Antarctic Fox

Day 12: Black and White and Pink All Over

2011-08-05T09:42:00-08:00

(46 photos) Excerpt: "It was our last full day in Antarctica. Our day of rest had us ready and raring to go to enjoy every last minute of our last day, and Tim, Rob and Martin had a plan in place for doing as much as possible. However Antarctica had also figured out that we were leaving and finally gave us our first real day of Antarctic weather, and still it was considered a "good" weather day. All through our trip we have talked about how lucky we were with the weather wherever we went. Clear blue skies almost every day. No snow (except a very little on our first first day), not much wind, good temperatures. We really couldn't have asked for anything better than what we got, and we got it for more than 10 days, which is pretty much unheard of. So when our final day came and the skies were grey and overcast and it was lightly snowing, seriously, who were we to complain?"

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Day 11: Emperor Penguins

2010-01-08T10:54:00-08:00

(7 photos) Excerpt: "The ice became too thick and we weren't able to make it south enough to loop under James Ross Island and reach the colony, but we were lucky enough to find two adolescent Emperor penguins as we were traveling. The first was an older youth who was just coming into his colors (yellow on the sides of his head), floating along on a bergy bit and resting from swimming and fishing. The second Emperor we found wandering around on a ice floe. This one was just a little younger and still had some of his fledgling down on his head. It made him look like he had a little afro and he was too adorable."

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Day 10: Deception Island - Part 2: The Martian Chronicles of Oz

2009-12-15T09:52:00-08:00

(47 photos) Excerpt: "After our hike around the more desolate part of the beach we got to explore the ruins left by two very different generations of inhabitants. Many metal oil drums and boilers and other equipment brought to the island with the establishment of a Norwegian-Chilean whaling station in 1906 have survived since they were abandoned at the close of the Great Depression. Because of volcanic activity and a wetter climate in this more northern region (as opposed to the drier one that has preserved much of Base W) these relics have rusted and decayed."

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Day 10: Deception Island - Part 1: Walking on the Moon

2009-12-11T11:35:00-08:00

(28 photos) Excerpt: "In 1906 a Norwegian-Chilean whaling company set up a whaling station in the small bay just past Neptune's Bellows. This bay became known as Whaler's Bay. During the Great Depression however the whaling base was abandoned due the drop in oil demand and oil prices, increased oil drilling, new advancements in processing factories and other factors. Since it wasn't cost effective to bring supplies back to the mainland, most of the hardware, the boilers, and even the wooden dinghies were left behind."

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Day 10: Hannah Point Part 2 - Elephant Seals

2009-07-22T10:30:00-07:00

(22 photos) Excerpt: "Once a year Elephant Seals, who can weigh up to 5,000 pounds when fully grown, have to shed their fur and grow a completely new coat. To accomplish this feat their bodies open up blood vessels much closer to the surface of their blubber jacket to feed the skin to re-grow fur. With so much blood closer to the surface, they radiate a lot more heat than usual, and if they stayed in the water that heat would get quickly sucked out of them and the seals would freeze to death. So they come to shore, and pile on the beach together to protect themselves and each other from the elements."

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Day 10: Hannah Point Part 1 - The Birds

2009-07-15T12:22:00-07:00

(30 photos) Excerpt: "After our amazing experience with the whales we zipped over to Livingston Island, which had been our destination when we had been getting dressed just 40 minutes ago. Livingston Island hadn't been on our original agenda but our weather had been so incredible that Tim and Rob and Captain Martin had been able to show us more than most visitors got to see in the time we were spending there, so the night before when they asked what we still wanted to see, I (Rachel) said "Elephant seals!", and so we diverted a bit and now here we were. However Livingston Island has more than just Elephant seals. We got to see three species of penguin all nesting together, including one species we hadn't yet seen. And we got to see the amazing Giant Petrels!!"

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Day 10: Birthday Whales

2009-06-23T10:35:00-07:00

Gentle Reader: Out of the 36 chapters we've posted so far, this is our favorite. I know a lot of you have been following Antarctic Fox for months, but if you've been skipping a chapter here and there ('more penguins? yawn!') then don't miss this one. If you're the type to re-tweet, share in Google Reader, or re-share on FriendFeed, we'd love it if this post got all the exposure you can give it.

