The Peregrine Staff have been incredibly friendly and helpful from the minute we got on the ship. Most of them are Aussies, Canadians and Americans and fairly young, outdoorsy, adventurous types. So your bartender doubles as your zodiac driver and the like, so there is less of a "staff" relationship and more of a "colleague" relationship. There are also a series of male Russian sailors and female Russian room staff who can't speak much English and scuttle about, trying to keep out of sight as much as possible!

The first night we left the beautiful Ushuaia, headed down the mountain-lined Beagle Channel through Tierra Del Fuego and towards the Drake Passage. Most of us are expecting large seas and there have been plenty of sea-sickness tablets getting chugged down although the seas have actually been relatively flat so far. We'll see how we go!

Day 2 - Drake Passage

The cruise has gone really well so far. The seas have been relatively smooth according to the people who know about these things and we've pretty much made it across the Drake Passage, which is the part of the trip where we were likely to have hit the roughest seas. Phew! I was originally thinking that it was quite rocky until I saw a ship's pitch string thing which showed us at the minimum levels of rockiness. God help us if the ship started pitching at 30 degrees!

Nothing much to report at this stage except miles of open ocean in every direction. The temperature is down to 1 degree down from a balmy 8 degrees as we have just hit the part of the ocean known as the Antarctic Convergence where the colder waters of Antarctica meet the (relatively) warmer waters of the Southern Ocean. In one more degree of latitude, we will officially be in Antarctica. Because we've made some good time, it is hoped we may be able to make an extra zodiac landing on either Antarctica itself or one of the so-called sub Antarctic Islands such as the South Sandwich Islands, which will be really cool.

Today was mainly spent going to a few lectures and taking part in a photographic competition to take the best picture of a seabird. There are several albatrosses, petrels and other sea birds that have been basically following us since we left Ushuaia. Of course Mike's been in his element as an obsessed photographer, but there are plenty of them on this boat talking about cameras and lenses ad nauseum. There has been a crush of people out on the upper decks trying to take pictures of the fast-moving birds flying around the boat.

We are getting along well, partly because we haven't been in each other's pocket the whole time but have been in meals etc together. We also saw a pod of about 8 dolphins today but they weren't close enough to the ship to get a good look at. The cabin is quite cramped and we share a tiny bathroom/shower with an adjoining cabin. Showering while keeping one hand on the railing is not easy in such a confined space.

There is a more adventure-driven flavour to things than a luxury-based thing. The passengers are mainly, but not exclusively older people with a lot of Aussies, Kiwis and Americans with a smattering of people our age and from European countries. We've been talking to a few people and everyone has gotten along really well.

We made such good time across the flat seas of the Drake Passage that we were able to land on a tiny island called Aitcho Island in the South Shetland Islands.

We were all given a zodiac boat drill and were all quite nervous about the large amount of work needed to get in and out of the zodiacs safely and what to do if we fell out etc.

After being frozen with fear on the zodiac ride over, we had an amazing landing on the island which was teaming with Gentoo Penguins from the very beach. The smell was overpowering and we were walking though a combination of compacted, semi-frozen penguin poo and snow. Still, finally seeing the penguins was incredibly worth it and we spent the 90 minute shore visit photographing like crazy. They are incredibly tame but still a bit wary of us. We need to stay about 5-10m away from them although they are allowed to walk up to us if we are still.

I saw a whole heap of mother penguins with chicks, with the muddy dad penguins obsessing over collecting stones for a suitable nest. The chicks were really small, but occasionally emerged from under their mother's feathers to be fed.

There were predatory seabirds hovering overhead but no major National Geographic-style nature bloodbath.

Someone saw a King Penguin (which are incredibly) but unfortunately I didn't see it. There were also two huge elephant seals lazing around on the beach.

When we returned, there was complete europhoria from everyone who had gone ashore. It was our first landing in the Antarctic and everyone was talking about it in the bar well into the "night" which only had one thing missing - darkness. The sun kind of set at about midnight but it was light enough to easily see for many hours after that as apparently is the way in Antarctica over summer.

Day 3 - Half Moon Island and Deception Island

Yesterday was New Year's Eve here and it was quite an eventful day.

