Southbound

We stayed in Auckland for a couple of months while we overhauled Adele.

Then we left for our long leg south around Cape Horn. We covered the most exposed varnish to protect it from the elements during the crossing.

We sailed around Cape Horn and into Ushuaia. Then after Christmas we continued south to Antarctica and via the Falklands Islands we then went to South Georgia

The first week we had very pleasant sailing.

We read books. The cockpit was covered to provide protection for the storms we knew were awaiting us.

And Nigel enjoyed a game of scrabble.

The first albatrosses met us. They would be with us all our voyage.

The sails and rigging were constantly checked.

Drinks a nice evening.

Georgina checking the rigging.

As we came further south the wind and waves built up.

The mizzen cars got stuck, when we were trying to take in a reef. Here we are working on bringing it down.

Working on the mizzen.

It was a slow and painful process to bring it down in storm winds.

Each time the biggest waves came rolling up behind us it looked like they would bury Adele in green water, but miraculously the stern lifted and she raced down the steep slope to safety.

We estimated the seas to be around 40 feet average.

After having had hurricane force winds for over a week (> 65 knots) we rounded Cape Horn in relatively calmer conditions.

Proud sailors having rounded Cape Horn.

Entering Ushuaia Harbour, where Adele would spend Christmas 2006.

Ushuaia Harbour, where we prepared Adele for the next leg, a crossing to Antarctica and a couple of months of very cold weather.

Cape Petrels wheeled and turned against a background of black sea and white snow as we approached the South Shetland Islands in Antarctica. Photo: Rick T

Adele at anchor off Deception Island, our first stop in Antarctica. The island is volcanic and it is steaming water that you see rising in the background. Photo: Rick T

Our first trip ashore in Antarctica. Photo Rick T.

Jennifer is welcomed by a penguin

This is a tabular ice berg, shaped like a gigantic ice cube with vertical sides. We found it around 15 miles from Deception Island in the Bransfield Strait on our way to mainland Antarctica.

Andre Hoek and I are in the crow's nest. Rick T took this and the previous photo from our tender in very steep waves. The iceberg is about 120m high and began its life in glacier further south.

Chinstrap penguins on Half Moon Island.

another chinstrap penguin is checking out Jennifer. They walk just like Poirot in the Agatha Christie movies.

They are very curious and not scared at all.

Half Moon Bay. Just north of here there are about 1.5 million pairs of chinstraps on the South Sandwich islands. Photo Rick T.

The square rigger Europa at Half Moon Bay in South Shetland Islands.

Basalt mountain in McFarlane Strait

Winds, waves and gravity sculpted these ice formations.

As the ice gets older and is more densely packed into glaciers, only the short wave lengths will pass through and the ice changes colour from white to blue

Rolf and Deborah Bielke had sailed their yacht, Northern Light extensively in Antarctica and also stayed frozen into the pack ice one winter. Photo: Rick T.

Adele sits quietly at midnight in Yankee Harbour, a nearly landlocked bay.

Just off Trinity Island this humpback came and entertained us for two hours. We switched off the engine and drifted while we watched the firendly visitor.

The clarity of the water made it possible to see every detail of the humpback as he curiously put his nose up to inspect Adele.

With his nose he "kissed" Adele and hed red marks from our bottom paint

He (or she) was eager to show off all his acrobatic tricks. Photo: Rick T.

And we were offered a display none of us had never seen before.

He showed his belly, like he wanted us to tickle it.

His tail splashed and sprayed us with water.

Barnacles covered his nose. Photo: Rick T

At Portal Point we got ashore on mainland Antarctica.

Jennifer getting ashore.

Jennifer and Bittan are trying to climb up but it was very slippery.

Here they all slide down again.

But the view from the top made it worth it. Notice Adele to the right. She is at anchor in Gerlache Strait.

Here Jen has succeeded to come up as well. Rick is photographing her in her moment of victory.

Rick's photo of Jennifer

At anchor in Portal Point

Gerlache Strait

Graham Passage

We alunched a tender to explore the straight.

I drove through this tunnel with our tender.

Icebergs come in all shapes and forms. Photo: Rick T.

This was too tempting to resist. We just had to put our bow as far as possible into the bay of the iceberg.