(32 photos, 1 video) Excerpt: "The first group we saw had two whales in it, one being much smaller which Rob identified as a baby being taught to feed by the mother. Our boats approached, slowed and then cut the motors and drifted to watch and to not disturb the whales. It was the most incredible experience ever. A feeling of being tiny and vulnerable, and also in awe at the majestic beauty of these animals. The baby whale was a bit larger than the zodiac boats we were in, but as long as we didn't bother them, they were going to feed and not bother us."

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Day 9: Dallmann Butt Sliding

2009-06-11T11:18:00-07:00

(26 photos) "This time our stop was the Melchior Islands in the center of Dallmann Bay. There was a group of nesting gentoo penguins here, a beautiful glacier and a rather large hill to climb and slide down. The sliding down was not so easy for me. I am pretty much a big chicken when it comes to these things and it took a lot of encourangement and goading and patience from Rob before I gave myself a push and slid down the steep slope on my butt. It was fun, but I shrieked a lot!! Overall a beautiful and fun stop for streching your legs and enjoying the penguins."

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Day 9: Antarctic Humpback Whales

2009-06-03T14:42:00-07:00

(23 photos) "By this point in our trip we had seen three types of penguins, three types of seals, and more birds than we can count. But so far no whales. We had only been casually looking for the whales but now, on day 9 of our trip, we were starting to feel the loss and so it was time to get serious about looking." And find them we did!

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Bonus Chapter: Baby Penguins

2009-06-03T01:46:00-07:00

(8 photos) Just because we can't get enough of the adorable baby penguins of Port Lockroy, here are a few more.

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Day 9: Port Lockroy - Base A

2009-05-20T11:02:00-07:00

(54 photos) "Originally discovered in 1903 by a French Antarctic expedition, the port was named 'Port LaCroix' after Edouard LaCroix who helped finance the expedition. Over the years Port Lockroy found use as an anchorage by whalers and in 1944 became 'British Base A', the first of the more than 20 eventual British bases established in Antarctica. This base is now restored as a historic site which has a gift shop and the only public post office on the Antarctic peninula. Base A was part of a secret wartime project to monitor German shipping movements. After the close of World War II it functioned as a civilian research outpost and was eventually shut down in 1962. It sat abandoned until a British team renovated the historical site and opened it as a monument and museum in 1996."

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Day 8: Icee Day - Part 2

2009-05-11T12:02:00-07:00

(33 photos) "Early evening on the 2nd of Janurary we went out for a zodiac ride around Duchayland Island where we found some spectacular ice formations, some beautiful ice textures, a whole lot of leopard seals, some nesting skua, and an all-around wonderful time. Heading to the far side of the island we found place to land and had a short hike before heading back to the boats. On the return, several of us tried our hands at driving the zodiac boats. All in all a great way to end a beautiful day."

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Day 8: Icee Day - Part 1

2009-05-05T11:28:00-07:00

(30 photos) "Early evening on the 2nd of Janurary we went out for a zodiac ride around Duchayland Island where we found some spectacular ice formations, some beautiful ice textures, a whole lot of leopard seals, some nesting skua, and an all-around wonderful time. Heading to the far side of the island we found place to land and had a short hike before heading back to the boats. On the return, several of us tried our hands at driving the zodiac boats. All in all a great way to end a beautiful day."

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Day 8: Bird Watching in the Fish Islands

2009-04-23T10:11:00-07:00

(29 photos) Excerpt: "The plan was for more kayaking in shifts, but we ended up with only one shift (6 people in 3 kayaks) as several of us wimped out. I opted for a leisurely ride around the fish islands in the zodiac boat. I'm not kidding when I say that I each excursion I was pretty much dragging myself out the door. Once out the door I never regretted a single minute of it, and that of course was what kept me pushing myself. But I also didn't regret not making myself kayak and just enjoying the sun and the birds for a while. Nesting on some of the small islands we found blue eyed shags and Adelie penguins all of whom seemed to be up for putting on a show for us. The islands were small and with Rob taking us slow on the water we were able to get fairly close (the zoom lens doesn't hurt either)."

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Day 7: Abandoned Antarctica: Base W - Part 2

2009-04-21T12:38:00-07:00

(48 photos) Excerpt: "Quite suddenly while photographing the kitchen we realized that we were the last ones in the base. Already a quiet and derelict place, the base took on an altogether weightier silence when the others had left. It's one thing to walk through a place with a small group, pointing and photographing the history laid bare, but it's quite an unexpected force that hits you when you're alone in such a place and internalize not only the lifestyle that existed within it half a century ago, but also the utter stillness and heavy silence that envelops the base day-to-day between the exceedingly rare visit."

