One of our goals on our trip to Antarctica was to get within the Antarctic Circle. The Antarctic Circle marks a line where there is at least one day a year of total light and also at least one day of total darkness. The farther south you go, the more days of total light and dark a year. At the South Pole, the sun comes up once a year and the sun sets once a year. There is a similar situation at the North Pole.

Our ship’s crew also expressed a goal of reaching the Antarctic Circle and we knew that we were getting close at this point of our trip. The circle line is at something like 66 degrees and 30 minutes south latitude.

As we came out the other end of the Lemaire Channel, we ran into a blizzard. It was snowing and blowing and visibility was very low. The captain made the decision that we had to turn around and go back north. Our most southern point was 65 degrees 27 minutes south latitude. These pictures were taken at that point, but with very low visibility. I would add the reminder that this is at the end of summer in the Antarctic, like the equivalent of August where we live.

This picture is the side of the channel. It’s the bottom of a glacier, but I loved the curving, swirling ice. The blue stood out more to my eyes at the time, but again, this was in some weather.

The second picture I took from behind the ship because it was so hard getting a picture into the wind and snow from the front of the ship. You can see all the ice and small icebergs in the water which we were hitting regularly as we moved through this area.

The third photo I also took looking back. At this point, we couldn’t see the water. The whole sea was solid icebergs, snow and ice. We just plowed our way through it dodging the big ones.

It was the Antarctic Circle or Bust run - - and we busted, though we did get within one degree of the Circle.