One of our big concerns before we went to Antarctica was how cold it would get and how would us Californians handle it. We went out and purchased long underwear, both tops and bottoms, extra gloves (2 pair each), hats, and more.

We focused on our shore excursions as the critical need for warmth and protection. We were wrong. When we were on shore, we were mostly walking and frequently walking up steep hills so it was really not too bad. At many stops, I ended up taking off my coat and not wearing my hats and gloves.

Where the cold front became an issue was standing out on the deck of our ship while we cruised through the Antarctic. There was always a breeze, even if it was only from the movement of our ship. Sometimes, that was multiplied by the local wind. We also were usually standing around, not walking, and even when we walked, it wasn’t up hill.

We could go inside any time we wanted and get warm, but sometimes I stayed out for hours, enthralled with the scenery. We also stayed out several times for hours watching whales swimming along side our ship.

These photos are out of sequence for our trip.

Vicky was a bit more of a fair weather deck watcher than I was. She liked it when the sun was out like in the first photo.

Vicky did rough it a bit such as in the second photo which was in the Lemaire Channel and with some weather. You can also see a seal taking a snooze on a passing iceberg in that photo.

As for me, I was hard core. If we were passing anything of note, I was out on deck. You can see the evidence of that in the third photo.

If you look at the sea, we were locked in almost solid icebergs at that point along with some really cold wind and weather.

I was wearing all my gloves, hats, and socks on that day.