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Day 7: Abandoned Antarctica: Base W - Part 1

2009-04-17T13:33:00-07:00

(43 photos) Excerpt: "We stopped just off Detaille Island. Our destination: The abandoned British Survey Base W established in 1956 to conduct survey work on the local glaciers and geology, and meteorological study.

At the time that the base was built, the site was chosen in part because of the beautiful sheltered bay, largely free of sea ice. This is a critical feature for Antarctic bases because without access to the open sea the base is entirely cut off from the rest of the world.

As fate wold have it, Base W's location was its downfall. The year that the base was built turned out to be a particularly mild year in Antarctica, and the bay was very clear of ice. This however turned out to be atypical for this area. Three years later in 1959 the relief ship John Briscoe arrived at the end of the Summer with the base's supplies for the coming overwintering, and they found the bay completely impassable, filled with icebergs that not only made it impossible to unload, but also presented an urgent danger to the ship even staying in the area. The John Briscoe had to get out of there.

The ship sent word that there was no way to deliver the critical overwintering supplies, and the staff of Base W were given just one hour to pack up, make their way to the Briscoe and abandon the base."

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Day 7: Crystal Sound Icebreaker

2009-04-09T15:46:00-07:00

(27 photos, 11 videos) Excerpt: "The Crystal Sound had some great broken pieces of ice floe floating everywhere, and Captain Martin wanted to test out his ship. So the plan became that we would all go out in the zodiac boats, enjoy the sun, the beautiful surroundings and so forth, and also watch the Hanse Explorer cut through piece of ice floe from an interesting lower down perspective. The Hanse Explorer is not a Icebreaker class ship, but it is rated as an ice enforced haul, and this is a tough little ship. Even Tim and Rob sometimes seemed surprised at what she could do."

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Day 6: Antarctic New Years

2009-04-02T10:00:00-07:00

(27 photos, 1 video) Excerpt: "With the New Year only a few hours away, we set sail for Blind Bay. The plan was to find some fast ice, sea water that has frozen solid on the surface, and is also attached to the shore holding it in place. We would wedge the ship into it, just as we did for the polar plunge, and be able to get off the boat and ring in 2009 with a party on the ice. On the way east to Blind Bay we dipped southward into what would be our southernmost point on the entire trip: 67º 36' 65". At that latitude and time of year the sun was well above the horizon all the time, so we'd truly ring in the year with the midnight sun."

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Day 6: Ice Textures

2009-03-26T09:34:00-07:00

(47 photos) Excerpt: "I had been fascinated with the textures in the icebergs for days, and would snap a few shots whenever I could but always felt guilty if I made the zodiac linger too long at one berg, when others were eager to go ashore. So now since it was just Kevin, Paulyn and I, we all had a little more control of what we wanted to see and I was able to spend more time up close with some amazing icebergs and really do a texture study. I can't really explain how minisucle these ice bergs made me feel. In some cases a single feature in these textures is 2 or 3 times my size, and these are just small featues in these icy monsters before us. The taller bergs towered over us as we edged by. Truly incredible."

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Day 6: Mountain Climbing

2009-03-24T09:30:00-07:00

(18 photos) Excerpt: "Through the Gullet with even less ice than we expected, we made a stop on Webb Island for some hiking and to see the beautiful graveyard of icebergs trapped in the shallow bay. After landing on the island, some of us took straight to conquering the summit, while Brian took an opportunity to create a temporary snowman-addition to the crew. The higher we went, the steeper the snowy climb grew until Paulyn, Rachel, and I decided it was wiser to document the progress of the others from midway up the mountain, and took some extra time to grab some beautiful shots of the strait between our own Webb Island and Adelaide Island."

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Day 6: Flamingos on Ice

2009-03-20T09:30:00-08:00

(15 photos) Excerpt: "While we had a lovely hot cocoa wake, Tim was not quite so lucky as a small group of crabeater seals decided to take a rest on our ice floe right beside Tim's tent. They came up from the water barking and flopping around, which is when poor Tim woke up. After we packed up the insides of our tents we trudged over to visit those rude seals before heading back to the boat. I kept my appropriate distance, but they still were not always too happy with my paying them any attention."

