Sunday, the day we were leaving for Antarctica, we took an early morning stroll to the waterfront and spotted our industrial looking little red “expedition” ship. It was docked on our side of a long pier that ran parallel to our position on shore. There was also an enormous cruise ship tied up on the other side of the same pier. We had …

The next day, the waves got bigger. We were told that the swells were reaching 18 feet. The waves were big but I really couldn’t guess how big. The swells continued relentlessly all day. As the second evening approach, the ship started to get rocked by large waves in one-two punches, i. e., a couple of large back to back swells. At …

At nine sharp, we were all decked out with our gear as we joined our group, which had been designated for the first landing. The staging area was filled with people in red parkas, orange life vests and black boots. It was reminiscent of a WWII movie with paratroopers standing in line preparing to jump from the side door of the plane. One by one …

Our first stop in the area of Antarctica was actually the South Shetland Islands, which are considered to be sub-Antarctica. On a map, the South Shetlands look to be very close to the continent but I think technically they are not considered part of the continent. These islands do, however, get iced-in in winter and at that time if viewed from …

At 65 degrees south latitude, we reached out furthest point south and landed on the actual continent of Antarctica. Our other landings had been on islands that are part of the continental plate/shelf, but now we were actually on the continental land mass. Everyone was pretty excited because most of us felt you couldn’t really say you have …

I forgot to mention that before we landed on the continent, we had a rather long afternoon cruise to get to our landing point. The afternoon turned out to be the most glorious day of our entire trip. The sun came out and we were comfortable out on the decks with just a sweater. The views were unbelievable. We took a million or so photos. We …

The next day, we had one more landing on Deception Island, which is actually the rim of an old, but recently active - 1997- volcano. The caldera of the enormous volcanic cone was flooded years ago when a small section of the rim fell into the sea and the ocean rushed in. We had been told we might be able to go swimming in a pool fed by hot …

Back on the boat, it was time for another leg home that took us through humpback whale territory. The boat slowed to give us a better chance of spotting some whales. I’m not sure who spotted whom first, the whales seeing our boat or the tourists spotting the whales. But, before long, trios of whales were coming for a look at our boat. …

Re-read Day 2, February 18th.