Stonington Island (-68.1833330, -66.9999999) Our evening briefing tells us all about the landing planned for the following morning. Once more the weather and waves conspired to rip up the plan for the day. When we woke up, we were on station near Red Rock Ridge all set for today's landing. It was obvious however when we headed to breakfast that it was very swelly indeed. (Swell! = good, Swelly… not so much.) It was a beautiful area and had lovely view...

Horseshoe Island (-67.8500000, -67.2000001) The only thing guaranteed on any Antarctica expedition is that things will change. Every evening at 8.15 pm there is a briefing on the plans for the forthcoming day. Latitude, Longitude, maps, where we are, where we're going, photos of the landing site and the animals and historic monuments we will see. Or not. When man plans, god laughs as they say - never has a truer word been spoken. This morning's landing was going...

The Gullet (-67.2005040, -67.7203930) We officially crossed the polar/Antarctic circle this morning at 9.06 am. We entered Neptune's realm when the ship crossed the 66 degree latitude line (and despite promises to the contrary there wasn't a bump!) We headed up to the pool deck on level 10 for the official celebration at 10 am. James and I have been back and forth over the Equator a few times - most recently on the transatlantic trip from Barcelona to Buenos...

Petermann Island (-65.1706258, -64.1435135) The drama of the Drake Passage has been forgotten. We are here. The excitement was, certainly in our cabin, palpable. From the moment we booked this trip in March 2019, it seemed neither real or possible that we would ever actually make it to Antarctica. Suffice it to say we were booted, spurred and trussed up like waterproof chickens much earlier than we needed to be. But excited! And keen! We made our first landi...

Sometimes four days can snap by in minutes - sometimes it feels like months. In this case it's arguable. There was a lot of busy busy, then a fair bit of hurry up and wait. With a solid dose of utter misery and a doctor's visit thrown in for good measure. Big four days. Huge. We, and our veritable shed load of luggage, taxied over to the Hilton Buenos Aires around 11.30 am on 12 Jan, We did the checkin paperwork, left all four pieces of big luggage with the p...