Day 21 - What a day (and place) to get married!

Antarctica - Detaille Island

We had crossed into the Polar Circle overnight, meaning we were south of 66°33′46.2 S, and officially in "The Antarctic".

Today's agenda was an excursion to Detaille Island, which had an abandoned British Antarctic Survey hut known as Base W. Unlike yesterday with its continual snow, the day gave us a postcard perfect blue sky, no wind and inches of powder snow to walk on. Today is also the day one of the couples on board were "married" - not officially, but exchanging vows in advance of their real wedding. We guess the Captain could have married them, but he's not allowed to leave the ship, and there wasn't anyone else there qualified.

The wedding pictures will be great!

The couple are from the US, and she had her wedding gown made in Melbourne after seeing one of our "celebrities" (and I use this term very loosely) wearing it on the internet! He was wearing a tux, both of them were in gumboots. They exchanged vows and rings and threw the bouquet into the crowd, but they were too scared to run for it in case they fell  over on the ice and into the knee deep powder snow. The snow here was every skiers' dream - powder everywhere!

The hut was abandoned in 1959 - as the supply ship couldn't get close enough due to ice, the men were ordered to leave immediately, so everything was left exactly as it was - bottles and tins of food, boots, sleeping bags, magazines - a real time capsule.

Another perfect day in Antarctica

We stayed on the island as long as we could to enjoy the perfect weather, but once on board as we had reached the southernmost point of our trip so we started to head north. Around 3pm we were called to the bridge to celebrate our crossing of the Polar Circle with a glass of champagne and much horn blowing by the Captain and crew.