Antarctica – Day 4 – So close yet so far

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I woke up on Day 4 excited to see the Zodiacs being lowered into the water. Would this be the day I finally set foot on the Antarctic continent?

Unfortunately not! I would later learn that this was going to be an “expedition” day where we would cruise around on the Zodiac, but not actually set foot on land. I was still excited to finally get off the ship and explore. I put on all my gear and then headed to the boarding area.

In case you decide to go, here is the gear I used which I found sufficient to keep me warm and dry:

a beanie (I brought my own but Seabourn also provides one you can take home)
sunglasses (the white landscape reflects a lot of light; I didn’t use sunscreen but some did)
neck gaiter
t-shirt
thermal shirt
inner jacket layer (Seabourn provides this with a parka, and you can take both home)
parka shell
gloves and mitts (both waterproof – I got gloves that allow you to operate a phone with them on, but they didn’t work well so a lot of the time, I was barehanded. I would then put my glove on between shots – I used the mitts sometimes when it was really cold – if you do this set up, I recommend you get gloves and mitts that you can attached to your coat, or dangle from the sleeve [run a string through the arms] so that if you take them off to operate a camera, you can just let them dangle as opposed to always having to put them in your pocket etc)
thermal pants (skin tight)
jogging pants on top
then waterproof pants on top of that (just a shell – some are thermal then you may not need the jogging pants)
thermal socks – I recommend wool – check the temperature rating
waterproof shoes when not going on land (when going on land, the ship provides boots)
waterproof case for your phone that you can hang on your neck

Even though we didn’t set foot on the continent, it was still an amazing day. Being out on the water and seeing glaciers and penguins up close was a great start to my exploration of Antarctica.