In the wake of polar explorers to the Ross Sea, Antarctica.

It’s finally come, my return to Antarctica. I can hardly believe it.

A year ago I sailed to the peninsula on a voyage that reached the Antarctic Circle. Today, I’m headed to the Ross Sea, sailing in the wake of polar explorers Robert Falcon Scott, Ernest Shackleton, and Roald Amundsen. Of the three, I hope our voyage aligns most closely with that of the latter.

It’s a day’s sail to our first scheduled destination, Enderby Island. From there, it’s three days to the Ross Sea where we hope to alight at Cape Adare before continuing south to Ross Island. Nothing is assured, however. The weather is unpredictable, the storms constant. We’ll have to navigate around them.

I had thought that this trip would be smoother than the last; our briefing will disavow me of this notion. The Drake Passage gets all the glory because sailors headed west could not avoid those waters until the Panama Canal was completed. There was no reason for anyone to sail so far south in this part of the world where the seas are, on average, worse.