cheryl
Administrator
Staff member
Advancements in polar sailing allow travelers to explore Antarctica’s little-visited areas
The polar vessel was driving through a sheet of pearl-colored ice and snow like a spoon through creme brulee.
Though we were south of the Antarctic Circle, it was mid-January, late in the austral summer, and we were lucky to have found this several-miles-wide expanse of shore-fastened ice. (Usually by this point in the season, it’s mostly melted or broken up.) The goal was to get deep enough into this inlet, to where the ice is thickest, so we could get off the ship and safely walk about on the frozen landscape.
“Incredible, right?” said expedition leader Lucho Verdesoto, as I lifted my camera to capture the scenery, almost lunar in its starkness. “There are very few ships that can do this.”