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Day 5: Ice Camping

2009-03-19T09:53:00-08:00

(32 photos) Excerpt: "Once everyone was on the ice we hiked out to the ice floe to visit the weddell seals up close and personal. At this point it was past midnight and we were still enjoying the beautiful pink, blues and yellows of the extended Antarctic sunsets. The sun would not acutally set tonight. Just dip close to the horizon for a few hours and then come right back up. It was an amazing experience that continued to screw with our internal sense of day and night.

The seals were a few hundred yards from our campsite. There, a large glacial iceberg had grounded itself on the sea bed, while still breaking the surface of the water. When this happens and the sea ice freezes around it, the tidal action causes holes to form in the ice as the sea ice grinds up and down with the tide against the stationary grounded berg. The seals use the resulting fissures between the ice to breathe and to climb out, rest and play."

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Day 5: Mouth of The Gullet

2009-03-13T12:21:00-08:00

(23 photos) Excerpt: "After warming up in the sauna from our polar plunge, we freed the ship from the ice floe we'd grounded upon (is it still called grounding when it's a 10 mile wide table of drifting sea ice you've attached yourself to?) and ventured southward (ever southward)."

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Day 5: Polar Plunge

2009-03-05T09:29:00-08:00

(6 videos, 21 photos) Excerpt: "Overall perfect conditions for our polar plunge. All the good weather in the world wouldn't change the Antarctic water temperature though, and now that we were inside the Antarctic Circle we were guaranteed of sub-freezing waters of 27 degrees Fahrenheit (-2.8 degrees Celsius). The high salt content of the water lowers its freezing point several degrees, so this truly is some of the coldest liquid water in the world.

And so Captain Martin, Tim, and Rob found us a perfect spot for a little dip."

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Day 5: Antarctic Circle

2009-02-27T11:18:00-08:00

(15 photos) Excerpt: "Sleeping off the lingering Ukrainian vodka, we were awoken by Rob's morning "bing bong" announcement. It was 10 am and we had entered the Crystal Sound. We had made very good progress through the night and we would, in a half hour, be crossing the Antarctic Circle. Beneath the circle, and so close to the Southern Summer solstice, we would be experiencing 24-hour days of sunlight. Medium-high in the sky during the day, the sun would henceforth skip just above the horizon throughout the nighttime hours. Only one star will be stealing the show here for months."

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Day 4: Vernadsky Sunset

2009-02-25T10:22:00-08:00

(29 photos) Excerpt: "Just 90 miles shy of the Antarctic Circle the Sun still sets, but not until 2am, and it makes quite a production of the whole affair like a petulant child who refuses to go to sleep. As we were partied at Vernadsky the Sun sliced a long wide arc toward the distant mountains to the west, the sky growing more golden all the while."

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Day 4: Vernadsky Station Visit

2009-02-23T10:40:00-08:00

(47 photos) Excerpt: "While a relatively small research station, Vernadsky is not without its idiosyncrasies. While still a British base, the station once received a shipment of wood and orders for the base carpenters to construct a new pier to replace the old, faltering pier. The carpenters, thousands of miles from authority, decided that the old pier still had a few years left and proceeded to use the wood to fashion a traditional English bar instead. While they received a stiff reprimand for their choice, they started a tradition of stiff drinks on the base that survived, nay, was enhanced by, the transition to the Ukrainians."

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Day 4: Kayak

2009-02-19T10:19:00-08:00

(9 photos) After the leopard seal attack, kayaking was actually pretty anti-climactic. We got out on the water for about 10 minutes before freezing water managed to work its way into the boat and from there up Rachel's pant legs. That, along with an ever-more-curious leopard seal, was enough to cut our kayaking short, but not before we got a few obligatory shots.

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Day 4: Leopard Seal Attack

2009-02-17T09:16:00-08:00

(17 photos) WARNING - Some of the photos in this post are very graphic. If you would rather not see the Antarctic Food Chain in action we suggest you skip this post.

Excerpt: "As we waited, we watched the penguins on the shore. A big survival mechanism most penguins share is to approach the water in a group and jump in together, to provide a more confusing target for predators, and to not be isolated. We watched a group of about ten gentoo penguins approach the water's edge, hovering on the brink, nobody wanting to be first because of the possibility that they'll be the only one to jump. After several false starts by the ones on the edge, a few dive in at once, and several more quickly follow..."

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Day 4: Adelie Awesome

2009-02-15T10:54:00-08:00

(23 photos) We stayed up swapping stories with the folks from Palmer Station until after midnight, and we treated ourselves by sleeping in a bit later than usual. With heavy drapes over the windows to block out the midnight sun it can be hard to keep your internal clock on track, and so more often than not the day starts with Tim's 'Bing Bong' PA announcement, rallying the troops and telling us what's in store for the day ahead, which by the way is already well underway and we'll be meeting, geared-up, in the mud room.

