George has been found

Sunday 16th December.
We are pleased to report that after offers of a glass of Laphroig and a large bar of chocolate for George himself, the errant bear was mysteriously recovered by a member of the expedition team and handed over, none the worse for his ordeal. No further action will be taken although there is still some debate about which law applies here.
We are significantly behind schedule as we were very slow working our way through the sea ice at the South Orkneys and then hit a head wind of 28 knots as we headed towards Elephant Island and it kept our speed down to a sluggish 8 knots.
The Captain decided to bypass Elephant Island to try and make up some time so we headed for the South Shetlands where we landed at Penguin Island this morning.
It was a rough night but the wind dropped and we had a beautiful morning for a landing. Some stayed by the shore and observed chinstraps, gentoos and adelies while others went for a good walk through the snow and and climbed up the volcano to gain breathtaking views over the bay. It had been some time since our last landing and cabin fever was beginning to set in as folk became grumpy.
The St George's students were of course as resilient as ever and settled down to do some work as the ship tossed about and then they seemed to start a card school! All were relieved to set foot on terra firma for a few hours - and breathe in some fresh air as the sea had been so rough that we hadn't even been able to go out on deck. The idea now is that we get some speed up and head across the Bransfield Strait directly to the Antarctic Peninsula so that we can do several landings tomorrow, the first being at 5.00am.
All in good spirits and send best wishes to everyone at school for the last few days of term with all its celebrations and fun.