarctic winds have been measured at over 200 miles and hour and are some of the strongest winds measured on our planet at ground level, outside those in some tornadoes. The ride back to the boat on the zodiac was wet and wild - very strong winds, rough seas and a tough step up to the Endeavour as the zodiac and the big ship don't exactly move up and down at the same rate. We got soaked with the cold water and were very happy to be back on board. It was a nice taste of Antarctica for us, but it brought home all the more clearly how terrible the conditions could be for explorers who didn't have a hot shower and a hot toddy to return to!