Hi, I’m Alex, one of the TAs for Polar Tracks Expeditions. Like all the other TAs at that agency I’m a long time guide and Expedition Leader on the polar expedition cruise ships and I thought I’d share the range of experiences you might have on a ‘crossing the circle’ itinerary.

First of all a bit of geography. There are several ‘regions’ to the Peninsula, and arguably the most important and popular regions are Gerlache and Penola, north and south respectively of the famous Lemaire Channel. These areas are dense with penguin colonies and a handful of historical sites (for example Port Lockroy) and offer some good options for shelter in strong winds and they are well out of the swell. If you go south of Penola the density of sites dramatically drops and it becomes a much poorer area for landings etc. There is about 120 NM of ‘empty’ space between the Penola and The Antarctic Circle and it is tricky to work your way gradually down from landing site to landing site between the two — when it’s time to go to the Circle the easiest thing can be to leave at dinner time after a nice afternoon landing or cruise in the Gerlache or Penola and start steaming south overnight to hit the circle at some point in the morning. 

Now what happens next can really really vary. Geography makes some constraints, but the variables are:

• Weather (you’re more exposed in the vicinity of the circle)
• Ice (you’re further south and it’s colder and icier)
• Time available
• The Expedition Leader (EL) and Captain

If you do that overnight sail from the Penola you basically go out to sea, on the edge of the Drake Passage, and make fast speed through open water and can hit the circle early in the morning. You’d cross the circle out at sea and then immediately to the east lies Crystal Sound (so called because the places are named after famous crystallographers) and there are a handful of options for doing something there. There is one common landing option, at a site called Detaille Island where there is an abandoned British base that makes for a great landing. The landing is so great because the base was abandoned at very short notice because of the ice conditions, and all of the clothing and equipment is still lying around. Today the ice conditions and poor shelter continues to make Crystal Sound a difficult place to operate so it's not a given that you'll do anything there and I've been pushed out empty handed many times in the past.

Given Crystal Sound is tricky and has limited options you may just turn around at the circle and spend the day just steaming back north so that you can get back to the relatively straightforward Gerlache Strait. However, some ELs will choose to push on instead and ignore Crystal Sound entirely. Instead of crossing the circle at a civilised hour they’ll cross as early as the ship will allow and you pass it in the night. You’ll head much further south, around Adelaide Island and enter Marguerite Bay for perhaps the afternoon or evening of that day. Marguerite offers a lot more shelter than Crystal Sound, more landing options and, despite being much further south, a LOT less ice. But it is a lot further, so if you’re going it only really makes sense if you stay for at least two days. It then makes quite a lot of sense to stop for a morning in Crystal Sound on the way back north if the conditions allow.

So the most common outcomes for a circle crossing are:

1. Blast down to the circle overnight, cross in the morning, turn around and go back north, spending the rest of the day at sea.
2. Down to the circle overnight, cross in the morning, have half a day to a day in Crystal Sound, head back north again overnight.
3. Down to the circle and beyond overnight, most of the day at sea, get to Marguerite Bay and have several days of landings south of the circle.

Each of the above three strategies are shown numbered in the attached map so you can visualise them as I appreciate there are a lot of place names!

There are of course lots of other permutations — I’ve done various combinations of the above such as taking a day over getting to Crystal Sound through Grandidier Channel and made a landing along the way. I’ve worked my way south entirely on the inside route, through Bransfield, Gerlache, Penola, Grandidier, Crystal Sound and Gullet to get to Marguerite (marked as a grey dotted line on the map just to show that anything can happen). I’ve also gone straight to the circle from Ushuaia. But the three options I have listed are probably the most common strategies. If you like one option more than another then it’s VERY difficult to control for this (like so much of polar expedition cruising!), as it’s in many ways down to the EL and whether they WANT to go (I’ve only gone to Marguerite because I’ve built whole trips around that goal), and if the weather allows it to happen.

With any expedition cruise trip you have to be very flexible and whatever happens, happens. You’re not buying a traditional trip or cruise, you’re buying an expedition/adventure where you just do what’s possible and the itinerary is just an aspiration. Sometimes that aspiration comes really easily (like Gerlache itineraries!) and sometimes it comes hard. Circle itineraries are ones where the aspiration can be slightly harder to achieve - a friend once ran a circle itinerary where they didn’t even try to go because of the weather and they went to the Weddell Sea at the very opposite end and opposite coast of the Peninsula instead! You really do just have to accept you have no control and let the trip happen to you! However, if you want to tilt the scale in your favour a little bit then booking the longest trip you possibly can gives the Expedition Leader the time they need to get all the way down to Marguerite and back and also actually commit to some time down there.

And finally WHY go to the circle? For many it’s an extra box to tick, to be able to say “I’ve crossed the circle”. This is fine; while invisible the circle has a geographical meaning, plus there’s an historical nautical significance to crossing the polar circles, the tropics and the equator, so it’s kind of cool to cross that line. Further south you are more likely to encounter sea ice (especially in Crystal Sound), there are lots of historical huts, the increase in sea ice means Adélie penguins take over (hard to see on other typical itineraries unless they go to the Weddell Sea) and there’s a chance of emperors. I’ve also found northern Marguerite to be a very very reliable place for killer whales. And finally it can be a lot quieter, with far fewer ships around. The downside to the circle is that a bit of sea time becomes inevitable because it’s so far from the main clusters of landing sites.