[…] It was blowing right out of the bay, a steady 30 knots, gusting 40 and Dion, who knows every single beach, rocky landing and the rest when asked what he thought about having a go said “It should be alright, between williwaws.” […]

Due to the pristine nature of Annenkov, we are led to believe we could be the last humans to set foot ashore there for the near to mid-term future. [..]

A reliable, comfortable vessel and our dedicated Vinson crew of Chris, Mariana, Justino and Tor was the secret to our success in pulling off this project against some heavily stacked odds from the wind gods Boreas and Notus. […]

[…] Facing formidable logistical challenges, requiring meticulous preparation over many months, and finding ourselves at the mercy of higher powers, the realization dawned that every small piece of information we glean from this extraordinary environment will be unparalleled, truly unprecedented, and immensely valuable.

Scrambling up the cliff meant it was finally happening, I was finally landing on Zavodovski Island. Home to the world’s largest Chinstrap and Macaroni penguin colony […]

[…] In the strongest gust being bombarded by gravel and pebbles the only option was to cease what you were doing and lie with your back to the wind till the gust past (we later discovered the winds at this time were gusting around 60kts). […]

[…] The Island is much more divers than anyone would have expected. Zavodovski Island is alive and it has a functional ecology with species interacting and making a life even in the harshest conditions on this planet.

The weather over the past five days has been challenging. One low pressure system after the other is sweeping over the South Sandwich Islands with very short breaks in between […]

[…] By noon we had both Bombard Commando dinghies ready to go - one in the water to drop of the scientist and their gear, the other ready to go on the foredeck as a back up in case of an emergency. […]

Unfortunately by the time we arrived, the wind and forecast had changed to a South Westerly which opened up Ferguson Bay to the winds and swell. So anchoring here was out of the option. Sailing back up North did not look good either with a huge storm sweeping over South Georgia and the northern of the South Sandwich Islands […]

Once nighttime fell we switched on the radar to detect bigger bergs and the ice light on the bow to spot smaller bits in time to alter course and avoid impact. (…)

The South Sandwich Islands are the most remote and inhospitable part of the UK Overseas Territories, which means they’re also the most data-deficient […]

[…] The wind starts to "scream" when its speed exceeds 45 or 50 knots as it interacts with the ship's rigging. But the wind also tells you its own story. The arrival of an intense depression is announced by a marked drop of the surface pressure we usually record on board with a barograph.

[…] One of the many challenges Ocean Yachtmaster students face during this voyage is to find Gough Island in the middle of the South Atlantic.

The challenge is to do it as the navigators before us, combining two traditional navigation techniques: celestial navigation and dead reckoning.

[…]

[…] Twenty-four hours later, we were around the majesty of the capes. Sudden blizzards and squalls prevented us from landing on its island that afternoon. Which we did the following day in a weather window after spending the night very nearby, hidden in Skip’s bullet-proof cave in the Wollaston Archipelago.

[…] Zavodovski Island, classed as an ‘active volcano’ and degassing continually contains probably the largest aggregation of any large vertebrate species in the world. In other words, it’s bigger than all of the great migrations of Africa and it’s probably only swarms of locusts or swarms of krill that could scoop it for the record.

Speaking for myself, every single breath of these westerly winds was soaked up and deeply enjoyed and I felt extremely fortunate traveling with this fine pack of life-artists and pro-adventurers. On top of the scientific success, this expedition leaves the deepest part of me enormously grateful and unbelievably happy.

[…] We had successfully embarked on the shore with all that equipment, only because this fortress of an island had a ‘key’ which was discovered decades ago by Dion’s father Jerome.

[…] The whole team worked together like a well oiled machine. Justino and me unloading boxes from the big boat into the dinghy, Tor and Dion transferring the load from Vinson of Antarctica to the shore, where Skip and the shore team hauled up the boxes with climbing ropes and carried them to the chosen camp site.

(…) As a safety officer (Expedition Leader in the parlance) I have to call the landing ‘yes or no’ with input from Dion Poncet who knows these islands better than anyone and will be doing the critical dinghy driving.