All expedition voyages start with an itinerary. Few follow it. This month-long journey along the coast of Antarctica was no exception. What began as a voyage of exploration soon turned into something far more urgent—a rescue mission in one of the most remote corners of the world. Antarctica lies at the bottom of the world —or perhaps at the top, depending on how you hold the map. When we set out to travel along the coast, we wondered: which coast exactly? East or west? It tur

After four days of intense activity, we’ve begun our four-day journey to Tristan da Cunha. The swell is noticeable, but not too bad—I can...

It’s been a few days since we visited Grytviken Whaling Station. Today, we’re sailing in the open ocean toward our next destination, so...

Tucked deep in the Southern Ocean, South Georgia Island is a place few people ever see—and even fewer under perfect conditions. As our...

The Kings of Fortuna Bay   After landing at Fortuna Bay, we hiked about a kilometer to the King Penguin colony. Along the way, we passed...

Today, we spent time in Grytviken, once a hub of industrial whaling. If this were a typical live blog, I might tell you about what I ate,...

Today was a day of excursions. The morning brought us to Salisbury Plain, home to a colony of about 60,000 King penguins and many...

I thought we had crossed the Antarctic Convergence yesterday, but the ship actually crossed it sometime last night. When I awoke, it was...

A Restful Night After a Long Walk After taking 26,000 steps over two days, I fell into a deep, dreamless sleep last night. Losing an hour...

More often than not, a cruise itinerary is more of a suggestion than a guarantee. Weather is usually the culprit, but on my month-long...

After looking at ice, water, and penguins day after day, I decided to experiment with ways that I could process the images to create...

During the month I spent in Antarctica (January 2023), the seas were fairly calm most of the time. I brought two kinds of seasickness...

Antarctica has plenty of opportunities to see whales, sea lions, and seals of all types. There are just a few of the images I captured....

Snow covered mountains and vestiges of volcanoes. Antarctica is more than just flat ice shelves. Double-click (or double tap) this image...

One of my goals for my month-long trip to Antarctica, was to capture images of birds in flight. Most Antarctic birds (albatross, skua,...

Ice comes in many forms in Antarctica—ice bergs, pack ice, continental ice shelves, bergy bits, and more. Some ice bergs are the size of...

The month in Antarctica was so overwhelming that it is taking me a bit to gather my thoughts. I decided to gather up some photos and post...

On January 16, 2023, Captain Oliver nosed the National Geographic Endurance into the Ross Ice Shelf. With this act, our ship became the...

When I signed on for a 32-day expedition cruise from Ushuaia, Argentina, to Dunedin, New Zealand, the possibility of a sea rescue never...

A few years back I watched Werner Herzog’s Encounters at the End of theWorld, a fascinating look at life in Antarctica. I knew he was...