Leopard Seals like to rest on the ice floes. They are dangerous at sea and have been known to eat humans, but normally their diet consists of penguins.

We went close to photograph it from our tender. Photo: Rick T.

And here is my photo of the seal and his menacing mouth.

Leopard seals are slow on land and these chinstrap penguins are fine as long as they keep their distance. But look how intently they check each other.

Claes with a quartet of lovely ladies enjoying the sunshine. From left Claes wife Anette, Bittan, Jennifer and Ineke.

Returning from an expedition at Paradise Harbour

We found fabulous icebergs.

This one reminded me of a cruise ship

We are appraoching the "cruise ship" in the previous picture. Rick Tomlinson and Lars Lind are on the foredeck.

The skuas constantly circle the nesting sites of other birds, looking for opportunities to snatch eggs. Here she has found a site.

But the kelp gull is vigorously defending her nest and attacks the skua immediately.

Adele had to break through thin ice, when we left Port Lockroy.

The ice bergs got bigger and bigger.

Spotting Adele through the berg.

Notice the seals resting on the ice floe. Wilhelmina Bay.

Adele in Wilhelmina Bay, moves through brash ice. Photo: Rick T

In Lemaire Channel we experienced another of our many encouters with humpback whales. Photo Rick T.

Lemaire Channel, Antarctica, 2007

Ice lookout on the bow.

And from the crow's nest.

When we came out on the south side of Lemaire Channel, the ice got more dense and we decided to turn north again.

The Adelaide penguins said goodbye to Adele.

And i said goodbye to this fantastic landscape.

Sunset over Antarctica

We arrived at Falkland Islands towards the end of January.

Rockhopper penguins at Cape Bougainville. The Falklands holds the largest population of these birds.

A rockhopper at Cape Bougainville, East Falkland Island.

A cormorant colony. Go back to the gallery about Galapagos Island and you will see a flightless cormorant, a subspecies that developed in accordance with Darwins theories.

This must be love!

The calm before the storm. Adele sits sedately under a full moon in Port Stanley the night before a sever storm hits us.

A storm hit Port Stanley with winds that a ship nearby measured to be 84 knots. Adele in the background behind the wreck of Lady Elizabeth, an iron barque wrecked in 1913.

I came back from a photo expedition and had to stay ashore as the waves in the harbour were more than 10 feet high. Adele had out two anchors and kept the engine running all night.

We sailed from Port Stanley to South Georgia.

King Edward Cove in South Georgia. On the left is the old Grytviken Whaling Station. In the foreground is the graveyard were Ernest Shackleton is buried.

The church at Grytviken

A viewpoint near Grytviken. Here an albatross pair had decided to built its nest under the rock.

While the mum and dad were foraying for food the little chick is patiently waiting their return.

A close up of the chick captured by a large telephoto lens. We didn't go close to the nest.

Adele at anchor at Grytviken.

King Penguins at South Georgia. Photo Rick T

They came so close that I put down my tele lens camera and started taking photos with anormal lens. That caused the curious penguins to walk forward and chekc out my camera in detail.

I still have the bite marks on the lens hood.

One of them stumbled on my camera strap. Photo: Rick T

Adele moved to an anchorage at Prion island.

The courting ritual among Wandering Albatrosses, Prion Island, South Georgia. Photo Rick T.

They often mate for life and may visit a breeding site like this on Prion Island for several years before finally selecting a mate.

Courtship display. Photo Rick T.

Here an albatross inspects the runwaybefore taking off.

To see an albatross take off is like seeing a jumbo jet start. They are clumsy on land and need a long runway.

They prefer strong winds and also a downhill runway like here.

But up in the air they are elegant gliders and can be flying up to a month only diving down to the water to pick up a fish now and then.

Salisbury Plains, an area of glacial outwashformed by the retreat of the Grace Glacier, but more notable for being the home to up to a quearter of a million King Penguins. Photo Rick T. Can you find the two people inthis group?

Fur seals at PrinceOlav's harbour. The pups are palying with our anchor line.

This is a seal pup nursery at Elephant Lagoon. They were all keen to play with us or each other.

A long iceberg (around 25 miles across) cut offour sailing north and we had to turn westwards to go around it. We calculated it was the size of the state of Rhode Island.