@PoLaRobs Beautiful!!

@PoLaRobs Fantastic photos.

Wildlife encountered during our landing at Whalers' Bay, Deception Island.

@PoLaRobs Great stuff! I made a ham radio contact with a Bulgarian in the South Shetlands just recently... Wish I was there!

@croyle Have you been in contact with my former colleague Mike Gloistein who is a ham radio enthusiast (gm0hcq) and often used to interact with other hams in his spare time while down South?

@PoLaRobs I have not, but now I'll definitely take note if I do. I only have a few Antarctic contacts personally, but they always excite me much more than they reasonably should.

Between my arctic explorer Norwegian grandfather and my fondness for antarctic stories and exploration, I suspect there's perhaps something in the genes that gets me excited about it.

I'm following your account here now and am really enjoying the posts and photos, thanks very much for sharing them.

What does one need to do to join such a journey? The ship look gorgeous!!

@Raphi
Unless you're an experienced tall ship sailor and in a position to apply to become one of the permanent crew, you need to sign up as "voyage crew" and pay the substantial fee. It was the most I've ever paid for a trip lasting a few weeks, but so worth it.
Here is the sailing schedule
https://www.barkeuropa.com/en/our-voyages/sailing-schedule

@PoLaRobs This is impressive! Now I have to follow for the rest of the journey.

Thanks for sharing! The prices are high, but I feel like they are worth the journey

@Raphi Operating a ship of this kind has high costs. The voyage crew fees pay most of the bills.

Day 6 of my voyage to the #Antarctic Peninsula on the #tallship #BarkEuropa: a close approach to Half Moon Island in McFarlane Strait, South Shetland Islands, but strong winds precluded a landing. Subsequently we approached close to Edinburgh Hill on Livingston Island, a volcanic plug exhibiting spectacular columnar jointing.
#BusmansHoliday

@PoLaRobs WOW!!!

@PoLaRobs If they'd used Edinburgh Hill in a movie - like they did with Skellig Michael in Star Wars - everyone, myself included, would have thought "Yeah, nice CGI island you got there..." 🤯

@jwcph The other-worldly appearance is probably a little exaggerated because I'd accidentally messed up the white balance on my camera. It took me a while to work out what was wrong. I've tried adjusting the colours to appear more realistic but with only partial success.

@PoLaRobs Sure, that adds even further magic but just the formation in itself is otherworldly...

@jwcph Columnar jointing formed in cooling magma often produces spectacular features. Other examples are the Giant's Causeway in Northern Ireland and on the island of Staffa in the Inner Hebrides, west of Scotland. It seems almost too perfect and regular to be natural.

@PoLaRobs There's also the Bear Lodge formation in Wyoming, commonly known as the Devil's Tower - which I obviously only know about from the movie "Close Encounters of the Third Kind"

Day 7 of my voyage to the #Antarctic Peninsula on the #tallship #BarkEuropa: an exploration of a narrow channel between Spert and Trinity Islands in small boats, weaving between numerous icebergs and growlers.
#BusmansHoliday

The stand-out sights of this small boat excursion were a number of Weddell seals resting on some of the bergy bits.

@PoLaRobs Often considered joining the Bark Europa crew. But tall ship sailing has been put on hold for school (miss it dearly though).