On the southernmost continent, you can see enormous stretches of wind-sculpted ice that seem carved from marble, and others that are smooth and green as emerald. You can see icebergs, whales, emperor penguins. Visitors have described the place as otherworldly, magical, and majestic. The light, Jon Krakauer has said, is so ravishing, “you get drugged by it.”Forty years ago my late, dear friend Louise gave me N by E - Rockwell Kent's account of his 1930 sailing voyage to Greenland in a 33 foot cutter. They got there, but not back - the anchor dragged in a storm. The two crew returned. Kent stayed. That was the origin of my fascination with the high latitudes. My friend Richard Hudson has sailed to those environs, north and south aboard his 50 foot steel staysail schooner Issuma. Very low impact. I'm in favor of that kind of tourism. But the case against any other sort is well stated here.
Take Antarctica off your travel bucket list.
