Things to Do in Antarctica in November

November's sea ice carves floating sculpture gardens of blue-white icebergs, some the size of office buildings. Zodiacs weave among them at water level where you hear the crack and groan of shifting ice. Morning light hits differently here. It bounces off ice faces and makes the bergs glow from within. This is when formations are most dramatic, before summer melting begins.

Adélie penguin chicks hatch mid-November, scenes straight from a David Attenborough documentary. At Brown Bluff's 20,000-bird colony you will photograph chicks begging for regurgitated krill while parents waddle in with bellies full of pink food. The sound is memorable; 40,000 birds calling resembles a badly tuned orchestra mixed with the slap of flippers on stone.

November is when stations ramp up for summer research. Visiting Port Lockroy or Vernadsky means meeting actual scientists, not just tour guides. The Ukrainian station at Vernadsky serves homemade vodka distilled from glacial ice, the only bar on the continent. You will watch meteorologists launch weather balloons and learn how they predict storms that might delay your departure.

Deception Island's Pendulum Cove hosts geothermal springs where water hits 104°F (40°C) in spots, letting you soak in hot water while icebergs drift past. The contrast is surreal. Your body stays warm while your hair freezes in the air. It is the only place on Earth where you can legitimately claim to have swum in Antarctica without being insane.

November is peak feeding season before migration. Humpbacks breach so close you can smell their fishy breath. Ships carrying marine biologists let you contribute to photo-identification databases. Your tail fluke shots might track individual whales across decades. Water is so clear you can watch them feed 30 feet (9 m) below the zodiac, white pectoral fins glowing green in filtered light.