Blogs from Antarctica - page 10

We sailed this morning into Marguerite Bay and became the first Ponant boat to sail this far south 68.1°(2419 km from the South Pole). This caused much excitement particularly from the captain. We then had our first off zodiac excursion. We were taken to Pourquois Pas (Why Not) Island, discovered by French explorer Jean-Baptiste Charcot and named after his boat, to see the Adelie penguins and their rookeries. At this time of year they are completing the moulting season (about two weeks) before heading back to sea with their waterproof coat on. The Adelie Penguin often looks overweight. It is short but wide. They are very short with an overall height of no more than 30 inches. They weigh approximately 8-13 pounds. They can be identified by the white rings around their eyes. Their beak has ... read more

A lot of people don’t realise that South America is the closest continent on the planet to Antarctica. So we figured that since South America was the 6thcontinent that we had visited, why not round them all off with a little trip to Antarctica? We both started and ended the cruise in Buenos Aires – the (adjusted) itinerary was as follows: Buenos Aires>Ushauia (Arg)>Cape Horn (Chile)>Antarctica (Paradise Bay, Elephant Island)>Falkland Islands (UK)>Montevideo (Uruguay)>BA We had to make a small adjustment and remove Puerto Madryn (Argentina) from our itinerary because the weather on the Drake Passage (crossing into Antarctica across the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans) was too bad. Google this, if you’ve never heard of it – pretty rough seas as we soon discovered! So sailing to the Antarctic is a bit of an adventure – however, ... read more

“When the greatest of England’s bold voyagers perished, ‘Twas the ear of a savage that heard his last groans And far from the land where his memory is cherished On a tropical island are scattered his bones.” George Airy, Dolcoath. Thank you to the Explorers of Yesteryear Some colleagues and I shared a bottle of red wine, a nice plate of cheese and a box of chocolates. We are a multi-national expedition team, but we all share the same passion for the Polar Regions, and as the sun dipped behind the mighty icecap of the Tabarin Peninsula at Antarctica’s northern extreme, we raised a glass to the explorers of yesteryear. These early explorers who came down here with no charts or communication were among the last of the true explorers in the world. Most places had ... read more

Continued from Part 2... Day 11: Today is another full day at sea. South Georgia is quite a ways from mainland Antarctica, but the plan is to stop at the South Orkney Islands tomorrow. We sleep in till 10:30 and it feels amazing. After three straight days of waking up by 6:00 AM this is a much needed sleep-in day. It’s quite cloudy today and visibility isn’t so great so we use the day to go through pictures and read and whatnot. As I am reading Unbroken, the story of Louie Zamparini, I finally have some time to think about the Japanese treatment of POWs in WW2. It was disgusting, violating every international law for prisoners of war. I tell Nimarta that what the Nazis did was so horrible that people seem to forget about the ... read more

some old photos in the Mt Cook Ball Pass area... read more