Ice Ice

Ice Ice

Silently it creeps, with no sound it weeps, with deathly motion it finds you, to destroy leaving wounds that cut, oh so deep.

Turn your back, it moves with such speed, murder its motive, yet no trace of its path.

With sunlight, it's like a jewel, so pleasant is the viewings of fools

Don't be deceived by its glamour, the noise of its entry, fierce blows from the largest of hammers, whether small, or the large, they're from the same palm, beauty and beast all in one piece.

Locked up and blowing

The first two days here in Antarctica with the France Vs England battle of the "White Continent" teams have seen an array of talents and skills, muscles flexing as the raw flesh of seasoned athletes have been training and acclimatizing to the atmospheric conditions of the south.

Soft snow, deep leg trekking has been a favorite to harden the leg muscles needed to compete in this grueling knock out completion. High speed zodiac sorties, designed to test a persons balance, agility and strength of stomach as the G forces and acceleration can turn the hardest body into mush.

Evenings also see talents never expected, as the French have battled neck and neck with the English team on lager and red wine consumption. Night 1 had the English in the lead, but then night 2 saw the French make a flying come back as they gulped copious quantities of Syrah and Cabernet, we now see a line draw so far in this important point scoring part of the competition.

Flooding the heads, earlier on in the competition was found out to be a direct attack on the French team by the English, designed to give them cold feet and put the fear of god into the toughest of their team, referee kangaroo Stephen soon pulled a Red Card to this tactic outlawing all future use of this menacing and debilitating trick.

Today has been set as a "Lay Day", to enable teams to recover from the onslaught so far, the weather has been turned up to ensure that no teams sneak additional, and valuable training in the secret of the night, with wind strengths increased to 36 knots from the south, and a wind chill factor hitting minus 5, teams have been quiet and reflective as they plan for tomorrows events.

Referee Kangaroo Stephen said in this mornings official media conference that if teams don't maintain decorum, and restraint in trying to stymie the opposition then an addition day of foul weather will be arranged, meaning that teams which are currently on peak performance levels, will start to feel muscle failure as the cold dissipates their strengths and energies whilst bound to their team camps on board.

More exciting news to come through as the "Battle of the White Continent" continues

Referee Kangaroo Stephen

Roast beef, Frogs and a Kangaroo

Well it is the year for world cup rugby, so why not have a ding dong battle as well on board Xplore ! France vs. England. On the left hand side of the field we have the French team comprising of Fabrice, Delia and the formidable Troll (Audrey). To the right, we have England represented by Steve Strong, Edward and giant Jim. Referee for this Antarctica 28 day knock out is kangaroo Stephen. The challenge and the games that may be played along the way may not resemble rugby, but there will be a score, a prize winning team and the loosers, just who that will be, time will tell but we will report as it evolves. So Xplore slipped her lines there from the dock of Ushuaia, provisioned and prepared for what we hope is another great success in discovery on the white southern continent. Our plans are to arrive into the middle section of the Antarctic peninsula and then to penetrate south to the Antarctic circle and maybe further, to discover new anchorages and maybe touch on locations never visited by man before. More sports news to come as we head for the Drakes Passage. Stephen

Oh wont you stay, just a little bit longer

The news machine has been a tad quiet over the last few weeks, and for that we apologise ! but we have been so busy having fun and seeing Antarctica in only the best possible, that its been hard to find the correct words to discribe how 5 different nationalities have seen the frozen South.

So lets try a different way of reporting, and take from each on board their reactions to the south.

Peter from Bonheiden in Belgium: schitterend, subliem continent , een stilte en pracht om nooit te vergeten.

Lyn from Fremantle Western Australia: More than magnificent, an unbeliveable and unforgetable experience

Giorgina from Milan Italy : un viaggio estremo agli estremi del mondo, immenso, grandioso, senza pieta'.....sentendosi in tana, protetti e sicuri. indimenticabile

Eirik from Oslo Norway : Et utrolig kontinent som jeg bare har sett en liten prosent av. Likevel har jeg sett langt mer enn forventet. Et minne for livet som svaert faa foer oppleve. De som gjoer, er heldige.

Audrey from Paris France: La 1ere fois, le paysage vous bluffe, la 2eme fois vous commencez a ouvrir les yeux et a en apprecier les details, vivement la prochaine!