After our great landing the evening before, we were well versed in the drill of getting ready to get into the zodiacs and all really enthusiastic to get out onto Half Moon Island in the South Shetland Islands. The only problem was that I whistled in the morning in the cabin, which all sailors regard as bad luck (because it calls the wind to come). And did it come!!

It was blowing a gale of 45 knots from the time we left the boats. We had a bumpy trip in the zodiac but got out okay. There were more chinstrap and gentoo penguins on the beach which we dutifully photographed. The wind kept getting stronger and stronger and there were two choices of "walks" the short walk and the longer walk. Of course I stupidly chose the longer walk which was only about 3km, something I was easily doing around the reserve before I left (as you would've read in my Fat Camp blog).

The only problem was that this was over about 20 feet of fresh powder snow.

I kept walking and walking over the snow but was frequently sinking in snow up to the top of my legs. Then it started snowing and blowing a gale.

I fell more and more behind the group until I asked someone where the destination of the walk was. He pointed it out to me and I realised that there was no hope in hell that I would make it both there and back. So I turned back alone and walked the 1km or so back to where we had come from, with every third or fourth step sinking knee or even crotch-deep into the snow. At one point I was all alone and it was blowing a massive gale and I felt like crying. I'd just hit the wall... and I was really angry with myself that I wasn't fit enough to do the walk properly after all the work I had done on my fitness several months ago. I was also totally over how terrible the conditions were. But I remembered all the polar explorers like Shackleton that had to turn back at some point and it seemed to lift me. What I was going through was only a thousandth of what they had to face. Now that I'm down here and see the sheer scale of the snow and ice and massive, sheer rocky mountains, I have a whole new respect for what they did.

While on the way back I shot a video of myself and the wind was blowing so hard, you can't hear a word of what I was saying. I also found an abandoned penguin egg in the snow which I stopped at and dedicated to all of my little babies that never made it through IVF, which was also pretty emotional. I eventually got back to the others in what seemed like 30 minutes and took some more penguin pictures, which perked me up a bit. I then got an early zodiac back to the boat because I was totally over it.

The horrible feeling I felt getting back onto the boat was a total contrast to the euphoria from the day before. I was pretty much ready to come home there and then!

I had a siesta in the afternoon (which I emerged from feeling better) as we headed to Deception Island, which is actually a live, but dormant volcano which last erupted in 1965. We came into the narrow harbour through two massive rocks called Neptune's Bellows. It was so sheer and really black, in contrast with the snow covered islands that we had been experiencing. The good part is that it is quite a sheltered harbour and the wind eventually died down and we even got some sunshine by the time we did our 5pm shore excursion.

By contrast with the crappy morning, this was a truly incredible shore excursion.

There was hardly any snow on the black, volcanic beach and all of these ruins from a series of abandoned bases which were destroyed in the last eruption, with debris everywhere. This was also the sight of an Australian's first flight over Antarctica, with the aircraft hanger still standing. I got some incredible pictures, including some chinstrap penguins.

Then came the moment we had all been waiting for...stripping off into our swimmers and going for a swim in the thermally heated water. The staff dug this big hole in the volcanic sand and let some seawater into it, which then heated up within the really hot volcanic sand. It was big enough for about 10 of us to get in at once. We took off all of our sensible iceproof gear and stripped down to our swimmers. We jumped in the 3 degree water of the bay first (apparently this is compulsory!) and then sprinted back to the volcanic pool. It was incredibly hot to the point I actually though my toes were burning!! It made the 37 degrees I had the spa on seem like nothing. We did get used to it though and moved away from the hotter parts of the pool.

About 40 of us did it and there were some hysterical photos and video of it.

We then dried off, put all of our snow gear back on and got back on the zodiacs and went back to the boat.

The euphoria from the day before had returned and everyone was really pumped up for New Year’s celebrations. We had a delicious carvery dinner (the food's been quite good) and then had new year's eve celebrations in the bar and on the back deck as we celebrated an Antarctic New Year amid daylight.

By the time I went to bed at 2ish there was still enough light to see easily. I spent 90% of my time telling everyone how much I missed my beautiful wife and precious daughter.

Continued Wednesday, February 6, 2008.