New Year's in Antarctica

At some point in the night we crossed the 60th parallel. That latitude is what defines Antarctica. An international treaty protects the whole area between 60°and 90° and it belongs to no one country.

On New Year's Eve we did our first excursion on a Zodiac raft, the first of 18. It took us a long time to suit up with all the layers of clothes, muck boots, and life jackets. On every trip everyone got faster and faster at it. It did remind me of my days in the Illinois National Guard, what with all the hurry up and wait, but all the standing around while waiting to get on a zodiac was well worth it.

Our first stop after passing through the Gerlache Strait was on the Melchior Islands. On the zodiac in the bay we all celebrated New Year's Eve with some sparkling wine in paper cups.

Later in the night, not long before midnight, the ship received a distress call called a "pan pan." It's one level of distress call under MayDay. Apparently someone on a small sailboat burned themselves while boiling water and requested medical help. The fact that the sailors were Russian and our ship's captain was Ukrainian meant nothing at the moment.

Our ship, the Seaventure, changed course and went way out of the way to help him and give medical care until another ship that was heading towards Ushuaia went out of their way to pick him up and take him back to a hospital. That put us way off schedule but the crew was amazing and shuffled some things around and we didn't miss any excursions.

More photos and videos are here.
https://photos.app.goo.gl/VqSbEFMRCQ2NNdrS6

And this is the highlight of the trip: a Southern Right Whale sighting on January 10th. It's so rare for one of them to hang out next to a Zodiac, I'm posting it in every footprint.

https://findpenguins.com/0x7ax2pvwii8d/footprin…Read more