But before we would leave for Port Circumcision, we should grab our cameras and head to the bow to witness our passage through the Lemaire Channel, a berg-riddled passage less than a mile wide, named for an intrepid explorer who gained fame for his explorations of the Congo and had set neither foot nor sail in the Antarctic.

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Day 4: Icy Penguins

2009-02-11T10:51:00-08:00

(38 photos) We stayed up swapping stories with the folks from Palmer Station until after midnight, and we treated ourselves by sleeping in a bit later than usual. With heavy drapes over the windows to block out the midnight sun it can be hard to keep your internal clock on track, and so more often than not the day starts with Tim's 'Bing Bong' PA announcement, rallying the troops and telling us what's in store for the day ahead, which by the way is already well underway and we'll be meeting, geared-up, in the mud room.

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Day 3: Palmer Station Visit

2009-02-09T15:16:00-08:00

(40 photos) Excerpt: "Even more interesting than the technical goings-on of the station is the way the people who live and work there shape it, cast themselves upon the station's environment. Everyone who works at Palmer has their reasons for doing so, and those reasons are often far broader and unique than the scientific research they're doing. We got the impression that a lot of them steered their lives deep to the south to be part of something bigger, to simultaneously 'get away from the world' while cherishing their new, smaller world of their own making.

It's telling that while most of the people at Palmer have college or advanced degrees, most of them are doing scientific work unrelated to those degrees. The implication is either that being here is the goal, or that the passion that drives people to these fields is one they've discovered later in life. Either way, it feels like this is what makes this a more creative and compelling environment than a weather station or an oil rig."

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Day 3: Lichen Shag Glacier

2009-02-03T11:39:00-08:00

(26 photos) Heading out from our excursion to the Gentoo colony at the burned-out Brown Base, we went on a tour of the nearby cliffs that host lichen, the only vegetation that manages to grow in the Antarctic climate, albeit very slowly. A half-inchs worth of lichen can represent decades of growth! The cliffside also housed a colony of blue-eyed shags.

Before returning to the ship, we also took a turn through the small bergs that had broken off from the nearby glacier, yielding some nice shots of the ship and scenery on the truly glassy bay.

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Day 3: Gentoo Cute

2009-01-29T12:41:00-08:00

(29 photos, 6 videos) A new day! Woke up in Paradise Bay to just beautiful weather. After breakfast we suited up and hit the zodiacs, heading for Almirante Brown base, an Argentine research station abandoned in 1984. It seems that the doctor (we hear it's always the doctor) got a bit stir crazy during the long winter and in order to force his way back to civilization he set fire to the main building and several of the outbuildings, burning the base to the ground.

It's no coincidence that penguins and antarctic bases go hand in hand. The Gentoo, Adelie, and Chinstrap penguins all nest on rocks and can't nest on snow. The antarctic bases are usually on areas with little or no snow pack to help prevent them from getting buried over the years. Since less than 1% of Antarctica fits this criteria it's no wonder that a colony of Gentoo set up a rookery on the remains of the base.

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Day 2: Totally Tabular

2009-01-27T10:21:00-08:00

(25 photos) Directly from the wreck of the Governoren we sped off toward a huge tabular iceberg a few miles away. It was already after 11pm, but while the sun would set for an hour or two that night, it wouldn't go below the horizon until after 2am.

Meanwhile, the light was fantastic.

On the way to the tabular 'berg we came across an outcropping of rock with a few adelie penguins on it, resting from a day's fishing. The one perched atop the highest rock really did look like he was trying to give us directions.

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Day 2: Shipwreck

2009-01-26T09:39:00-08:00

In which we visit a 94-year-old whaling shipwreck. Excerpt: "The whaling factory ships, a large industry in the Antarctic at the time, were literally floating factories. They would hunt and harpoon whales and bring them aboard where they were flensed and lemmed (removing the blubber and seperating out the usable meat parts). These factory ships also carried the large boilers to turn the whale blubber into usable oil, and had huge tanks to hold the finished oil. In inhospitable locations like Antarctica where it wasn't often feasable to build factories on the land, the whaling factory ships brought it all with them."

