Arriving In Antarctica And The Antarctic Circle

After all the hoops I had to jump through to get to Antarctica (in my last post), I finally made it here. Antarctica!

Well, it took me a while to get into this.

I remember wanting to visit for about ten years, but it took a lot of planning to finally get here.

I remember getting up in the middle of the night to pee and trying to pace myself, but all of that fell out of the metaphorical window the moment I opened the literal window.

We saw that we were surrounded by icebergs.

Needless to say, there was no need for caffeine that morning.

Needless to say, wildlife sightings have become more frequent now that we are in Antarctica.

Penguins rocking everywhere, seals multiplying on the icebergs around the ship, and the occasional whale in the distance.

We were bouncing off the wall all morning, but the captain decided to up the ante.

After all, you can go to Antarctica, but you can’t enter the Antarctic Circle.

The Antarctic Circle is much lower and few ships go that far due to sea ice.

As you might imagine, the closer you get to Antarctica, the thicker the sea ice becomes.

The Ocean Victory ship we landed in Antarctica was actually built to traverse the ice here.

That said, the sea ice on the trip to Antarctica is too dense and too thick for most ships to pass through.

They don’t mind trying it.

However, our captain decided that the weather conditions were excellent and the sea ice didn’t look too bad, so we decided to flip the whole itinerary and venture far south into the Antarctic Circle.

If we leave it alone for a few more days, the weather could change or the sea ice could thicken, so we had to make the most of it as conditions allowed.

After all, he was right, and we were on our first voyage of the season into Antarctica!

Cheers and cheers went up, and champagne was celebrated everywhere.

This was a milestone I didn’t know I had to meet before sailing, but it was amazing. Haha!

Honestly, just going to Antarctica is a big enough win, with or without the cherry on the cake sailing to Antarctica.

It was really nice and such a great way to start the trip.

Additionally, I can say that I have been to the Arctic (I did this in Norway a few years ago) and am now going to the Antarctic.

We spent the rest of the day in awe of everything we saw around us.

We had already seen humpback whales, leopard seals, Weddell seals, Adelie penguins (which are harder to spot than gentoo and chinstrap penguins) and an incredibly large iceberg.

Then, the leader of the expedition team made a rather surprising announcement that they would be embarking on the first Chinese zodiac expedition to Antarctica.

I never thought I’d be more excited than I was before, but it turns out it’s actually very possible.

Remember when in Antarctica the weather can change your plans.

So it felt like a big deal to have such great weather to do a boat tour of the Chinese zodiac. This was especially true as it was not the plan confirmed the day before.

Oh, by the way, the sea was very calm at this point.

It was calm enough not to bother with seasickness pills. Plus, they make me sleepy, so I didn’t want to take them if I didn’t need to.

That being said, I drank one at night. I thought that drowsiness would be less of an issue and would prevent seasickness during the night voyage.

It turned out to be a great plan, as a few days later I realized I hadn’t had them while sailing around Antarctica and started feeling a little seasick.

Immediately, we were called to go to the mud room. Ready to board the Zodiac boat.

You should also sanitize your everyday clothes before you go so you don’t carry contaminants with you.

It is not done on new clothes, but especially on old clothes and shoes.

They don’t want you to bring alien species to Antarctica. So to help with this, decontaminate your boots before and after you get on the boat (even if you go on land).

All your clothes are ready before you head to the boat.

Zodiac boat cruise was great.

You can see how amazing and huge some of these icebergs are from a distance, but nothing compares to when you’re up close.

I am overwhelmed by its size. And the colors too!

It’s a shade of blue you’ve never seen anywhere else and you won’t forget it in a hurry.

Oh yeah, that’s how I spent my first day in Antarctica.

Finished off with dinner and wine under the Antarctic midnight sun. To be honest, it was behind the clouds, but it didn’t really set, so it was bright all night.