Our new staff member, Esbjörn is travelling south at the moment on the Polar Circle voyage to Antarctica. He is providing us with ‘up to day’ messages about his voyage.

You can also follow him on our 50DegreesN twitter link. He is writing up to the minute updates there.

Here is his first installment:

So, boarded the Plancius of Oceanwide expeditions which was a very streamlined experience. Well organised boarding and very welcoming staff.  After getting organised, we all assembled in the lounge and most of the crew introduced themselves to us.  A wide range of nationalities with Dutch, German, Argentinian, Swedish and French backgrounds.  We also met the captain which was a mountain of a Russian man that have been sailing in the area since the mid 80′s.  The initial few hours leaving the Beagle channel was very calm and we did not hit open water until we were sleeping.

I am currently halfway through the Drake Passage. It’s quite rough but not as bad as expected so most people on board are able to eat all meals and attend lectures. The staff is very caring and keen to help out with various ways to tackle seasickness.  I think it is quite incredible that despite the crew having done these crossings many times, the still genuinely care for everyone and the doctor has been walking around the various cabins and encouraging everyone to talk to him if help is required. A really nice touch is that the rooms have a tv that shows a view of the trip going forward so that even if you have to have a lie down in your cabin due to not feeling 100%, you are still able to keep your eyes on the horizon which is very important.

There is not much to see during the passage but we did see a few penguins and a few people thought they saw a whale in the far distance.

I attended an interesting lecture of the human history of Antarctica this afternoon which filled in many blanks of my knowledge and this will also prepare us for the names we will encounter during our trip.

Over and out for day 2 of the trip.

E

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Day 3

Day 2 on Plancius and most passengers now have their ‘sealegs’.  Everyone was at breakfast today and todays morning lecture on ice/ice bergs was well attended.

We have crossed in to Antarctica now and should start seeing some icebergs later on today.

We are expecting to hit South Shetland islands later on today and will start going out on the zodiacs tomorrow, at which point I will have more to talk about!