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Published: February 3rd 2023
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Bird's Preferred Location
Thought folks may appreciate viewing Bird in her preferred habitat. When awake, and left to her own devices, we often find our Bird here observing icebergs, whales, or other birds (you know, her kinfolk).As we compose this blog the ship heads further south, and unfortunately back in the open ocean and...yes rollers. Being a small ship, we have 175 souls aboard, she is more affected by waves, especially abeam. Yet, we are also able to enter places larger ships cannot. In fact, no ship that carries more than 500 passengers can land anyone in Antarctica. We'll take the small, nice ship, thank you and this one is only six months old. As an added "benefit" we occasionally feel a bit of a "shimmer" as we encounter an iceberg. Ventura is expedition built PC-6 rated hull capable of plowing through many of the icebergs we encounter.
On 1 February, Bird exited the ship for the initial occasion. She bounded into a zodiac, then climbed onto the conning tower of a sub, and descended into the sub itself. Yeah, for the skeptics, we have a pix. Other than the sub, there are a few pix of a British Base at Port Lockroy that was used during WW II as a listening post for the Nazis and remains occupied in the summer for folks like us to purchase souvenirs at hugely inflated prices. Nonetheless a couple

Proof of Antarctica
For conspiracy theorists who are disinclined to believe someone would volunteer to sail in the frigid Antarctic, we offer proof by way of our passport endorsed at Port Lockroy.of diminutive monsters have something en route. And no, we are not in the Shetlands, well south of that at Lockroy, but you recall the issue with this program, and Lockroy is not available. Ditto Detaille where we head next and will include in this post.
Well, we arrived at Detaille on the afternoon on 2 February, but all operations were cancelled due to weather. Aw heck, the eagerly anticipated kayak tour was similarly disallowed. Bird now demands honesty, so I must confess continuing adherence to the wimp clan. Looking at the weather yesterday, I cancelled my tour in advance. Yet, I maintain my good sense as the expedition leader followed my wise example today.
One final noteworthy event is we crossed the Antarctic Circle at 10a on 2 February and continue to proceed south. So, we now have both circles under our belt. Certainly, the Artic circle is much more conducive to human habitation. In fact, some humans live there year-round, while none do so below the Antarctic Circle.
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Vijay
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Awesome!
What a great experience and achievement of having both circles under your belt!! Awesome indeed!