Marco from Milan Italy: magnifica ed indescrivibile se non venendoci...... sinetizzo con ludico acronimo:ANTARCTICA: Awesome Nature Tremendous Adventure Remains Certainly Truly Inside : Come Again!

John from Darwin Australia: From 1 of the best Arenas in Patagonia to the Pitt of the Islands there was no Deception in the forecast(le) weather, so I must pen(a gen)guin re-marc 'O'yes before my words 'peter' out. Truly magnificent trip, weather, crew, guests, yacht and scenery!

Francesca from Milan Italy: ti tramortisce con il suo candore, il suo silenzio, i suoi buffi abitanti... posso tornare l'anno prossimo?

Valeria from Milan Italy; La prima volta pensavo ci fossero solo i bianchi ed i neri ma....adesso l'ho vista anche in technicolor!! No words!

Stephen from Beauty Point Tasmania: A top trip, one of the best.

As you can see 5 nationalities can live in harmony, especially in one of the most harmonious and beauitfully untouched parts left here in the world.

More expedition news to come as we re-cross the Drakes Passage.

Stephen

Drake Lake, takes the cake

When Audrey went to bake a cake this afternoon, there wasn't any need to jack up the side of the oven tray 20 degrees on the side like we normally do when we are sailing. Why? Because the ocean all around is like a mill pond. Being my 10th expedition to Antarctica I have had calms in the infamous Drake's Passage, I have had light winds, but I have never had it like an oily smooth ocean.

During today we have finally started to see Ice bergs of a fair size sparsely sprinkled along our route, easy to spot by radar, but no need for that as the days are long and it never really gets dark, our latitude being 62 degrees south means that we are constantly getting closer to the Antarctic circle where the sun never goes down. We all have marveled at the reflections of the sea birds that fly by, with the sea so smooth there is a mirror image that one can clearly see on the water. Just minutes ago we had two seals floating on the water surface like they were beach bunnies at some Mediterranean club resort, oh how tough life can be. But for those of us who have been on board Xplore since the start of the season, this has to be the most relaxing holiday we have had for months. Mr. Perkins potters away giving us a steady 6 knots through the water, with our ETA at our first landing location at Deception Island which is one of two active volcanoes in Antarctica at around 7am tomorrow morning. Many on board are looking forward to a nice warm volcanic sulphur bath on the shores of Whalers Bay inside the mouth of this incredible location, reported to soon erupt again, we hope it's not during our visit.

More adventure news to come Stephen

Yakity Yak, which language to chat ?

There is always an interesting air of anticipation that surrounds a group of people who are about to set off into the wild blue yonder. Especially when you are to cross the infamous Drakes Passage to get to Antarctica. What will it be like, will I be scared, will I be sea sick the whole time, what will the boat be like and will I get along with my team mates on board, so many questions that only time will answer.

Xplore was docked in the Argentinean port of Ushuaia, on the banks of the Beagle Channel that backs onto the Darwin mountain range of snow capped mountains, even now in the middle of summer we experienced dustings of snow on these peaks which make it a truly picturesque place.

For two days we made final preparations and topped up the provisions that will need to last us a month in the frozen south as 10 people from all around the world joined Xplore.

The question is what language do we speak ? we have 4 people from Italy, 1 from Belgium, 1 from Norway, 1 from France and 3 from Australia making a very eclectic group ranging from 19 years of age to my father at 76, a banker, someone from media, an electrical engineer, 3 architects and a student, surely this will be a love / hate experience !

Luckily a number of the team have sailed together before and those that haven't soon fell into the routine and comforts that have made Xplore such a popular boat, good food, great wine, homely comforts in a safe and warm yacht. what more could one ask for to make an adventure complete.

We slipped our lines early on the morning of the 30th of December, birth date to Lyn on board which we will celebrate in full style when we reach the snowy peaks of Antarctica.

With a calm forecast to cross, we have set full sail, more adventure news to come.

Stephen

Working away in Punta Arenas

The days are long, for two reasons, it's light until 11pm, the sun starts to rise again at 3am and the work list for preparations for Antarctica are long as well.

But all is moving along well, Audrey and I are making good progress with preparing Xplore for the next southern adventure.

Stephen