As promised, the winds picked up again yesterday evening and we spent the night slithering up and down our beds as the ship swung from side to side. Awaking from a not particularly restful sleep, we found our view unchanged, ocean to every side. As we slowly inched forwards towards the southernmost tip of Argentina,…
Category: antarctica
We’re about halfway back across the Drake Passage, after a rather rough night in which my cabin-mate and I were awoken by a sheath of papers flying off the bedside table. Things are a little calmer now, although we’re due to hit more storms later this evening. The dining room is notably emptier than it…
Alas, the weather is not in our favour, and we’ve had to start heading back northwards a day earlier than planned. We moved overnight to Charlotte’s Bay, where we went out on our last zodiac cruise, taking in the reflections of the mountains and a group of crabeater seals hauled out on the ice. Unfortunately…
Today we hit the southern most point of our journey, alas, that means that from now on we’ll be heading slowly but surely homewards. We set off from our anchorage at Cuverville in the middle of the night, and in the morning approached Port Lockroy, a sight of historic interest, and home to what I…
What a magical day. I thought yesterday that my cabin-mate and I had set the record for the swiftest wake up ever, but at 6:15 this morning, when we were told that there were orcas off the bow, we were even faster. In freezing temperatures, with all my warm gear downstairs in the mudroom, I…
Never have you seen two people leap out of bed so quickly as my cabin mate and I, when the expedition leader announced two minutes after the wake up call that there were minke whales off the bow. Niceties such as showering went out the window, as I quickly threw on my clothes and headed…
We woke up this morning to find ourselves enveloped in fog. Out on deck, the fog horn sounded every few minutes, adding to the eerie feeling. Despite having to slow a little, we were still able to continue our good progress, and just after lunch we arrived at our first destination, the South Shetland Islands….
With the wonders of modern technology, I’m writing, and hopefully sending, this blog post from the MS Expedition, located just past 59 degrees south, halfway across the Drake Passage en route to our first point of call in Antarctica, the South Shetland Islands. We expect to make our first landing tomorrow afternoon, but it’s not…
So, I’ve got a long way to go before I make a proper selection of the best photos of the trip. But, since a number of people wanted to see something, I’ve made a very quick, very rough selection and put them up on my website. They’re not necessarily either my favourites or the best…
Probably the craziest thing I’ve done in a long while was taking the plunge, and going for a dip in the ocean at Deception Island, on the Antarctica Pensinsula. There is actually a precedent for this, as parts of the beach are heated by volcanic activity. That said, it only really works if a) the…