28 Jan 2020

Going with the Floe in Antarctica

Waking to the shudders of Akademik Shokalskiy pushing through the ice at 0630 hours, we join Expedition Leader Samuel up in the bridge as we navigate perfectly lit tabular icebergs and penguin-strewn ice floes.

Increasing winds and a rising swell thwart a second landing at Cape Adare, with binoculars revealing Borchgrevink's Hut still off limits due to the still-at-capacity Adelie Penguin colony. Sailing over to Duke of York Island to try our luck, we send out a scout Zodiac to the island's icy edge as sideways snow blasts the ship before making our way back to Cape Adare for a very wet landing - Heritage Expeditions' famed Polar Plunge.

Twenty-four brave voyagers (possibly a new Heritage record), including five of the expedition team, leapt off the gangway into the bracing -1˚C water. Cheered on by our fellow voyagers we emerge revitalised and triumphant with Antarctica's intimate, chilling embrace running in our veins.

Congregating on the back deck, with lifelong dreams realised and full hearts, we say our goodbyes to the great white continent charging glasses of Shackleton's Whisky as Antarctica fades in our wake, though our adventure not yet over.

Image © A.Breniere, Heritage Expeditions