February 29, 2008 - Crossing the Antarctic Circle on Leap Day
by Kate Laird

66:59 South 067:23 West. It seems somehow appropriate that today - leap year's day - we crossed the Antarctic Circle. This is the line produced by the tilt of the Earth's axis, at which there is just one 24-hour period of sunlight in summer and one full day of night in winter. The event is celebrated by opening champagne precisely on passing latitude 66 deg 33 seconds. The "opening" is dramatic. Our skipper Hamish has mastered the art of deftly striking the neck and cork a sliding blow with an axe. The whole top of the neck, cork attached, flies off and lands on the pilot house, leaving a clean cut to the glass and dropped jaws on the spectators.

The sailing has not been dramatic. The wind is behind but not enough to move the boat much. The mountains of the peninsula stretch continuously in jagged procession as we motor through a gentle sea studded with weird, wonderful, and stately icebergs. A young minke whale is sighted. The engine is cut. We float while the great elegant mammal swims curiously around us, blowing, rising and diving in rhythmic arcs a few feet away. Humpbacks are known to investigate yachts like this. It is rarer behavior for minkes.

The retreat of ice in these parts is a frequent topic of conversation. Tony and Coryn fought through ice to get to Mutton Cove ten years ago, which was then covered with snowbanks in summer. Today both land and water is clear. The ice runway at Dorian Bay has melted considerably. Our route as plotted goes right by an ice piedmont or glacier shelf, yet the calving ice face is probably two miles away. Chart error or piedmont retreat?

We look into a potential anchorage at Detaille, an abandoned survey station and decide it to be too rough, so we make for open water, take the sails down and lie ahull. We float untethered for the night. (posted by guest Roger.)

For more about Seal see http://www.expeditionsail.com.