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(Reis) First of all, the ice in Antarctica is amazing. So densely packed together. The Kapitan Khlebnikov (our ship) just eats away at it, slicing a clear path for itself, and rejecting all ice that come in its way. White clouds of ice getting shoved away from the hull. Penguins staring up at awe at […]

(Emma) Christmas Day 2010. I am out looking at the hilarious Adelie penguins jumping in and out of the water. Then I hear faintly in the background “Did you know that today is the POLAR PLUNGE?” “OH NO!” I think. The polar plunge is when you jump into the freezing cold Antarctic waters, and get […]

(Alex) When most people think of Antarctica, they think about penguins. The iconic penguin of the 18 different species is probably the Emperor Penguin. After all, many people have seen the movies Happy Feet or March of the Penguins featuring the Emperor Penguins. I was fortunate to spend time with the real things! In Antarctica, […]

(Andrew) On our epic Antarctic journey we saw 7 species of penguin (in order of appearance): Gentoo, Chinstrap, Adelie, Emperor, Royal, King and Rockhopper. This will cover two of those seven: the Adelie and the Gentoo. These are the cutest, in some ways, of the bunch. We saw Gentoo Penguins in Neko Harbor, the scene […]

(Dana) December 21: we visited Robert F. Scott’s hut from his 1911 Terra Nova expedition and Ernest Shackleton’s hut from his 1908 Nimrod expedition — base camps for the explorers’ forays to the South Pole. Inside, we were as close to history as you can get. These aren’t just artifacts from that era, these are […]

(Dana) First, a HUGE thank you to all of our family and friends who supported Greg during his odyssey. The love, generosity and good thoughts clearly bolstered him through an incredibly challenging time. I wanted to share the feelings of the “other 5 explorers” as we continued around Antarctica without our team leader. I just […]

I met Tom Gill for the first time as the anesthesiologists were deadening my leg with a big needle in my groin.  This is called a femoral nerve block and is very effective. I asked if he knew about the circumstances surrounding my arrival. He made it plain that he did. Not surprising. I was, […]

The expedition team acted quickly to grab me off the bottom of that slope and return me to the ship.  Seven or eight staff members (including my fine wife) splinted my leg, tobogganed me to the waters edge, hoisted me into a zodiac and craned me onto the stern deck of the Kapitan Klebnikov. As […]

As the dark clouds of the last four weeks recede, I am increasingly aware of silver linings. On the first day in the Falkland Islands, high winds and big waves prevented the tenders from shuttling the newly-arrived passengers onto the Kapitan Klebnikov, the icebreaker that would serve as our home for the next 31 days. […]

(Greg) The wind down here is intense. It is what makes the Southern Ocean, The Drake Passage and “rounding the Horn” so perilous. This crazy wind, I am told, is the result of the coriolis effect (wind created and intensified by the rotation of the earth) and the Antarctic Circumpolar Current which is the strongest […]