Heading towards the Drake Passage we stopped at the Melchior Islands, a group of ice-covered islands off the Antarctic Peninsula. We saw the Argentine Antarctic Base and Scientific Research Station which was under snow. We zodiac cruised in rough waters through the beautiful landscape off icebergs, sheer ice cliffs and glaciers. There wee blue-eyed shags and penguins nesting on the cliffs and we entered a small bay with Weddell seals lying on the fast ice.