Antarctic Circle & Fish Islands
Overnight we headed south, south, south. Debate focused on when, if at all, we would reach the Antarctic Circle. At 66° 33' S, the Antarctic Circle is an imaginary line on the charts, marking the point above which the sun does not set on the summer solstice, and conversely, the sun does not rise on the winter solstice. The further south one goes, the more days of continuous daylight one will experience in summer or continuous darkness in winter. At this time of year, a month and a half after the solstice, the sun sets for about 6 hours and during the hours of darkness our officers navigated further south, with a powerful spotlight picking out icebergs, growlers and bergy bits.
An early morning alarm call announced that we were about to cross the circle. For the first time this season, ice and weather conditions have conspired to allow the National Geographic Endeavour to penetrate this far south. With no line in the water or monument to mark our passage, red jackets crowded the bridge to photograph the screen of the GPS readout, proof incontrovertible of the passage to our furthest south.
Once south of the circle, we pushed further south in search of a possible landing. Eight miles further we were thwarted by an impenetrable wall of pack ice. We cruised the edge of the ice for a while, enjoying the seascape of ice as far as the horizon, dotted with crabeater seals and Adelie penguins. Then we turned our bow to the north and retraced our passage, relaxing on board and enjoying presentations and stopping along the way to Zodiac cruise in the rarely visited Fish Islands.
Overnight we headed south, south, south. Debate focused on when, if at all, we would reach the Antarctic Circle. At 66° 33' S, the Antarctic Circle is an imaginary line on the charts, marking the point above which the sun does not set on the summer solstice, and conversely, the sun does not rise on the winter solstice. The further south one goes, the more days of continuous daylight one will experience in summer or continuous darkness in winter. At this time of year, a month and a half after the solstice, the sun sets for about 6 hours and during the hours of darkness our officers navigated further south, with a powerful spotlight picking out icebergs, growlers and bergy bits.
An early morning alarm call announced that we were about to cross the circle. For the first time this season, ice and weather conditions have conspired to allow the National Geographic Endeavour to penetrate this far south. With no line in the water or monument to mark our passage, red jackets crowded the bridge to photograph the screen of the GPS readout, proof incontrovertible of the passage to our furthest south.
Once south of the circle, we pushed further south in search of a possible landing. Eight miles further we were thwarted by an impenetrable wall of pack ice. We cruised the edge of the ice for a while, enjoying the seascape of ice as far as the horizon, dotted with crabeater seals and Adelie penguins. Then we turned our bow to the north and retraced our passage, relaxing on board and enjoying presentations and stopping along the way to Zodiac cruise in the rarely visited Fish Islands.
