One of five primary circles of latitude, the Antarctic Circle marks the point where during solstice the sun is above the horizon for a full 24 hours. Compared to crossing the Antarctic Circle, which is relatively common given it crosses Canada, Sweden, Finland, Norway, Russia and others, people crossing the Antarctic Circle is much more rare and special.

Crossing the line

At 4:45am, Lauren, the expedition leader woke us up to let us know in fifteen minutes we would be crossing south of the Antarctic Circle, below 66.5 degrees South. Very few ships cross this point, whether on tour on on exploration, making us an even more select group than we expected. I’d originally intended to be up to take a photo of the crossing, though there would be nothing to see, but a restless night meant I decided to grab the extra few hours of sleep before our expedition.

It was a few hours later at 8:30, that we were all up and ready. With 25 Knott winds however, the kayakers were once again prevented from kayaking, and we were not able to do a Zodiac excursion.

Announcement followed announcement as they tried repositioning the ship to give enough wind cover to safely get into the Zodiacs. In the end, they were unable to safely launch and the expedition to set foot on land, south of the Antarctic Circle was cancelled and instead we stayed on board and watched from the ship.

High above the deck plates, on the viewing platform on top of the bridge, the icy wind blew the snow like tiny arrows into your exposed skin; the weather itself was reasonably mild, but the wind and ice made it bitingly cold. Rapidly the lenses gathered snow on the glass, though the expensive plastic covers I’d picked up from the gift shop worked well to keep the worst of the weather off of the cameras. Only the most hardy stayed out in this weather and we wondered if this would be our experience of the Antarctic.

On the back of the boat, the wind was blocked and the snow swirled beautifully around us. The grey skys and heavy fog meant visibility was limited, but what we could see, including the outline of a small Research Station, was incredible.

BirdS

Fur Seal

Minki Whale

On Sunday, at about 12:30, we reached out turning point and the furthers south we would likely ever be in our lives. Only 30000 people in the world were further south than us, every one of the experts. We were the most southerly tourists in the world. Our official position was:

68°16’8”S 67°13’1”W