It is 0 degrees outside, cold and icy, and I am lying on my bed in a comfortable 22 degrees reading a biography on James Cook, the explorer. It makes me wonder how comfortable this cruise on the Polarstern is compared to what Cook and his crew went through in the old days of seafaring.
Cook fared through these perilous seas for the second time between 1772 – 1775 and discovered many of the Southern Pacific islands and archipelagos. He came within 75 miles of the Antarctic coast and crossed south of 71°S. At present (as of 8th January 2010) we are at 66.38°S and have recently left Polar area behind.
Cook writes, “Ambition drives me not only further than any person before, but as far as it is possible for man to be driven.”
With the Resolution, a coal ship, he had traveled 70,000 miles with 123 men on…