In case you’re curious about how they sound. And as always, TravelWild sponsored my trip. … continued…

“Seasickness: at first you are so sick you are afraid you will die, and then you are so sick you are afraid you won’t die.” — Mark Twain

“It’s the price of admission.” Clemens, the penguin guy, and I were talking about crossing the Drake. He’d told me that his daughter gets seasick something terrible, that’s why he’d not brought his family to the ice with him yet. I was sympathetic — seasickness was my biggest worry, more so than sharing a tiny cabin with strangers, more so than cold and wet, more so than, well, anything I had to tackle to get south.… continued…

I shot this with a Pansonic Lumix. I was on my knees on the floor of the Zodiac, hanging my arms over the edge of the boat.

Video misbehaving? Here’s a link.… continued…

a·maze·ment
/əˈmeɪzmənt/ [uh-meyz-muhnt]
–noun
1. overwhelming surprise or astonishment.
2. Obsolete.

a. stupefaction; frenzy.
b. perplexity.
c. consternation.

“You’re going to need to new adjectives.” This is (again) Dennis Mense, a veteran Antarctic expedition leader to me, prior to my trip south. He was right, and I hear him again, in my head, often, as people ask me that terrifying and expected question: “So, how was your trip?” “It was amazing,” I say, feeling like an idiot.… continued…

I slumped back into my chair, overwhelmed. My seat at the window faced the stern, we were sliding past giant blue glaciers, their cracked faces a wall above the blue black mirror of the Lemaire Channel. I felt oddly sad, all of a sudden, like I might cry, though sad isn’t the right word at all. “What’s the matter?” asked my breakfast companion — she must have seen the shift of emotion on my face, in my body.… continued…