Late morning of the 5th day, the World Voyager crossed the 66th parallel and dipped below the polar Antarctic circle. As is tradition, those brave enough were given the opportunity to mark the occasion with a polar plunge - a jump into the sub-freezing south Atlantic ocean water. Most of the passengers on board (102 out of 137) participated, plus 15 crew members. We were given a safety briefing and made to sign a waiver that said in big bold letters that if we died as a result it was our own fault, which of course is fair.
Selfie with an iceberg as we await the circle crossing.
The ship hosted a big party to celebrate crossing the Antarctic Circle. Between the balloons, champagne toasts, the countdown, and the crazy outfits, it felt like we were celebrating New Year again. (The people in bathrobes are the ones jumping later, so you can easily tell the crazies apart)
The sauna came in very handy after the jump. To see us jumping, watch the video below.
Watching these massive icebergs float by silently while sitting in a sauna after jumping into -2C water below the Antarctic circle - how is that for a "pinch me" moment?
What was it like?
So you’ve stripped off your robe, walked down a gangway, got hooked to a tether. Now you’re standing nearly-naked on a metal platform getting pelted by driving snow, and looking into black, below-freezing water chopping angrily at your feet while your breath billows around you. What does it feel like? I guess the best way to describe it is that you feel overwhelmingly alive. That sensation we’ve all experienced at one time or another, perhaps on top of a rollercoaster before it comes roaring down, or on a bungee platform before plummeting towards the ground, we’ve all felt our lizard brain thrashing in protest, and allowed the frontal lobe override it, because ultimately we know that we’ll be ok. That tug of war your body goes through, accompanied by a nice injection of adrenalin and cortisol into your veins, the feeling of standby for high alert inside your bowels, is what we call “thrill-seeking”, I suppose, a wild natural high. Flo and I were the first and second to go, so we didn’t even have the token benefit of watching others re-emerge safely before us. Making yourself jump in is hard, but I honestly don’t remember feeling any cold. I remember clearly going underwater, resurfacing, coming out - but not being COLD, per se, rather being shocked. It felt good to come out and down a cup of Schnapps that was handed to me with a towel and a hearty backslap. The feeling of relief and oddly, accomplishment, that washes over you when you emerge is immense and lasting. In short, I would definitely do it again.