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Day 2: Snow Day

2009-01-22T11:44:00-08:00

During lunch we travelled about 8 miles south to Charlotte Bay and made a zodiac landing on a pristine snow hill called Portal Point. Once we landed we immediately took to climbing the rise to the top of the hill. Walking in each other's footsteps made hiking a lot easier, as the footfalls were typically about six inches deep, but could drop you in to your thigh if you were unlucky or put your weight down too suddenly. This was actually a lot of fun since, with the exclusion of twisting an ankle or a knee, we could really romp. We were watertight and the weather in the direct sun was a balmy 40°F! Oh yes, we were one with the sunscreen.

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Day 2: Leopard

2009-01-19T19:06:00-08:00

There are five main species of seal on the Antarctic Peninsula, but one of rarest and most interesting is the leopard seal. Unlike other Antarctic seals that subsist primarily on krill, fish, or squid, the leopard seal's diet consists primarily of penguins. Its long, serpentine body is built for speed and agility, and its mouth is fixed in a smile looking simultaneously content, menacing, and mesozoic.

On a typical week-long expedition, a group is lucky to see one or two leopard seals, and many trips go by without seeing any at all. Imagine our surprise at not only coming across a leopard resting on some floating ice in the harbor, but in coming close enough to get pictures like these:

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Day 2: Chicken

2009-01-17T21:19:00-08:00

Our first morning in Antarctica, in which our Captain sets the tone for the trip by playing 'chicken' with an iceberg 300 times heavier than us. Click through to read the rest and see the pictures

Day 1: Penguino

2009-01-16T14:07:00-08:00

With our bags and ourselves on the ship, we heaved a big sigh. We'd arrived! We had a few hours downtime consisting of lunch and some unpacking, and then it was right in to our first excursion. During lunch the ship had repositioned to an isolated part of King George Island where there was a thriving Gentoo colony, and a visit to the colony was our first outing. Click through to read the rest and see the pictures

Day 1: The Herc

2009-01-15T13:42:00-08:00

Most people don't fly to Antarctica (they usually take the Drake passage, which will be the subject of a future post), and there isn't any regularly scheduled service. In our case, we were lucky enough to be able to piggyback off of a charter carrying a much larger group. For such trips an organization can charter a BAe-146, a high-wing jet capable of handling rough runways. The high wing helps minimize the damage caused when pieces of gravel fly up from the landing strip, and the undersides of the engine nacelles are coated with a rubberized paint to further deflect damage on takeoff and landing. The runway at King George Island is unpaved and consists mostly of dime-sized rocks, and this plane can handle that. Of course, that's all great except when the weather at the landing site turns to warm (in this case, a few degrees above freezing) and the frozen material in the runway's foundation softens up a bit too much, in which case the BAe-146's landing gear is too small to support the aircraft's weight on a soft surface. In such circumstances you either have to wait for conditions to change or you need a heartier plane... Click through to read the rest and see the pictures and videos

Leaving, on a jet plane

2009-01-12T17:29:40-08:00

It was 8:30am and after an evening's rest we were up, re-packed, and my mom and sister dropped the two of us off at Van Nuys Airport for our charter. The private terminal at Clay Lacy vs the Southwest terminal at San Jose are a study in opposites. Clay Lacy is completely empty except for the receptionist. San Jose's Burger King line was 25 minutes long. Clay Lacy had little cookies and free wi-fi which I used to quickly grab the last episode of 'How I Met Your Mother - Season 2' off of iTunes. Over the next thirty minutes our party arrived group by group, each arrival resulting in more smiles and hugs. And bags. We met the pilots on the tarmac, stowed all the bags in the aft, and took our seats for the journey. Click through to read the rest and see the pictures

Day 0: Positioning

2009-01-12T15:22:20-08:00

It's been over a year since my aunt and uncle invited Rachel and me to Antarctica, and in the past few weeks research gave way to planning, planning was replaced by packing, and a few days ago packing was overrun by panic. Twelve days on a yacht, sailing the Antarctic Peninsula. There will be ice. There will be penguins. There will be penguins on ice. And whales. I know there will be so much more, but from here in my aisle seat I can't imagine anyplace more far removed from my own life. Click through to read the rest and see the pictures

Introduction: Telling the Story

2009-01-10T15:01:34-08:00

We were given the amazing opportunity to join ten of our family and friends and go on a twelve day private expedition cruise in the Antarctic Peninsula on the Hanse Explorer. Over the course of the adventure Rachel and I took over 16,000 photos while having some of the most amazing and unexpected experiences of our lives. Click through to see the pictures