“We will be starting with Zodiac groups 3,4 and 5. When they get back, it will be groups 6,7 and 8, then 9, 1 and 2. I cannot guarantee that we will be able to get you all to shore safely, and if conditions change, we will have to stop the zodiacs” said Shane, rather prophetically as it turned out. This time luck was with me - I was in Zodiac group 5, the last Zodiac of the first group of 5, heading out to Peter 1 Oy (or island), a very remote peri-Antarctic island, some 450km from the mainland on the rarely visited est coast of Antarctica.

Setting foot on Peter 1 Øy – ...

After a day spent just offshore from the Falklands taking on fuel for the whole month's journey we endured the rite of passage now known as the Drake Shake (the Drake Pasage). It's notorious as one of the roughest crossings on the planet, and on our crossing, gave us Force 9 gales and 6m waves. Sadly, this blew us far enough west off-course to miss the South Shetland Isles. But we discovered a new use for lifejackets - as head padding against the bunk headwall when the ship rolls more than 30deg!

First Week in Antarctica